Law & Politics
‘Heinous’ child killer or vulnerable victim of her times?
Morag Allan Campbell imagines the final days of Jessie King, who in 1889 became the last woman to be executed in Edinburgh.
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The woman who fought for – and won – rights for married women in England
Francine Ryan demonstrates how Caroline Norton, a Victorian-era woman who ‘never pretended to the wild and ridiculous doctrine of equality’ campaigned for married women’s rights to child custody and property.
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Reflecting on a career and life in legal scholarship
Former head of the University of Bristol Law School, Celia Wells examines how family and social histories define and shape professional choices and careers.
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How dangerous women will save Poland
Polish human rights advocate Anna Błuś on recent protests against proposed restrictive reproductive rights legislation in Poland, and the links with the struggle for women’s bodily autonomy around the world.
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Gender inequality in the legal profession – distant past or a current concern?
‘A dangerous woman will challenge stereotyping and a persistently patriarchal hierarchy to claim the career that she deserves.’ An account of sexism in the legal profession from a practicing barrister.
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Femme fatale, martyr, or tragic romantic heroine?
In this fourth Spy Week post, Lucy R. Hinnie explores the threat–political and gendered–embodied by Mary I of Scotland, and the 16th century espionage that led to her ultimate downfall.
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Breaking the mould as the first female Director General of MI5
Dame Stella Rimington was the first female Director General of UK intelligence service MI5. Today, she recalls changing perceptions of her as a ‘dangerous woman’.
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What if Holloway Prison could reflect on its closure?
If these walls could talk? Eithne Cullen imagines what Holloway Prison would have to say about the announcement of its closure in 2015, after more than a century of housing some of the UK’s most notable female prisoners.
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Their dangerous legacy in the post-Yugoslav space
The contribution of ‘partizanke’, or female partisan fighters, to the Yugoslav liberation war was unprecedented in occupied Europe. Here, Chiara Bonfiglioli explores the agency of these women and the reverberations of their actions to the present day.
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