Women’s History Scotland Conference: New Directions in Women’s and Gender History in Scotland

Women’s History Scotland are delighted to announce their one-day conference is taking place on Saturday 13 September 2025 at the Kinning Park Complex in Glasgow. This is our first in person conference since 2019, and we look forward to meeting together and sharing our research and passion for women’s and gender history.

The Sue Innes Memorial Lecture will be given at the conference by Dr Valerie Wright.

The theme of this year’s conference is intentionally broad, in order to capture the full range of approaches and methods currently being used, and the themes, topics and periods which are presently attracting significant scholarly attention.

Before booking tickets for this event, please make yourself familiar with our values policy:

We value the experiences, skills, knowledge, and diversity of every individual, regardless of their background or circumstances. We are fully committed to diversity, respecting human rights, and creating opportunities for access, inclusion, and participation across Scotland. We strive to provide a friendly, professional, and non-discriminatory service, and are continually working to ensure that our Steering Committee members, partners, volunteers, users, and supporters treat each other — and are treated — with dignity and respect.

You can download our conference programme and an information pack from the Women's History Scotland website.

Women’s History Scotland Conference 2025

Order of Programme

9:15 – 9:45
Registration – Tea and coffee on arrival

9:45 – 10:00
Welcome and Opening Remarks

10:00 – 11:00 | Panel 1

Session A: Women, Economic Power, and Empire

• Shankara Angadi – "From the Ganges to the Leven: The Story of Mary Munro, the First Mistress of Balgonie Mill"

• Sarah Carter – "Colonial Wealth on a Scottish Country Estate: The Life, Times and Photographs of Canadian Lady Henrietta Gilmour (1852–1926)"

• Eilidh Finlayson – "Gendering the Old Glasgow Gentry: Female Beneficiaries of Transatlantic Wealth, 1770–1840"

Session B: Performance – Literary Approaches to Women’s and Gender History

• Amy Thorpe – "'May WE Have Huts, too?': Understanding Emotion, Space, and Leisure of Women at War Through the Common Cause Huts"

• Catherine Clay – "'Foster[ing] International Understanding Through World Literature': Feminist Literary Activism and the International Federation of University Women (IFUW)"

• Sarah Edwards – "Make It New: The (Inter)Disciplinary and Institutional Contexts for Dorothy M. Meads’ 1930 Edition of The Diary of Lady Margaret Hoby, 1599–1605"

11:00 – 11:15
Morning Break

11:15 – 12:00 | Panel 2

Session A: Roundtable Discussion

• Helen Kay, Lesley Orr, Rose Pipes, and Siân Reynolds – "Biographies of Scottish Women: What Do They Contribute to the Study of History and Gender Studies?"

Session B: Lightning Talks

• Emily Wallace – "Greenham for the ‘End of History’: The Politics and Pitfalls of Women’s Anti-Nuclear Activism at Sellafield, 1990–1999"

• Sue Campbell – "Addressing Historical Patriarchy on Wikipedia: Raising the Profile of Nursing Pioneers in Glasgow and Beyond"

• Eilidh Wilson – "Abortion in Early Modern Dundee: The Case of Elizabeth Archer"

• Poppy Watson – "A Crisis of Care: Edinburgh’s Neglected HIV/AIDS Crisis 1989–1991"

• Isabella Ozuna – "The Mars & the Cumberland: Local Case Studies of Masculinity and Race at the Height of the British Empire"

12:00 – 12:45
Lunch Break – Provided by Soul Food Sisters

12:45 – 2:00 | Panel 3

Session A: Innovative Methodological Approaches

• Sam Rutherford – "Towards a Trans History of Modern Scotland"

• Ebba Strutzenbladh – "Rethinking ‘Agency’ in Medieval Women’s History"

• Nina Baker – "Iteration and Rabbit Holes: Some Reflections on Over 20 Years’ Methods Searching for Women Engineers"

Session B: Performance – Theatre, Music and Culture

• Brianna Robertson-Kirkland – "The Corri Women in the Archives: Reframing Eighteenth-Century Edinburgh’s Musical History"

• Meg Hyland – "'They Didnae Care What They Sung': Women and the Transmission of ‘The Ball o Kirriemuir’ in the Herring Industry"

• Rochelle Rowe – "Buffalo Girls: Gendered Anti-Blackness on Stage in Nineteenth-Century Scotland"

• Wendy McGlashan – "The Analysis of Beauty: Hairdressing, Tragedy and the Performance of Gender Ideals in Enlightenment Edinburgh"

2:00 – 3:00 | Panel 4

Session A: Personal Testimony and Individuals’ Relationship with State Social Provision

• Mhairi-Jean Ross – "Lone Motherhood in Place and Time: Shining a Light on the Life Course Experiences of Lone Mothers in Easterhouse, Glasgow 1980–2021"

• Aaron Colin Sheridan – "Gender and Oral Life Histories in a Peripheral Edinburgh Housing Scheme: Wester Hailes, 1967–1999"

• Axelle Champion – "Aunt Flo is Visiting: Puberty and Girlhood in Residential Care Settings in Scotland, 1945–1980"

Session B: Women’s Activism and Political Participation in the 20th Century

• Caroline Carver – "Geography of Fear, Geography of Care: British Suffragettes and Their Experiences of Landscape Under the ‘Cat and Mouse Act’"

• Hannah Speed – "What Did It Mean to Be a Scottish Suffragist/Suffragette?"

• Jim Tomlinson – "Florence Horsbrugh MP: From ‘Women’s Town’ to First Woman Tory Cabinet Minister, 1931–1959"

3:00 – 3:15
Afternoon Break

3:15 – 4:30
The Annual Sue Innes Memorial Lecture – Dr. Valerie Wright, University of Edinburgh

Closing Remarks