Day 8
The Women’s Library
Submitted by janetc on Thu, 11/22/2007 - 17:17.
The Women’s Library was founded in 1926 as the Library of the London Society for Women’s Service. It has been part of London Metropolitan University since 1977, when the university was known as City Polytechnic. The University is also home to the Child & Women Abuse Studies Unit (CWASU).
The Women’s Library documents and records the experiences of women in Britain. It is the most extensive resource on women’s history in the country and their Reading Room is invaluable for anyone researching any aspect of women’s experiences. As mainstream media and texts still marginalise the experiences of women the Women’s Library serves an important function in housing the testimonies of women.
As part of their explorations into the experiences of women, the Women’s Library runs a programme of exhibitions. Its current exhibition is Sinners, Scroungers, Saints: Lone Parents Past and Present.
Sinners, Scroungers, Saints
The exhibition explores the experiences and issues affecting single mothers in different circumstances and social situations at different points in history. Whilst single mothers are usually seen as a drain on society’s benefits system, the reality is that the proportion of births registered to one parent is declining, the majority of lone mothers are divorced and 60% of them are in paid employment.
The exhibition runs from 17 October 2007 to 29 March 2008
(Closed 21 December 2007 - 2nd January 2008) and is free to enter.
Jo Sharpen, who helped to curate the oral histories section of the exhibition, said “It was very important for the women to voice their own experiences and to be heard. You can also hear the things they don’t say in their voices, something you wouldn’t get if you were just reading a transcript. It is more meaningful to listen to women speaking for themselves.”
The Women’s Library is known for its interactive exhibitions. As part of Sinners, Scroungers, Saints interviews were conducted with a number of women and their testimonials were recorded. You can listen to them at the exhibition through headphones. Recording a voice may not seem to be the flashiest use of technology, but listening to a woman tell her own story is more powerful than reading it.
The Women’s Library
Metropolitan University
25 Old Castle Street
London E1 7NT
