{"id":328,"date":"2020-10-23T10:14:29","date_gmt":"2020-10-23T09:14:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/?p=328"},"modified":"2024-07-15T17:22:58","modified_gmt":"2024-07-15T16:22:58","slug":"unfinished-business-the-fight-for-womens-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/2020\/10\/23\/unfinished-business-the-fight-for-womens-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Unfinished Business: The Fight for Women\u2019s Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>BOWW has made a significant contribution to the British Library\u2019s new landmark exhibition, <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/INPltlZpMT8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Unfinished Business: The Fight for Women\u2019s Rights<\/em><\/a>, which shows how feminist activism in the UK today has roots in a long, complex and compelling history of struggle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The BOWW principal investigator <strong>Margaretta Jolly,<\/strong><strong> <\/strong>Professor of Cultural Studies in the School of Media, Arts and Humanities, co-edited the exhibition <a href=\"https:\/\/shop.bl.uk\/collections\/unfinished-business\/products\/unfinished-business-the-fight-for-womens-rights\">book<\/a>, working with Dr Polly Russell, lead curator at the British Library.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-medium\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"221\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/files\/2020\/10\/Unfinished-Business-book-cover-1-221x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-343\" \/><figcaption>Unfinished Business: The Fight for Women&#8217;s Rights, British Library Publishing, 2020<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The book features sixteen new essays exploring topics as disparate as gender fluidity, Black women\u2019s access to education, and the right to sexual pleasure. It showcases the work of activists, artists, academics and thinkers, some with Sussex connections:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>BOWW research fellow, Dr D-M Withers, wrote \u2018Recovering Traditions, Inspiring Actions\u2019 for the book.<\/li><li>Former BOWW research fellow, Dr Zoe Strimpel, wrote \u2018Liberating Pleasure\u2019.<\/li><li>Writer and filmmaker Dr Juliet Jacques, who completed a PhD at Sussex in 2019, wrote \u2018On The Malleability of the Body\u2019.<\/li><li>Professor Jolly wrote the book\u2019s afterword \u2018Finishing the Business\u2019.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>But BOWW\u2019s contribution to Unfinished Business doesn\u2019t stop here. Dr Withers significantly contributed to the research and curation of the exhibition, and the BOWW team were members of the Advisory Board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Drawing on the British Library\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bl.uk\/spare-rib\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">digitised collection<\/a> of the feminist magazine <em>Spare Rib, <\/em>the BOWW team also worked with the British Library to develop an <a href=\"https:\/\/hera.tag.inf.sussex.ac.uk\/index.html?timeline=false\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">interactive map<\/a>, uniquely charting UK feminist activism and entrepreneurship in the 1970s-80s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Led by the vision of BOWW co-investigator Dr Lucy Delap (Reader in Modern British and Gender History at the University of Cambridge), the work was started by BOWW research fellow, Dr Zoe Strimpel, and brought to fruition by Dr Eleanor Careless, who succeeded Dr Strimpel early in 2020. Dr Simon Wibberley from the Sussex Humanities Lab built the software to make the map possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The map is based on a data sample of letters and listings taken from <em>Spare Rib<\/em> and dramatically reveals the reach and style of a movement famed for its decentralised and domestic activism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/files\/2020\/10\/Spare_Rib_map_screenshot_love-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-337\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/files\/2020\/10\/Spare_Rib_map_screenshot_love-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/files\/2020\/10\/Spare_Rib_map_screenshot_love-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/files\/2020\/10\/Spare_Rib_map_screenshot_love-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/files\/2020\/10\/Spare_Rib_map_screenshot_love-100x67.jpg 100w, https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/files\/2020\/10\/Spare_Rib_map_screenshot_love-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/files\/2020\/10\/Spare_Rib_map_screenshot_love-200x133.jpg 200w, https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/files\/2020\/10\/Spare_Rib_map_screenshot_love-450x300.jpg 450w, https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/files\/2020\/10\/Spare_Rib_map_screenshot_love-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/files\/2020\/10\/Spare_Rib_map_screenshot_love-900x601.jpg 900w, https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/files\/2020\/10\/Spare_Rib_map_screenshot_love.jpg 1085w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Interpretations and guides to support the map include <em>Letters from a Young Feminist<\/em>, by Eleanor Careless; <em>Mapping Provincial Feminisms<\/em>, by Lucy Delap &amp; Eleanor Careless; <em>Listings and the Feminist Marketplace<\/em>, by Zoe Strimpel; <em>Mapping Spare Rib: How and