@auswhn
~ https://www.auswhn.com.au/ ~ the Australian Women’s History Network (AWHN) promotes research, writing + advocacy in feminist, gender + women's history + publishes the peer-reviewed Lilith: A Feminist History Journal + #VIDAblog ~
How have women on the margins of urban society used tattoos as a form of self-expression?
@nastashasartore.bsky.social considers the cultural significance of tattooing in Victorian Britain.
ANU Press Coming Soon: Cover image of Lilith: A Feminist History Journal: Number 31
Issue 31 of ‘Lilith' comes at a time when feminist history feels both urgent and under threat. From rising fascism to cuts in academic freedom, history and gender studies are being slashed, while scholars face growing precarity.
Register your interest: doi.org/10.22459/LFH...
For IWD 2026, our wonderful Editorial Assistant Michael Stockwell has published a review of @nursingclio.bsky.social's excellent edited collection 💫
Read it below ⬇️
www.auswhn.com.au/blog/nursing...
#IWD2026 #feministhistory #womenhistorymonth
![Mary Somerville [Fairfax]. Lithograph after J. Phillips.
A lithograph portrait of Mary Somerville shown from the chest up, in early 19th-century dress. She has elaborately styled curly hair piled high with ringlets framing her face. She wears a ruffled white lace collar and a dress with feathered or fur trimming at the shoulders, fastened with a circular brooch. Her expression is calm and self-possessed, her gaze slightly averted.
https://www.europeana.eu/en/item/9200579/mraqxra2](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:53dildgigsgky47b45hm4lbz/bafkreiebkmeac6sittqhgusl3jwzbm4xhvin7aj6cuivyrm3daq3bhjyzy)
Mary Somerville [Fairfax]. Lithograph after J. Phillips. A lithograph portrait of Mary Somerville shown from the chest up, in early 19th-century dress. She has elaborately styled curly hair piled high with ringlets framing her face. She wears a ruffled white lace collar and a dress with feathered or fur trimming at the shoulders, fastened with a circular brooch. Her expression is calm and self-possessed, her gaze slightly averted. https://www.europeana.eu/en/item/9200579/mraqxra2
Maria Gaetana Agnesi. Line engraving by E. Conquy after M. Longhi. A line engraving portrait ofMaria Gaetana Agnesi shown bust-length within a softly shaded oval vignette. She has powdered or light curly hair loosely styled, small drop earrings, and wears a fur-trimmed garment over a light dress with a ribbon bow at the shoulder. Her expression is composed and direct. https://www.europeana.eu/en/item/9200579/pmfug8sg
A portrait from the Welsh Portrait Collection at the National Library of Wales. Depicted person: Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne – English aristocrat, prolific writer, and scientist. By George Kellaway A stipple or line engraving portrait of a woman shown from the chest up against a densely cross-hatched dark background. She has long, loosely curled hair falling to her shoulders, a small decorative crown or coronet at the top of her head, and wears a pearl necklace and a low-cut dress with a draped sash. Her expression is placid and direct. The caption below reads Margaret, D. of Newcastle. The engraver's name Kellaway sc. appears at lower right. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portrait_of_Margaret,_D._of_Newcastle_(4670217).jpg
Happy International Women's Day! To celebrate it, Project Gutenberg created a new bookshelf titled Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics:
www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/books...
#books #literature #womeninstem #womenhistoryMonth
With thanks, as always, to our authors and editors, whose work brings these histories to life ✨
#IWD2026 #BalanceTheScales #RightsJusticeAction
Read more here ⬇️
www.auswhn.com.au/blog/
International Women's Day 2026 Balance the Scales For All Women and Girls #BalanceTheScales #IWD2026 UN Women Australia
Every day is International Women's Day at the Australian Women's History Network!
