‘Hidden in Plain sight’ women’s history

Really good talk at Chichester and the newly-formed Chichester Women’s History Network group. We had some 80 people attending. Key to my talk was the focus on the value and fascination of researching a story and subject. Also the need to spotlight women’s achievements that have been ‘hidden in plainn sight’. Just not included in male-written history books.

‘Hidden in plain sight’ is a great phrase now used by so many of us researching and writing about women’s history. Why? Because the books,manuscraipts and information is there, it just hasn’t been found or used before now. Mainly because history books until very recently have been the domain of male writers. So let’s change that historic fact and get the information out to young women about their heritage. What is amazing is that there are still so many women who have achieved extraordinary things in their lives and careers, but remain unacknowledged. I’m trying in my second history book to change that about the women who embraced the ideas of anarchy and then moved into the main political arena by becoming what is known as ‘anarcho-suffragists’. They fought for voting rights and some went into setting-up trade unions and in their time-that’s the late nineteenth century became well-known names like Emma Goldman. Now their actions and feistiness- because many died or committed suicide in prison will, I hope be remembered and understood in the context of their day. What we have now is down to what they had the courage to do.