Sunday 25 February 2018

Online Learning Inspiration

Completed week one of Beyond the Ballot by FutureLearn in conjunction with the Royal Holloway University... it is a 3 weeks course looking at Women's Suffrage and women's rights... Strongly recommended.  Some of the women from the Victorian era I have only just found out about on this course.... Giving me the question Why? Why are they not written into our O and A level history lessons..? They are amazing... proto-feminists like Mary Wollstonecraft or the Republican historian, Catherine McAuley or Helen Maria Williams, a radical writer. 
We have had women that challenge the establishment on mass social injustices of slavery and poverty even looked at the harmful effects on health and well being of working conditions....such as lead in brick works stands out for me..... Also Josephine Butler, challenged sexual health and fought the rights of women that were considered lost souls as prostitues.... a poverty driven need and at risk from the military particularly sailors coming home on leave... dreadful they way the women were mistreated by the men and the establishment.  

A woman that feels a true kindred spirit is that of Caroline Norton who reformed divorce laws, child custody and property rights.... Women's Voices to be Heard