Why<\/em>, by Zoe Strimpel, Eleanor Careless &amp; Simon Wibberley, <em>Discussions of Race in Spare Rib Letters<\/em> by Charlotte James and <em>Women\u2019s Accounts Of Reproductive Healthcare Provision in Spare Rib Magazine<\/em> by Alice O\u2019Driscoll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An analogue version of the map features in the <em>Unfinished Business<\/em> exhibition, and the online version will be hosted on the British Library\u2019s website as part of its rich <em>Spare Rib <\/em>resource. BOWW will also deposit the data and open source code in the British Library\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/bl.iro.bl.uk\/\">research repository<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"852\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/files\/2020\/10\/ub-ana-da-silva-guitar-on-loan-from-sue-emerick-1024x852.jpg\" alt=\"Spare Rib map in Unfinished Business exhibition\" class=\"wp-image-335\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/files\/2020\/10\/ub-ana-da-silva-guitar-on-loan-from-sue-emerick-1024x852.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/files\/2020\/10\/ub-ana-da-silva-guitar-on-loan-from-sue-emerick-300x250.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/files\/2020\/10\/ub-ana-da-silva-guitar-on-loan-from-sue-emerick-768x639.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/files\/2020\/10\/ub-ana-da-silva-guitar-on-loan-from-sue-emerick-1536x1279.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/files\/2020\/10\/ub-ana-da-silva-guitar-on-loan-from-sue-emerick-100x83.jpg 100w, https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/files\/2020\/10\/ub-ana-da-silva-guitar-on-loan-from-sue-emerick-150x125.jpg 150w, https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/files\/2020\/10\/ub-ana-da-silva-guitar-on-loan-from-sue-emerick-200x167.jpg 200w, https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/files\/2020\/10\/ub-ana-da-silva-guitar-on-loan-from-sue-emerick-450x375.jpg 450w, https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/files\/2020\/10\/ub-ana-da-silva-guitar-on-loan-from-sue-emerick-600x500.jpg 600w, https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/files\/2020\/10\/ub-ana-da-silva-guitar-on-loan-from-sue-emerick-900x749.jpg 900w, https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/files\/2020\/10\/ub-ana-da-silva-guitar-on-loan-from-sue-emerick.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>With thanks to the British Library. Photograph \u00a9 David Jensen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The BOWW team has also helped the British Library to develop a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bl.uk\/womens-rights\/activities\/map-of-womens-resistance\">map of women\u2019s resistance<\/a>, plotting over 60 stories of women&#8217;s lives, rights and activism from the 18th century to the present, with each entry linked to a British Library collection item and further reading. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, the ground-breaking women\u2019s liberation oral history project, <em>Sisterhood and After, <\/em>led by Professor Jolly and hosted online by the British Library, is integral to the free, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bl.uk\/womens-histories\">educational website<\/a> just launched by the British Library to accompany <em>Unfinished Business.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Articles on the British Library website written by BOWW team members to support the <em>Unfinished Business<\/em> educational resource include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><em>Feminism<\/em>, by Eleanor Careless.<\/li><li><em>Men\u2019s responses to women\u2019s liberation<\/em>, by Lucy Delap.<\/li><li><em>Music as protest<\/em>, by D-M Withers.<\/li><li><em>Women in Publishing, <\/em>and<em> Feminist Futures in Science Fiction, <\/em>both by Margaretta Jolly<em>.<\/em><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Margaretta Jolly says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe BOWW team has been delighted and honoured to support the British Library\u2019s <em>Unfinished Business<\/em> exhibition<em>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis helps tell of the vital, vivid and transformative struggle for women\u2019s rights and equality, both in the past and today. It invites us to recognise and celebrate the courage and resilience of the innumerable women who have given so much to the struggle, and who continue to do so.\u201d Details of all the associated programming inspired by <em>Unfinished Business: The Fight for Women\u2019s Rights<\/em>, including digital events, podcasts and educational resources, can be found on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bl.uk\/events\/unfinished-business\">Library\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BOWW has made a significant contribution to the British Library\u2019s new landmark exhibition, Unfinished Business: The Fight for Women\u2019s Rights, which shows how feminist activism in the UK today has roots in a long, complex and compelling history of struggle.<span class=\"ellipsis\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/2020\/10\/23\/unfinished-business-the-fight-for-womens-rights\/\">Read more &#8250;<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4286,123513],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":647,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328\/revisions\/647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/businessofwomenswords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}