To celebrate, check out our wealth of feminist, gender, and women's history at #VIDAblog 🚺 ⚧️
#IWD2026 #BalanceTheScales #RightsJusticeAction
Read more here ⬇️
www.auswhn.com.au/blog/
With thanks, as always, to our authors and editors, whose work brings these histories to life ✨
#IWD2026 #GiveToGain
Read more here ⬇️
www.auswhn.com.au/blog/
📢Event Announcement Friday 6th March: No Panel, No Pressure, No Prep. Join AWGSA members & executive for an informal hour of conversation, reflection, and community. No presentations, no panels, & no preparation required, just show up as you are. Open to all women, gender‑diverse people, & allies.
Latest data show First Nations women are much more likely to be killed than non-Indigenous women. It demands action.
Former Harvard president Larry Summers will retire with the title “president emeritus” after scrutiny over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein — a soft landing that, one economist argues, underscores academia’s tolerance of powerful, sexist men.
theconversation.com/former-harva...
MaryAnn Bin-Sallik was the first Aboriginal nurse graduate in Darwin and the first Aboriginal person to receive a PhD at Harvard University. Following her death at age 85, the Djaru Elder is being remembered for her work in Indigenous education, health and human rights.
📢 Event Reminder: “What do we do now?” TOMORROW! 25 Feb 12–1pm AEDT. Join us for an honest conversation about navigating feminist careers in and beyond the academy.
Open to HDRs, ECRs, independent scholars, pracademics, and scholar-activists.
Register here: events.humanitix.com/what-do-we-d...
A reminder that I help co-ordinate a writing group for early career scholars/PhD students working on global feminism (broadly conceived!).
We meet every second month over zoom and read someone's chapter or article and offer feedback.
You can join, drop me a line here! Reposts welcome.
Image of a flying airship with the words "Vote for Women".
On 17 February 1909 Muriel Matters, Australian-born suffrage supporter, organised an airship emblazoned with "Votes for Women" to distribute Women’s Freedom League leaflets over parliament for the state opening.
#WomensHistory #GenderHist #OTD
Image: Wikimedia Commons
Gender studies courses are shutting down across the US. The Epstein files reveal why | Joan Wallach Scott
Over the moon 🌙 that 'The Book that Taught the World to Orgasm and then Disappeared' received a starred review from Publishers Weekly! 🌟 🔭 🌃
www.publishersweekly.com/9781685892319
New: Former Texas A&M lecturer Melissa McCoul is suing the university months after Texas A&M fired her over a gender identity lesson.
McCoul alleges that administrators knowingly violated her free speech and due process rights to appease political critics.
Grab a ☕ and revisit a History Australia Collection!
History in practice: Trove Special Section.
www.tandfonline.com/journals/rah...
Eight great articles from 18(4) 2021.
Consider this a friendly nudge: #SSW2026 lands 12–20 September. You know how the year goes… blink and suddenly you’re trying to plan an event in August. 👀
Beat future‑you to the punch: save the date and start brainstorming your ideas now.
More info: socialsciencesweek.org.au
📢 HDR/ECR Event Announcement!
Join us for “What do we do now?” — a 1-hour online fireside chat for early-career feminist scholars, independent activists, and anyone navigating pathways in and beyond the academy on 25 Feb 12pm (AEDT)
Register here! events.humanitix.com/what-do-we-d...
How has the History Workshop Journal collective sustained its commitment to radical history over fifty tumultuous years?
Two HWJ veterans, Sally Alexander and Jeffrey Weeks, sat down to share their memories with @beckierutherford.bsky.social and @inoutofpractice.bsky.social🎙✊🏻
Looking down at a table with a potted jade, coffee and magazine: History, from the Royal Australian Historical Society. My fingers are touching the bottom left corner of the magazine.
The magazine is now open and you can see the title “an (un) ordinary farmhouse near Tamworth: refuge and danger in the family home” and there’s a photo of a woman outside on a mat with three young children and a car behind them on the other side of a fence
Publication alert! 🚨
“An (un) Ordinary Farmhouse near Tamworth: Refuge and Danger in the Family Home” has been published by the Royal Australian Historical Society.
