Apologies for cross posting

Places nearly gone on this conference

Working Women
Saturday 12 March 2005    10am – 4.30pm
London Metropolitan Archives, 40, Northampton Road, London, EC1R 0HB
Conference fee: £15 including tea and coffee

Medieval London Silkwomen - Ruth Singer
Business women have been around a lot longer than you might think. This
session will explore the lives and work of London’s independent
silkworkers who created fine trimmings for England’s elite, drawing on
examples from the Joint Archives Service collections as well as other
surviving items and contemporary illustrations.

Women Religious as Working Women in nineteenth-century England and Wales -
Carmen M. Mangion
Catholic nuns contributed much to their local communities and to society.
Their activities ranged widely from teaching and nursing to the
administration of large institutions, establishing themselves as strong,
powerful advocates for their faith and for other women.

Women making their way in the medical profession in London, 1850-1948 – Dr
Lesley A. Hall
In spite of the hostility of the elite London medical schools towards
women and the difficulty women found in obtaining posts once qualified,
there were many opportunities for women doctors in the metropolis. This
paper explores the campaign for women’s entry into the profession from the
London perspective and how women went to make successful metropolitan
medical careers prior to the inception of the National Health Service.

Working for Victory: A Diary of Life in a WWII Factory – Dr Sue Bruley
In 1941 Kate Bliss and Elsie Whiteman were directed by the Ministry of
Labour to work in an aircraft component factory at the height of the war
effort. Between 1942 and 1944 the two women kept a joint diary providing
insights into life in a wartime factory, the destiny of one and half
million British women. Women entering the workforce brought about
permanent changes to attitudes to employment and the diaries reflect some
of the effects of new social and economic freedoms.

‘We want more than the promise of a dream’: The Ford sewing machinists’
strikes and the fight for equal pay in Britain – Charlotte Sands
In 1968 women sewing machinists at Ford Motor Company went on strike. Ford
had regraded their jobs which had placed them below men doing the same
work. Their action led to the question of equal pay for women given much
greater importance within trade unions, spawned a number of other strikes
by women workers for equal pay and led to the government introducing the
Equal Pay Act of 1970. However the Ford sewing machinists had to take
strike action again in 1984 to actually win their regrading claim. This
session explores the history of the strikes and the fight for women’s
equal pay in Britain.

To Book:

Call 020 7332 3820 or E-mail: [log in to unmask]

Write to: Interpretation (WW), London Metropolitan Archives, 40,
Northampton Road, London, EC1R 0HB.

Cheques should be made payable to: The Corporation of London.