Celebrating all things 1980s

Debates
Thursday 10 February 6.30pm
Margaret Thatcher: feminist icon?
Can Margaret Thatcher ever be considered a feminist icon? Join columnist,
critic and novelist Joan Smith and Helen Wilkinson, author and director of
Genderquake for an evening of heated debate on the legacy of Thatcher for
feminism.

Thursday 3 March 6.30pm
Black Feminism in the 1980s
The 1980s brought about a period of questioning and re-evaluation of
feminist thinking and assumptions. Rahila Gupta, writer and member of
Southall Black Sisters, and Suzanne Scafe, now at South Bank University and
previously involved with OWAAD (Organisation of Women of African and Asian
Descent)
will lead this discussion on how black women redefined their feminist
identity.

Tickets for each debate: £6, £4 concessions

Study Day
Saturday February 26
Here’s looking at you, Babe!
12 – 4.30pm

12pm
Working girls: Women’s magazines in the 1980s
Anna Gough-Yates
Elle. Cosmopolitan. Working Woman. How did women’s magazines reflect and
shape popular culture in Thatcher’s Britain?
Join Anna Gough-Yates, Academic Leader in Media, Culture and Communications
at London Metropolitan University for this talk, then why not look at some
of the original magazines in the Library collections?

2pm
Sexism, Scandal and the GLC Women’s Committee
Valerie Wise
Valerie Wise was chair of the GLC Women’s Committee in the 1980s, which, at
the time had an annual budget of £16m, nearly 100 members of staff and had
given around £30m in grants to women’s groups in London. Now director of
the Preston Women’s Refuge, Valerie will record the ways in which the
Committee set out to make a difference to women’s lives in London.

3.30pm
Page Three and Politics in the 1980s
Rebecca Loncraine
Page Three has never been more controversial than in the 1980s. Writer and
journalist Rebecca Loncraine discusses the ideas that underpinned arguments
for and against banning it, addressing Victorian values, pornography,
freedom, and women's rights.

Tickets per talk: £6, £5 concessions. Day tickets: £18, £15 concessions

Short Course
Breaking Boundaries: Women Writing in the 1970s and 1980s
Saturday 9 and Saturday 23 April 2005
10.30am-3.30pm
The 1970s began with The Female Eunuch and ended with Margaret Thatcher in
Downing Street. For the next ten years the struggle to make the personal
political continued in literature as well as public life, as women writers
created a self-consciously feminist fiction, liberating in content as well
as style. Angela Carter and Jeanette Winterson are amongst those whose work
will be discussed over two sessions led by Lynn Knight, biographer and past
editor of Virago Modern Classics.
Some reading in advance of the course will be required. Details will be
provided on booking.
Two-day course fee
£35, £25 concessions

BOOKING INFORMATION

By phone
Book instantly by credit or debit card on 020 7320 2222.  £1 fee per
transaction, including postage.

By post
Send details of the tickets you would like including talk, date and any
concession details, and a cheque payable to The Women's Library to:
The Women's Library
London Metropolitan University
Old Castle Street
London E1 7NT

THE WOMEN'S LIBRARY
London Metropolitan University
Old Castle Street
London E1 7NT
020 7320 2222
www.thewomenslibrary.ac.uk
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