{"id":2,"date":"2018-03-15T08:37:21","date_gmt":"2018-03-15T08:37:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2023-07-20T15:54:32","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T14:54:32","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/","title":{"rendered":"About"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"standfirst lead\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong><em> The Business of Women\u2019s Words: Purpose and Profit in Feminist Publishing (BOWW)<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>explores the dramatic story of the feminist publishing revolution that unfolded during the UK Women\u2019s Movements [WLM] of the 1970s, 80s and 90s, and their legacies for social movement inspired creative industries today.<\/p>\n<p class=\"standfirst lead\">This four-year research project (2018-2021), generously funded by the Leverhulme Trust, looks at the contrasting histories and fortunes of legendary enterprises such as Virago Press and <i>Spare Rib. <\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"standfirst lead\">It examines how activists called upon cultural and creative business activities to help promote their aims despite feminists\u2019 general antipathy and sometimes hostility to capitalist methods and ideologies.<\/p>\n<p>The research unearths activists\u2019 efforts to infuse purpose with profit and to reconcile business and financial imperatives with political, artistic and egalitarian commitments, bringing life to archival treasures at The British Library, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Virago archive, containing materials relating to the business of publishing and major women\u2019s writers from Antonia White to Maya Angelou.<\/li>\n<li>The magazine <a href=\"https:\/\/bl.uk\/spare-rib\"><em>Spare Rib<\/em><\/a>, through <a href=\"http:\/\/makes visible the extensive network of \u2018second-wave\u2019 feminist activity\" data-wplink-url-error=\"true\">a pioneering digital map<\/a> showing a coast-to-coast network of feminist traders, readers and centres.<\/li>\n<li>A rich oral history archive of writers, publishers, editors and book traders as well as Women\u2019s Liberation Movement activists<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div id=\"attachment_380\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 226px;\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-380 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/files\/2018\/03\/Virago-bookshop-002-216x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"216\" height=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Postcard with hand drawn design of the Virago Bookshop, 1985, by kind permission of Virago Press.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The research brings fresh perspectives to the history of feminism, which has previously focused on identities and campaigns, by considering the ways that feminists\u2019 ethical and socialist economic strategies related to creative and entrepreneurial successes.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Business of Women\u2019s Words<\/em> also explores the business investments and state support behind feminist cultural production and the hidden role of personal and private income, transnational networking, collective \u2018crowd sourcing\u2019, unpaid time, labour and care.<\/p>\n<p>Twitter: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BoWWords\">@BoWWords<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Business of Women\u2019s Words: Purpose and Profit in Feminist Publishing (BOWW)\u00a0explores the dramatic story of the feminist publishing revolution that unfolded during the UK Women\u2019s Movements [WLM] of the 1970s, 80s and 90s, and their legacies for social movement<span class=\"ellipsis\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/\">Read more &#8250;<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":246,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"content-sidebar-page.php","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/246"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":606,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions\/606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}