Browse Exhibits (13 total)

While the Hypatia collection has a wide range of material related to health, it also includes many sources which specifically deal with the issue of abortion and reproductive rights, mostly from the ‘second-wave’ of feminism.

Many of these sources can be found in the ‘health’ section of the collection. The nature of this material includes pamphlets produced by the National Abortion Campaign in the UK and the Birth Control Trust, as well as information booklets about the National Health Service’s policies on abortion, and transcripts of different women talking about their personal experiences of pregnancy and abortion. Some are based more on facts and statistical analysis of the demographic of women that were seeking and getting abortions, while others focus more on the opinions and experiences of women who had chosen to have an abortion. The majority of these sources were produced during the 1970s and 1980s, at the time of many feminist campaigns not only for access to abortions, but also for wider reproductive rights such as free and safe contraception, and an end to forced sterilisation.

Given that abortion and reproductive rights were central to ‘second-wave’ feminism, the Hypatia collection also includes a breadth of contemporary literature in the ‘politics’ section that provide an overview of the movement, and as a result contain chapters dealing with the topic specifically. Some talk mainly about the mainstream white-middle class feminist activism at the time, however the collection also includes studies which directly address how campaigns for issues such as abortion and reproductive rights affected black and working-class women.

These different types of sources that the Hypatia collection offers allow us to get an insight into how abortion and reproductive rights were approached by women, mostly in the 1970s and 1980s.

Kezia Pugh

The Hypatia collection features a significant number of sources related to women’s humour.

Since the beginning of the feminist movement, which developed momentum throughout the twentieth century, humour has become an outlet through which women could challenge cultural norms and express their dissatisfaction with persisting patriarchal societies. This humour is often satirical in nature, poking fun at expectations of what a woman should be and how she should act.

The collection holds many sources from the 1990s; the rise in popularity of satirical humour coincided with the third wave of feminism, which emphasised individualism. Furthermore, there are a wide range of authors from different ethnic and social backgrounds in the collection, which enables an extensive perspective on all women’s humour.

In the collection there are examples of feminist works which mock the style and format of works that represent patriarchal views. This includes instruction books such as A Woman's Little Instruction Book 200 secrets to help you sort out the men in your life - and the life in your men which mimics and satirises instruction books from the earlier 20^th century detailing how women should act.  There is also a book called Untamed tongues full of quotes from over a hundred women on their views on life, this book offers a unique insight into the uncensored opinions of those who are often silenced. Moreover, The Naked Ape provides an interesting collection of overtly sexist newspaper headlines and articles that were produced in Britain throughout the twentieth century. The response to such articles demonstrates that male assumptions of women were often laughable.

Clare Southworth

Isaac Avery

Sophie Hammond

One of the richest source materials within Exeter’s Hypatia Special Collection is its collection of feminist magazines. Magazines are a rich text of academic study, that are invaluable to the historian’s pursuit of the past. This is not only due to their commentary on contemporary social and cultural events, but their variable presentations, layered meanings and dynamic dialogue between author and audience. Magazines aimed at a female audience are interesting historical arenas in which women can find advice, information, companionship and inspiration. Women’s magazines have the potential to be political, however, they took on new meaning in the late twentieth-century as a new genre of feminist periodicals began to hit the stands.

 During the 1960s the counter-revolution movements began to utilise the presses in order to reinforce their agenda, and put forward their ideas. One such cultural movement, Second-Wave feminism, utilised the underground presses to articulate their grievances and allow women across the UK to debate and discuss their patriarchal experiences. A range of periodicals from local group circulation to mass market publications discussed hot topics of the movement such as masturbation, working rights, equal pay, abortion, orgasms, sexual objectification and harassment. These feminist magazines are then helpful to the academic in discovering the popular discourse that helped circulate the feminist agenda in Britain at this time.

 Some of the magazines this collection has include Spare Rib, On The Issues: The Progressive Women’s Quarterly, M/F: A Feminist Journal, The Female State: A Journal of Female Liberation, Enough: The Journal of the British Women’s Liberation Group, Trouble & Strife. By looking through these feminist magazines, the academic can find what kinds of articles feminists were wanting to promote and even what kinds of adverts they thought their readers would be interested in. Each magazine was spearheaded by their own unique group of women, who approached the feminist movement in their own way. The conversations both between these magazines and within their own pages is indicative of the arguments and challenges that confronted women between the 1960-80s. From the mass produced Spare Rib to the regional Enough magazine in Bristol, they aimed to open up questions and articulate the theoretical, political and practical issues that contemporary women faced in a deeply patriarchal society.

 The Hypatia Collection is rich with these feminist magazines, and offers a valuable insight to those seeking to explore the internal conversations of one of the most significant social movements in recent history - Second-wave feminism.

Sarah Hough

Laura Davidson

Anna Hartley 

The Hypatia collection has a wide range of sources regarding the position and role of women in education. Education is the process of formal learning, often within institutions, involving the acquisition of various forms of knowledge and skill. While access, standards and structures of education have increased throughout history, the global gender gap between recipients of formalised education has remained. Many barriers prevent women from participating, fulfilling and benefitting from education, with women today accounting for two thirds of the 750 million adults without basic literacy skills.[1] A multitude of global governmental and Non-governmental organisations exist to work towards gender equality in education, including UNESCO, GEA, InterAction and the NOW Foundation.

Gender inequality is an issue that every female has consciously and/or unconsciously faced in her life, with education being inherently instrumental in the encounters and prolongation of the prejudices and confines of women. Education is instrumental in not only enforcing ideals and expectations of women within educational systems but this is subsequently projected into the wider world and shapes the experiences and behaviours of women for the rest of their lives.

Areas of research that the Hypatia collection maintains include gender inequality and gender bias within different levels of formal education systems across the globe. These also include different types of study, such as geographical and thematic studies, explored in a range of different historical time periods. These studies encompass edited collections, primary accounts and biographical experiences in addition to the host of books analytically addressing various areas of research centred around women and education.

The Hypatia Collection exhibits a variety of materials related to the topic of Mental Health, ranging from sources discussing specific mental health issues to published works aimed at health professionals.

The 'Health' section of the collection contains a number of texts written for the medical profession in dealing with mental health. For example, there are many guides written for nurses providing information to aid them in passing examinations but also offering methods of dealing with mental health and creating a relationship with their patients.

The collection also holds a plethora of sources related to specific mental health conditions, written by both sufferers and medical professionals, including pieces on post-natal depression, children with mental health conditions and multiple works on anorexia, such as Marilyn Lawrence's The Anorexic Experience.

In addition to more in-depth accounts of mental health conditions, you can find broader discussions of mental health in the collection. These include mental health discourse examined within multiple frameworks such as the state of mental health, the family, alternative treatments and the female body. Alongside these exist in-depth psychological studies of women, including The Feminine Mind and Body, The Psychology of Women and In a different voice: psychological theory and women's development.

 Angharad Burden