Women’s History Month is a celebration of women’s contributions to history, culture and society, observed annually in the month of March in the United States since 1987.

To commemorate the end of this celebration, we’ve selected three articles from the ‘History of Feminism’ section on the new Feminism & Gender Equality Digital Resource Page, launched on International Women’s Day 2022.

‘A Women’s Place’ BBC History Revealed (December 2014)

The end of World War I saw a renewed vigour in the quest for gender equality, and the interwar years marked a shift in women’s place in British society.

During World War I, while men fought, women joined the workforce in factories producing wartime supplies. When the war ended, women were devoted to holding on to their jobs.

Read the article here.

‘Shoes that Shaped Lives’ British Museum Magazine (Autumn 2021, Issue 100)

Jessica Harrison-Hall tells the story of a collection of shoes for bound feet and the suffragette who campaigned to abolish footbinding.

Girls had their feet bound by female relatives from about the age of seven, and starting this process was a rite of passage. Gradually, the bones were broken underneath the foot, with only the big toe left unbound. This made it impossible for women to move freely beyond their courtyard homes. Foot binding began in the Song dynasty (about 1000 years ago) and finally ended in 1949. Feet were bound with the aim of creating a ‘lotus’ foot that was about 10 cm (3 inches) long.

Read the article here.

‘Women who Dared to Rule’ The Times Literary Supplement (February 9, 2018)

Emelyne Godfrey reviews Rise Up, Women! by Diane Atkinson, Hearts and Minds by Jane Robinson, Miss Muriel Matters by Robert Wainwright, Hanna Sheehy Skeffington by Margaret Ward, Christabel Pankhurst by Jane Purvis.

Timed to coincide with the hundredth anniversary of the partial enfranchisement of British women, numerous engaging books look at both the Pankhursts and their opponents and consider the complexities of the suffrage campaign, how it was fought in all its nuances and shades.

Read the article here.

Access the Feminism & Gender Equality Digital Resource Page here.

Which digital resource page would you like to see next? Please email your ideas to institutions@exacteditions.com