#WomenMakeHistory

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As many of you know, I’m a big enthusiast for women’s history and at this time of year I would normally be leading groups on heritage walks for both Glasgow Women’s Library and Maryhill Halls. At GWL we’ve been trying to think of ways to take the walks online, and this week I led our first ever Twitter “walk”! Even if you’re not on Twitter, you can follow it by clicking on the tweet below.

We’re also inviting everyone to look out for representations of women in their own areas all over the world. Can you think of any statues, buildings, plaques, murals, paintings, graffiti, or street names in your area? My fellow guide, Joy Charnley, has written a blog post with some ideas which you can access from the first tweet below.

If you’re on Twitter and / or Instagram, post your findings and tag them with @womenslibrary and #WomenMakeHistory. I’ll be adding contributions to my Twitter feed daily, or as often as I can think of something – it could be as prosaic as a gatepost, as you can see in the second tweet above. It would be great if some of you could join me!

Historic figures, Scotland , ,

67 Comments »

  1. Pingback: Acknowledgement at last | Zimmerbitch

  2. I think your Twitter tour was a great idea, and I enjoyed looking through it! I know a lot more about women’s history in my local area now after researching it for my talk back in March (seems a lifetime away now), but I’m struggling to think of place names off the top of my head that actually commemorate women. There’s meant to be a memorial to the women who took part in a washerwomen’s strike, but I could never actually find out where it was. I’m going to do more research and get back to you on Twitter or Insta if I find anything!

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  4. Anabel, what a great way to adapt to the current situation and still lead a women’s history walk. I have been sticking close to home lately, but when I do any more travelling around Vancouver Island, I am going to make a point of looking for public art and other indicators of women’s contributions in our area.

    Jude

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  5. what a brilliant idea . . we’re exploring how we might do virtual walks for September. So far live streaming and Twitter have come up for ours too. Really hope it takes off for you

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    • Brilliant, thanks Lynne! A couple of other people saw it too but I haven’t been able to find it myself, nor could the first person who told me find it again. It must have been one of those blink and you miss it things where it scrolls on to something else really quickly. The Twitter tour was certainly very popular.

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  11. I was thinking about walking clubs recently and rejoining in the autumn. If this virus keeps up it will be hard sharing buses, trains, or cars to get to walks, which is what normally happens. Walking two metres apart is not a problem, just the transport arrangements to get there. Live concerts and big outdoor events may be the last to recover.

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  12. Wonderful initiative, Anabel. I just tweeted a couple Canadian ‘herstory’ monuments and tagged @womenslibrary. In these tweets I’ve included our famous ‘Women are Persons’ Monument. It is an jolting reminder of all that other went through to ensure our rights today.

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  13. This is a great idea Anabel; and a timely reminder to finish a half-written post about the first woman mayor in the British Empire (a Scotswoman in New Zealand naturally).

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  14. Good initative Anabel. I’ll be on the lookout. Don’t think we’ll find any slave traders amongst them. (I hope!)
    As far as I know there aren’t too many memorials recognising the contribution of women, but a memorial statue to local miners, which includes a β€œpit brow lass” has recently been erected. Would that count?

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  16. Hi Anabel – I was going to send you a link … but couldn’t find your email – and have been ‘off’ for a couple of days. Great idea – sadly I don’t do Twitter – but perhaps I should take you and Joy up on it … in due course – please keep updating us. Clever idea … and just enjoy it … stay safe – Hilary

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  18. I enjoyed your tour, Anabel. I don’t do Twitter, so won’t be adding anything. There is some interesting women’s history in my area. I used to participate in a play about some of the local female β€œcelebrities” called Women of the San Juans.

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  19. It’s so wonderful how you work so tirelessly to bring women’s achievements to light, Anabel. I will try to be on the lookout for any memorials to women, but since I’m in the suburbs, I doubt I’ll encounter any. How nice you can do your virtual tours on Twitter. I’ll see if I can follow. πŸ™‚

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  20. It’s a shame that so many women’s stories are ignored (said in the neat way) – that’s at least half our common history.

    Took a search how things were in my native Denmark – most likely only six named women on several thousand statues. Three old historical queens in Ribe, Roskilde and Copenhagen – a still-alive 100-year-old writer in Roskilde, a schoolmaster and initiator of a well-known school in Copenhagen and a well-known Skagen painter (there are three similar statues in three different cities – one original and two copies) in Skagen, Holstebro and Copenhagen. That’s not good enough imho.

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