I talk about gothic literature, family violence and how even unremarkable houses can be important
www.rahs.org.au/history-maga...
1. “Unreal and untrue: Refrigerator mother theory and the historic vilification of the mothers of disabled children,” by Kate McAnelly 2. “The Neptune: A Biography of Convict Women,” by Nichola Garvey 3. “Remembering Lyndall Ryan (1943-2024),” by Vera Mackie and the Australian Women’s History Network 4. “Camp Names and Vernacular: Queensland’s Lavender Language,” by Michael Stockwell 5. “The History of Objectifying Women: From Opium Use in the Japanese Empire to Contemporary Advertising,” by Ming Gao 6. “White Aprons, White Sauce, White … Supremacy? The culinary politics of internet ‘tradwives’,” by Lauren Samuelsson 7. “An Exercise in Biography-as-Frustration: The Enigma of Evdokia Petrov,” by Julie Kimber and Phillip Deery 8. “Histories of Birth Trauma and Obstetric Violence,” by Paige Donaghy 9. “‘You Can’t Wear A Red Ribbon If You’re Dead’: The Complex Rise of The Ribbon Project for People With AIDS,” by Caitlin Merlin 10. “‘Production-line baby-killing centres’: Vilification of Abortion in Queensland’s Recent History,” by Cassandra Byrnes
Congratulations to the authors of the top 10 most-read blogs for 2025! ✨
And a huge thanks to the #VIDAblog editorial team for all their stellar work in 2025.
@paigedonaghy.bsky.social | @dranastevenson.bsky.social | @veramackie.bsky.social
Read these blogs + more here ⬇️
www.auswhn.com.au/blog/
I still really love this piece about intersectionality, beautifully put together by @jordanas.bsky.social and bringing together some of my favorite thinkers www.auswhn.com.au/blog/interse...
Just in case you missed it (the world certainly did),
In the 1850s...
www.auswhn.com.au/blog/the-gap...
btw it was the masculinists' sexism & misogyny that let us down 😊
“Writers perform a crucial national service. For this service they are underpaid and undervalued. The Adelaide Writers’ Week Festival has just made them pay the price for a problem they didn’t create."
Read Leanne Minshull’s full piece on The Point: thepoint.com.au/opinions/260...
Very excited about this first online sighting of ENGLISH MAJORS AT WORK: CAREER AND LIFE PATHWAYS:
www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/english-majo...
Dec 31 deadline #CFP 4th Workshop on Women in the Archaeology of Greece. Theme: Women Archaeologists and War - Athens (École française d’Athènes/British School at Athens) - March 10, 2026 - www.efa.gr/call-for-pap...
Janet Frame (1924-2004), circa 1993. Image via Wikimedia Commons.
Aftermath of fire at Seacliff Mental Hospital, circa 1942. Image via Te Ara the Encyclopedia of New Zealand.
Dr Kate McAnelly (she/her/ia) is an early childhood teacher by profession, now working in Dunedin as a regional lecturer in early childhood education with the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand. Her research interests include inclusive early childhood curriculum, pedagogies and learning environments, disabled children’s childhood studies, the rights of children and families to an inclusive education, the histories and sociology of diverse childhoods and disabled womanhood, and the politics of inclusive education.
In our latest blog Dr Kate McAnelly discusses the historic institutionalisation of women at Aotearoa New Zealand's Seacliff Lunatic Asylum/Mental Hospital. #VIDA
Find it here: www.auswhn.com.au/blog/i-learn...
As we approach the end of 2025, historians @michellearrow.bsky.social and @zorasimic.bsky.social reflect on Anne Summers’ 1975 book, Damned Whores and God’s Police, fifty years later.
Read more here ⬇️
www.auswhn.com.au/blog/anne-su...