📣We're so excited to welcome you to our 50th anniversary conference today!✨ Check out our fabulous programme here: socialhistory.org.uk/wp-content/u...

One week to go until our Voices of Motherhood panel! Many thanks to @socialhistsoc.bsky.social for organising such a fantastic conference and we hope to see lots of you there 😊

📣Less than a week to go until our 50th anniversary conference! Our full programme is out now, please find it here: socialhistory.org.uk/events/confe...

One week to go until our Voices of Motherhood panel! Many thanks to @socialhistsoc.bsky.social for organising such a fantastic conference and we hope to see lots of you there 😊

OTD in 2022 the US Supreme Court overturned abortion rights. Months beforehand, historians @kellyodonn.bsky.social and @lmacthompson1.bsky.social argued that if Roe was lost, we must go back to the beginning, turning to history to see what it can reveal about potential paths forward.

Because of the heat, we have, sadly, decided to go online for our AGM and talk on Thursday. AGM at 5pm. Talk from Lyndsey and Grace at 6.30pm. Hope to see you there.

We're very excited to be sharing our research at this conference next week! Our panel is on Friday afternoon, chaired by @girlinthewrongera.bsky.social and we'll be presenting on three different strands of our project. First up is Anna Muggeridge whose paper is titled…

We're very excited to be sharing our research at this conference next week! Our panel is on Friday afternoon, chaired by @girlinthewrongera.bsky.social and we'll be presenting on three different strands of our project. First up is Anna Muggeridge whose paper is titled…

This morning we visited some residents at Perry Manor Care Home to find out about their birthing stories. One resident had her first daughter in Worcester after travelling from Jamaica in 1959 with her husband. Please share your stories with us! medicalmuseum.org.uk/birth-stories

Anybody want to have a go at transcribing these passages for us? We're having real trouble. They're snippets from Elizabeth Miller's admission to the asylum, for postnatal depression. We're really struggling with the handwriting!

The garden will include a traditional physic garden, and we will be building a volunteer team to help care for this in the future. To get involved please contact Louise Price at [email protected].

I spoke about the history of passing in relation to invisible disabilities, chronic illnesses and neurodivergence - if anyone else is currently thinking about these themes, I would love to chat!

Being a part of this #MBS2026 panel was a real treat! Many thanks to my fellow speakers @drrochellerowe.bsky.social @oliviawyatt1999.bsky.social Aleph Ross @leilarsellers.bsky.social @benjamin-bland.bsky.social and @evemworth.bsky.social and our fantastic chair @tsasson.bsky.social

I am really looking forward to talking about my research and (so very nearly completed) book on women’s welfare activism at the CBH seminar on 24th June at IHR. If you are in London then do come along would be lovely to see you. www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

This is a thoughtful and incredibly useful synthesis of the growing historiography on motherhood - a brilliant addition to any reading list on modern British history!

📣Out now on #firstview! Anna Muggeridge @worcesteruni.bsky.social and Ruth Davidson @ruthdav.bsky.social on 'Revisiting the Politics of Motherhood in Modern British History' #Motherhood #Political #Maternal #History #Identity 20thc 🗃️👩‍🍼 👉Read open access here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Really pleased that my co-authored article with @ruthdav.bsky.social has just been published. We review the vast historiography of motherhood in modern Britain, and argue for the importance of motherhood (broadly defined) as a category of historical analysis: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Really pleased that my co-authored article with @ruthdav.bsky.social has just been published. We review the vast historiography of motherhood in modern Britain, and argue for the importance of motherhood (broadly defined) as a category of historical analysis: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

A huge thank you to all volunteers who give so much to the museum. Our schools and groups leave happier with your expertise, our events run better, our office is brighter (the biscuit tin fuller), and we know so much more about our collections with your help. #VolunteersWeek

To what extent is there a gap between rhetoric and reality in the commitment of the UK’s research funders to ‘partnership’ and ‘collaboration’. A new policy paper for us by the Newcastle Oral History Collective claims there is, and suggests ways of bridging it. historyandpolicy.org/policy-paper...

Specifically interested in pay, but also interested to hear of any policies (esp. if publicly available) about support for returning parents (esp. birthing parents) such as extra research leave, and how these actually do / don’t work ‘on the ground’.

Does anyone know of any research comparing maternity / paternity / other parental leave pay across HEIs? I have a vague recollection of seeing something a few years ago, so even if this is not current, it would be a useful comparison. Thanks!

Does anyone know of any research comparing maternity / paternity / other parental leave pay across HEIs? I have a vague recollection of seeing something a few years ago, so even if this is not current, it would be a useful comparison. Thanks!

We're very grateful for the wonderful suggestions we received last week - please keep them coming!

We're very grateful for the wonderful suggestions we received last week - please keep them coming!

Please share and comment any reading recommendations below! We're especially keen to highlight the work of early career researchers alongside more established scholars of activist histories.

