As we continue to grow our eresources collections on women’s history, we are pleased to announce that Oxford researchers now have access to Women’s Studies Archive: Issues and Identities.
This collection traces the path of women’s issues in the 19th and 20th centuries, drawing on primary sources from manuscripts, newspapers, periodicals, and more. It captures the foundation of women’s movements, struggles and triumphs, and provides researchers with valuable insights. It focusses on the social, political, and professional achievements of women, the pioneers of women’s movements, and is useful to understand the issues that have affected women and the many contributions they have made to society.
It is, however, more generally also a useful resource to research WWI, WWII, social and economic conditions, and world events in the 20th century, as described and seen from women’s perspectives and revealed in periodicals, correspondence and papers.
Descriptions of daily life in e.g. letters also reflect on life, society and cultures across the world, including the Far East, Africa, and South America. Some biographical information of individual women and their families is also documented.
Topics covered include- the history of Feminist theory and activism
- domestic culture
- lay and ordained church women
- women in industry
- women’s sexuality and gender expression
- women’s education
- women’s movement
- women’s health and mental health
- women and law
- women and the control of their bodies
- women’s roles and interactions within society.
The collections are:
- European Women’s Periodicals
- Malthusian, 1879-1921 (formerly Women and the Social Control of Their Bodies)
- Women’s Lives
- Women’s Labour League: Conference Reports and Journals, 1906-1977
- Committee of Fifteen Records, 1900-1901
- Grassroots Feminist Organizations, Part 1: Boston Area Second Wave Organizations, 1968-1998
- Grassroots Feminist Organizations, Part 2: San Francisco Women’s Building / Women’s Centers, 1972-1998
- Planned Parenthood Federation of America Records, 1918-1974
- Herstory
- Women and Health/Mental Health
- Women and Law Collection
- Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom: United States Section, 1919-1959
- Collected Records of the Woman’s Peace Party: 1914-1920
- Records of the Women’s Peace Union: 1921-1940
- Women’s Trade Union League and Its Leaders
The sources comes from the New York Public Library, The National Women’s History Project, the London School of Economics Women’s Library, and many more.
Please note that many handwritten and type-script documents will be hard to read as the ink is faint in places.
While you are here, you might also be interested in:
- Archives of Sexuality and Gender, part I: LGBTQ History and Culture Since 1940
- British and Irish Women’s Letters and Diaries 1500-1950 (Alexander Street Press)
- Defining Gender, 1450-1910
- Gerritsen Women’s History Collection of Aletta H. Jacobs
- International Women’s Periodicals, 1786-1933: Social and Political Issues (Archives Unbound)
- Mass Observation Online
- Nineteenth Century Collections Online: Women: Transnational Networks
- North American Women’s Letters and Diaries
- Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000
- Women and Social Movements, International
- Women, War and Society, 1914–1918 (Archives Unbound)