Some examples of past events

To Fight To Struggle To Right the Wrong: Mary Macarthur 1880-1921

January 2021

I am so proud to announce the launch of an exhibition to mark the centenary of trade union leader Mary Macarthur’s death on 1 January 1921 and to highlight the continued relevance of her campaigning work on behalf of working women. It is full of wonderful images all of which come from the Library’s wonderful collections of material and you can see it here. These have enriched my work about Macarthur and her unique creation, the National Federation of Women Workers. The exhibition will be live from January 1st and there will be a talk with open Q&A on January 8th at 12 noon.

Past talks include:

June 22 2020 I talked to the Coventry Society about the centenary of the election of Coventry’s first women councillors and you can now view that talk here

April 8th 2pm, Mary Macarthur: Working Woman’s Champion, at Working Class Movement Library, Salford

This talk can now be viewed on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZKq9J29b4k

Saturday January 11th, 2pm, Mary Macarthur: Righting the Wrong, at the Mechanics Building, North Sherwood Street, Nottingham, at the invitation of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Labour History Society

November 18th 2019, Friends of London Road Cemetery, Coventry, ‘Women of Coventry’

November 21st Main Hall, 6.30pm at the Wash Houses (London Metropolitan University), entry from University Reception, Calcutta House, Old Castle Street, E1 7NT. I will be talking  about my new biography of Mary Macarthur

November 22nd 2019, Soroptimist International, Stourbridge and District Club, ‘Mary Macarthur’

November 25th at the Gunmakers’ Arms, Birmingham, Righting the Wrong: Mary Macarthur 1880-1921

November 9th 2019, Black Country History Day at University of Birmingham, ‘Mary Macarthur’

October 22nd Friends of the Women Chain Makers Present an Evening with Cathy Hunt

October 25th 2019, ‘Women’s Lives’ in Coventry, Old Grammar School, Coventry

September 17th, Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, 12.30pm A Talk to Mark the 100th Anniversary of Coventry’s first Women City Councillors

July 2019, Chainmakers’ Festival, Mary Macarthur Memorial Gardens, ‘Mary Macarthur, Righting the Wrong’ 

May 2019, Corruganza! Mary Macarthur and the Box Makers, at Tara Theatre, Earlsfield,

February 2019, Greenwich Theatre, press night for Townsend Production’s ‘Rouse Ye Women’, folk ballad about Mary Macarthur and the Chain Makers. Post show talk

February 2019, Ladies First, Warwickshire, ‘Women’s Lives in Coventry’

November, 2018, The National Federation of Women Workers, Bridport Museum

February 2018, The National Federation of Women Workers, 1906-1921, a talk for Vote100Nottingham, Mechanics Institute, Nottingham

Brave Hearts and Missionary Zeal: the National Federation of Women Workers, at The Working Class Movement Library, Salford, November 2017

September 2017, Julia Varley and the women workers of Birmingham, talk at the Communication Workers’ Union Regional Women’s Committee, Bournville, Birmingham

March 2017, Coventry Irish migration to Coventry, 1940-70s; talk at launch of oral history project, ‘Irish Heart, Coventry Home’ at Coventry Irish Society (HLF funded)

Pride, protection and identity: women workers in the First World War and afterwards, at Sheffield Hallam University, Women’s Work: Women’s Employment in the First World War and Inter war years, January 2017

Women’s lives in Britain 1900-50, Woodstock Museum, March 2015. Social history talk to accompany exhibition about women’s clothes during this period

Women in the First World War in Coventry, at Coventry History Centre, Saturday November 10th 2018. See link for tickets

A History of Women’s Lives in Coventry 1850-1950, Coventry Society, November 12th 2018 A History of Women’s Lives in Coventry

7.45pm Greyfriars Arts and Recreation Society, Coventry, ‘A History of Women’s Lives in Coventry 1850-1950’ August 2019