"women's history month" blog posts
Beyond the Viking homestead, the example of Aud the Deep-minded
Two major roles have been discussed for women in the Viking Age, the conforming housewife who took care of the homestead, and her polar opposite the fierce shieldmaiden. However, my research focuses outside these categories, on women who went abroad with Viking fighting forces who were not warriors. Often these women are nameless in literary sources, but one stands out from the Icelandic Sagas, Aud the Deep-minded.
Posted on: 9 March 2022
Mala Zimetbaum- An Auschwitz Heroine
Mala Zimetbaum was a 22-year-old woman of Polish Jewish descent who was living in Belgium when the Second World War began. Mala’s life, along with millions of others, was turned upside down by the Nazi invasion of the country in May 1940. In September 1942, at the age of 24, Mala was deported to Auschwitz Birkenau concentration camp in Poland.
Posted on: 9 March 2022
Remembering the working class Suffragettes
Holding my £5 note with Winston Churchill’s face on it to buy my period supplies, would normally bring me anger, as this country still glorifies a man who worked against women having the right to vote.
Posted on: 15 March 2021
From Uzbekistan, with love: the communist career of Evgeniia Zel’kina
The biography of Evgeniia L’vovna Zel’kina cuts an unexpected path across the history of early Soviet Uzbekistan. Zel’kina was born in 1900 in Moscow, in the family of a Jewish doctor. After 1917, likely captivated by the new revolutionary ideology, she studied to become a professional activist at the Institute of Red Professors.
Posted on: 12 March 2021
Why we need to disrupt gendered perceptions of sexual crime
When it comes to an event such as Women’s History Month, we rightly celebrate women’s achievements and the historical contributions that they have made, in addition to exploring women’s lives and experiences.
Posted on: 1 March 2021