Introduction
The interwar period is commonly misconceived as one of conservatism and retreat for women and for feminism. After the First World War, women were steered – so the dominant narrative goes – ‘back to home and duty’, and feminism, following the insurgency of the women’s suffrage campaign, went into abeyance, only to resurface in the 1970s with the women's liberation movement.
This narrative is countered by the startling array of magazines produced by and for women in the 1920s and 1930s, showcased here in Making Modern Women: Women’s Magazines in Interwar Britain. Across five sections – Reading Women, Fashioning Women, Home and Work, Campaigning Women, International Women – this exhibition shows that women’s magazines presented new ideas about the ‘modern woman’, offering a new world of opportunity for British female citizens, and redefining their place in social, political, and public life.
Unearthing the Women’s Library’s rich collection of interwar women’s magazines, this exhibition demonstrates the vitality and breadth of feminist activism throughout the interwar years. We also mark the centenary of the Six Point Group, Britain’s leading gender equality organisation during this period, and the magazine with which it was closely identified, Time and Tide. Placing this iconic feminist magazine in the context of other serial publications, we show how women’s magazines contributed to the making of ‘modern women’ in British life.
Watch our video introduction to 'Making Modern Women'.
Time and Tide advert from The Woman Engineer, September 1925
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Acknowledgements
This exhibition has been curated in association with the AHRC-funded , directed by Dr Catherine Clay at Nottingham Trent University with the assistance of Dr Eleanor Reed. Our core collaborators are Catherine Clay, Maria DiCenzo, Barbara Green and Fiona Hackney, co-editors of Women’s Periodicals and Print Cultural in Britain 1918-1939 (Edinburgh University Press, 2018) which inspired and underpins this exhibition. They would like to thank all the contributors to this volume, on whose work we drew, in particular: Claire Battershill, Caitríona Beaumont, Gerry Beegan, Stella Deen, Jacqueline R. deVries, Helen Glew, Joyce Goodman, Julie Gottlieb, Karen Hunt, Sarah Lonsdale, Lise Shapiro Sanders, Elizabeth M. Sheehan, Lisa Stead, Karen Steele and Alice Wood.
I would also like to thank my colleagues at ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ Library who have contributed to this exhibition in many ways.
This exhibition was compiled under the constraints of national lockdowns and restricted access to the collection.
Banner image is taken from the masthead of Opportunity magazine.
Content warning
Please be aware that this exhibition features material which was created many years ago. Some of this material contains language and terminology which is outdated and which visitors may find upsetting.
If you are the author, rights holder or are authorised to act on behalf of the author/rights holder and you are concerned that you have found material available on our website for which you have not given permission and which infringes your copyright, you have the right to request its removal.
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Upon receipt of a request to take down one or more pieces of work from its website, ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ Library will suspend as soon as is practicable publication of the material in question while an investigation is carried out. A staff Review Panel will investigate the query and will usually convey its decision within 4 weeks. If the case is complex, and additional time is needed, we will write to let the Requestor know.
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