writing_womans_lives_symposium_paper_book_v2

academic and community learning and teaching on gender for over 20 years. Adele co‐ founded
Women in Profile (in 1987) and subsequently Glasgow Women’s Library (in 1991) and is currently the
GWL’s Lifelong Learning and Creative Development Manager. She has been active in a wide range of
feminist and women’s projects, contributes to publications and regularly speaks at national and
international conferences. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Keywords: Ephemera, Histories, Feminism, Museum, Archives
Adele Patrick
Glasgow Women’s Library
adele.patrick@womenslibrary.org.uk
Notes
1
I discuss the masculinised nature of Glasgow’s culture at this time in the following article: Adele
Patrick, “Boy Trouble: Some Problems Resulting from 'Gendered' Representation of Glasgow's
Culture in the Education of Women Artists and Designers” International Journal of Art & Design
Education, 16.1 (1997) 7‐16
2
For a fuller account of the early years of Women in Profile and Glasgow Women’s Library see
Sarah Lowndes, Social Sculpture, the rise of the Glasgow Art Scene (Edinburgh: Luath Press, 2010)
3
The GWL ‘special ingredient’has recently been discussed in Tanita L Maxwell “Reflections on
Glasgow Women’s Library: the production of cultural memory, identity and citizenship” in
Teaching Gender with Libraries and Archives, ed. Sara de Jong and Sanne Koevoets (Utrecht:
Central European University Press 2014), 125‐141
4
For An Excellent, Rare, Accessible Overview Of The History Of Women In Glasgow From A Feminist
Perspective See Elspeth King, The Hidden History Of Glasgow's Women: The Thenew Factor (Edinburgh:
Mainstream Publishing, 1993)
5
For example, GWL’s Black and Minority Ethnic Development Worker Syma Ahmed
has
undertaken some pioneering work uncovering the stories and histories of women who have
migrated to Glasgow in the post war period. This important work is encapsulated in a GWL
touring exhibition and in Sue Morrison, Syma Ahmed and Shamaaila Noorane, She Settles in the
Shields: Untold Stories of Migrant Women in Pollockshields (Glasgow: Glasgow Women’s Library,
2011)
6
From securing the Freedom of the City for Aung San Suu Kyi (in partnership with Amnesty
International – she was only the 7th woman of 70 people to have been given this accolade) to
work ensuring disenfranchised women including women experiencing homelessness and elderly
women who are not confident English speakers learn about their right to vote.
7
For more information about GWL’s Women Make History project and the women’s heritage
walks they have developed including downloadable maps visit
http://womenslibrary.org.uk/whats‐on/women‐make‐history/women%E2%80%99s‐heritage‐
walks/
8
For surveys of women’s contribution to women’s history see Elizabeth L. Ewan et al, The
Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007) and
Esther Brietenbach et al, Scottish Women, a documentary history 1780‐1914 (Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press, 2013)
9
For a flavour of the video recordings visit Glasgow Women’s Library, Badges of Honour at
http://vimeo.com/66576868
10
This work and the sources that inspired it can be seen in Adele Patrick, ed. 21 Revolutions; new
writing and prints inspired by the collection at Glasgow Women’s Library, (Glasgow: Glasgow
Women’s Library, 2014) 83
119