The records of the Conservative Women’s National Committee from the Heath and Thatcher eras are among items now available to readers for the first time following a major update to the Bodleian Library’s holdings on the Conservative Women’s Organisation. The expanded catalogue, which is fully-searchable and available to browse on the new Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts platform, incorporates new material deposited by the Conservative Party in 2017, as well as previously-unseen records relating to the Party Organisation.

Among the highlights of the updated catalogue are the minute books of the Conservative Women’s National Committee. Known as the Women’s National Advisory Committee prior to 1982, the CWNC was the ‘governing body’ of the Conservative Women’s Organisation and a key component of the Party’s voluntary wing. Previously the Bodleian’s holdings in this area only went up to the 1970s, but following the completion of this cataloguing project the Conservative Party Archive collection now includes minute books of the CWNC and its sub-committees running through into the 1990s. As well as providing detailed information on the running of the Women’s Organisation, the minute books serve as an excellent record of the voluntary Party’s responses to the major issues of the day.

Additionally available for the first time are the papers of Angela Hooper, who served as the Deputy Director of Organisation and Chief Woman Executive at Conservative Central Office during the 1970s and 1980s. The files in this series detail Hooper’s work in providing professional support for the Women’s Organisation, and also include correspondence with senior Party officials and material relating to European issues. Hooper’s papers therefore provide a fascinating insight into the workings of the Party organisation during a time of immense political and social change.

The catalogue also includes the papers of Baroness Janet Young, the Party’s Vice-Chairman for Women (1975-1983) and a member of Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet, as well as the records of the British Section of the European Union of Women and subject files relating to a range of political issues.

For full details of our holdings on the Conservative Women’s Organisation, please view our online catalogue, accessible here.