History@Portsmouth

University of Portsmouth's History Blog

Tag Archives | women

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International Women’s Day 2021: Katherine Johnson: Mathematician at NASA

By on March 8, 2021 in Public History

To celebrate International Women’s Day, we are delighted that UoP history graduate Ian Atkins has written this profile of pioneering NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson. For International Women’s Day I have chosen to write about Katherine Johnson, NASA mathematician, most famous for her work in calculation of the trajectory for manned space orbits, and subsequent lunar expeditions.[1] Johnson was born in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia on the 26th August 1918. She was the youngest of four children, her mother a teacher and her father an all-purpose odd job man.[2] Katherine had always excelled at maths and was ahead of her class from an early age. Margot Lee Shetterly indicates that […]

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The hidden heritage of a naval town: women’s community activism in Portsmouth since 1960

By on February 23, 2021 in Public History, Research in Focus, Uncategorized

As a naval town, Portsmouth’s history has tended to have a masculine focus.  But many Portsmouth women have actively campaigned for women’s rights and set up practical initiatives in the Portsmouth area to improve the lives of women. A Heritage Lottery Fund grant enabled the setting up of a project to interview these women and capture their stories.  UoP history reader Sue Bruley was one of the project leaders.  Project co-lead Laurel Forster, Reader in Cultural history in the UoP School of Film, Media & Communication explains more about the project and its outcomes. The main aim of this project was to document the activism of  women in the Portsmouth […]

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The 1911 census: the government and the suffragettes have a conversation

By on May 19, 2020 in Learning in Focus

A 1911 census form provides evidence of the ways in which the suffragettes challenged state authority.  This piece was written by second-year UoP history student Ashleigh Hufton for the second-year module, Danger! Censorship, Power and the People. Forms articulate conversations between two parties, argues Dobraszczyk, in an article on the Victorian census. [1]  A 1911 census return form is a useful document to view when analysing the relationship between the liberal government and individual social actors. [2]  This was the first census to be completed by the homeowner, allowing individuals to choose what information the government attained.[3] The suffragettes utilised this power to challenge state authority through their “census boycott”. […]

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Fantine from Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, by Margaret Bernadine Hall (1863-1910)

The morality of state intervention in sexually-transmitted disease

By on April 28, 2020 in Learning in Focus

Is it appropriate for governments to restrict personal liberty in an effort to control disease? This issue has come very much to the fore in the wake of the current worldwide Coronavirus epidemic.  In this post, Darcy Mckinlay, a second year history student, writes about nineteenth-century arguments against forcible methods of controlling venereal diseases. During the nineteenth century there was an increase in state intervention, marking a transformation from a previous ‘non-interference’ government approach.[1]  In 1864, the first of three Contagious Diseases Acts was passed, permitting the compulsory medical inspection and detention of prostitutes with venereal diseases.[2]  This law was specifically aimed at working-women in military-based towns because the government […]

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Introducing the Disrupted Authority Project

By on February 20, 2020 in News, Research in Focus

By Jessica Dyson & Katy Gibbons Members of the History and English Literature teams at the University of Portsmouth are excited to be launching “Disrupted Authority” – a research project that focuses on the early modern period (1450-1700) and brings together the work of English Literature’s Dr Jessica Dyson and Dr Bronwen Price, and History’s Dr Maria Cannon, Dr Katy Gibbons and Dr Fiona McCall. This is a particularly timely project in the light of the current shifting and unpredictable political landscape. The key themes of this project – authority, power, gender, religion –  invite comparisons with how people and groups today understand and represent their positions and rights within […]

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Heritage and Memory: Warlingham War Memorial

By on August 30, 2019 in Learning in Focus

Benjamin Locke, a second year History student at the University of Portsmouth, has written the following blog entry on Warlingham War Memorial for the Introduction to Historical Research module. Benjamin considers the messages provided by the memorial’s imagery and how they reflect the social expectations of the time of its unveiling. The module is co-ordinated by Dr Maria Cannon, Lecturer in Early Modern History at Portsmouth. ‘Heritage is the valorisation and preservation by individuals and groups of traces of the past that are thought to embody their cultural identity’. [1] The values and practices of heritage preservation are determined by major political and economic trade-offs, both of which determine what […]

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