...marches and demonstrations (related to women's rights, disability justice, anti-racism, environmentalism, peace activism) methods of making demands (petitioning, manifestos, legal rights) examples of boycotts, direct actions, and withdrawing labour, and campaigns for visibility and representation

📣 Calling all historians of activism and social movements! We're planning a new undergrad module on Power and Protest in 19th/20th century Britain and we would LOVE your ideas on existing and emerging research. Key questions are "what is protest?" and "who gets to protest?" and topics include...

Please share and comment any reading recommendations below! We're especially keen to highlight the work of early career researchers alongside more established scholars of activist histories.

📣 Calling all historians of activism and social movements! We're planning a new undergrad module on Power and Protest in 19th/20th century Britain and we would LOVE your ideas on existing and emerging research. Key questions are "what is protest?" and "who gets to protest?" and topics include...

This week two of our researchers (Anna & Beckie) have been planning new @worcesteruni.bsky.social undergrad modules for 2026/27. We're excited to engage in research-led teaching with classes on the history of motherhood and also to take our students on a field trip to @gmmedicalmuseum.bsky.social!

Want to learn more about what our project is investigating! Keep scrolling! Voices of Motherhood is currently made up of five different research strands, the first of which explores the history of maternal and infant welfare in the UK after 1918. 🧵(1/7)

If you have any thoughts or experiences you would like to share related to any of the above, we would love to hear from you! Message us here or drop us an email at [email protected]. 🧵(7/7)

Our sixth strand asks how the politicisation of disability has shaped disabled women’s relationship to motherhood. How did disabled women navigate pregnancy, birth and parenting? Has the stigma surrounding disabled motherhood eased or hardened over time? 🧵(6/7)

Our fourth strand examines the history of single motherhood via the grassroots organisation, Gingerbread. What particular constraints did single mothers face? How did Gingerbread attempt to address them, both nationally and in specific local contexts? 🧵(5/7)

Our third strand aims to unpack the identity and historical origins of the “stay at home mother”. When does this term gain currency and how is it perceived as different from a housewife? How does the rise of the SAHM complicate our understanding of the history of women and work? 🧵(4/7)

Our second strand looks at the rituals surrounding pregnancy and birth, and what they tell us about celebration and superstition in modern Britain. Is it mothers or babies who are being recognised? Does the timing of these rituals matter? When do certain practices appear or decline? 🧵(3/7)

We’re exploring maternal and infant welfare records to understand how care for mothers and babies shifted across the 20th century. What were the experiences of "ordinary" mothers? How were they shaped by eugenicist thinking, the expansion of the NHS, and the arrival of birth control? 🧵(2/7)

Five fascinating research strands about motherhood:

The Voices of Motherhood team run a History optional module @worcesteruni.bsky.social, 'Gender, Sexuality and Welfare', and we're very proud that the research one of our brilliant undergraduates, Amanda, did as part of the module has been blogged for @gmmedicalmuseum.bsky.social🌟

Some of the archives we'll be using for this strand of the project include... 📜Bishopsgate Institute Special Collections and Archives @bishopsgateinst.bsky.social 📜Warwick Modern Records Centre @mrcwarwick.bsky.social ...plus oral history interviews 🗣️🎙️

The Voices of Motherhood team run a History optional module @worcesteruni.bsky.social, 'Gender, Sexuality and Welfare', and we're very proud that the research one of our brilliant undergraduates, Amanda, did as part of the module has been blogged for @gmmedicalmuseum.bsky.social🌟

Some of the archives we'll be using for this strand of the project include... 📜Norfolk Record Office @norfolkro.bsky.social 📜Glamorgan Archives @glamarchives.bsky.social 📜Kent Archives @kentarchives.bsky.social

Want to learn more about what our project is investigating! Keep scrolling! Voices of Motherhood is currently made up of five different research strands, the first of which explores the history of maternal and infant welfare in the UK after 1918. 🧵(1/7)

We will be running more events over the summer, and you can always just email us at [email protected] if it's difficult to come to us. We'd particularly like to hear from anyone who gave birth in Worcestershire during the 1950s-1990s.

If you gave birth in Worcestershire and would like to share your story with us, the birth stories team will be at @TheHiveWorcs, in Meeting Room 2 on Friday 27 March 10:30am to 12:30pm for the last in this series of community events.

Join us in Meeting Room 2 at The Hive today. We have some activities for the little people, too. Come to see us if you have a birth story you are willing to share with us.

In case you missed our announcement last week - we are hiring a Research Assistant! The application deadline is Sunday 5 April. Full details can be found below 👇

Closing date is 5 APRIL (typo in advert, will be corrected asap) and interviews 17 April in person in Worcester (we’ll pay for train travel). Turnaround is tight but we’d like this to reach as wide an audience as possible so please share widely! Email with any questions - address in advert.

Please do pass on to anyone who may be interested including soon-to-be graduates and/or postgrads looking for something flexible but a degree is NOT a necessity – open to all with equiv. experience. We can give training on any aspect of the work where applicant does not have prior knowledge.