Carve Her Name

A graphic reading "avoid amazon: shop small" and detailing the giveaway also covered in the post.

UK bookshop org is doing a gift card giveaway this weekend, as part of encouraging Small Business Saturday. Buy ANY book between 5 and 7 Dec, and you could win a £250 Bookshop.org digital gift card.

Every sale supports independent bookshops (and maybe us!): uk.bookshop.org/shop...

Beauvoir was the third woman to win the Goncourt since it was founded in 1903. Only 14 of the 114 winners have been women.

When the Goncourt was first run in 1903 its jury was entirely men. The Prix Femina was created in response with an all woman jury.

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Beauvoir wrote ‘The Second Sex’ in 1949, in which she detailed the ways in which women were repressed by a patriarchal culture. It was banned by the Vatican, and inspired Betty Friedan and Judith Butler’s writings.

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Simone de Beauvoir sat in a cafe, working. She is a white woman with dark hair.

“To make something good of the future, you have to look the present in the face.”

#OnThisDay, 6 Dec 1954, Simone de Beauvoir wins the Prix Goncourt with her novel ‘The Mandarins’.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #ReadMoreWomen #FrenchHistory 🗃️
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Grid of photos showing the eighteen women elected Top row (left to right): Mebrure Gönenç (Afyon), Hatı Çırpan (Ankara), Türkan Örs Baştuğ (Antalya), Sabiha Gökçül Erbay (Balıkesir), Şekibe İnsel (Bursa), Hatice Özgener (Çankırı); Middle row (left to right): Huriye Öniz Baha (Diyarbakır), Fatma Memik (Edirne), Nakiye Elgün (Erzurum), Fakihe Öymen (Ankara), Benal Nevzat İştar Arıman (İzmir), Ferruh Güpgüp (Kayseri); Bottom row (left to right): Bahire Bediş Morova Aydilek (Konya), Mihri Pektaş (Malatya), Meliha Ulaş (Samsun), Fatma Esma Nayman (Seyhan), Sabiha Görkey (Sivas), Seniha Hızal (Trabzon).

#OnThisDay, 6 Dec 1934, the Turkish Parliament voted to allow all women over 22 the vote, and women over 30 the right to stand in elections.

The first women were elected the following year.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #TurkishHistory #VotesForWomen 🗃️

Agnes Macphail reading a paper. She is a white woman with light hair.

"Most women think politics aren't lady-like. Well, I'm no lady. I'm a human being."

#OnThisDay, 6 Dec 1921, Agnes Macphail, wins a seat in the Canadian House of Commons. She was the first woman to be a Canadian MP.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #CanadianHistory 🗃️

An old bookshop (it's one on Charring Cross Road, in fact). It's painted dark green, and the insides glow amber. An overlaid box has text reading Win A Gift Card: Small Business Saturday giveaway uk bookshop dot org.

Small Business Saturday weekender!

Buy ANY book 5-7 Dec, and you could win a £250 Bookshop.org digital gift card. That's a lot of paperbacks, or some nice chonky big hardbacks!

Every sale supports independent bookshops: uk.bookshop.org/shop...

(T&Cs: UK only, affiliate links)

Mary McLeod Bethune sat at her desk. She is a Black woman with greying hair.

#OTD, 5 Dec 1935, Mary McLeod Bethune founds the National Council of Negro Women – a US council to bring together other national organisations working towards women’s equality.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #AmericanHistory 🗃️

Ann Welch as a young woman stood in front of a glider wearing stripy T shirt

Ann Welch UK pilot. 1934 earned pilot's licence @ 17. #WWII Air Transport Auxiliary pilot. 1980 Fédération Aéronautique Internationale's Gold Air Medal 4 contribution to develop't of 4 air sports #gliding #HangGliding #paragliding #microlight flying d #OTD 5 Dec 2002 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Welch

Lucile Atcherson wearing a WW1 uniform. She is a white woman with what might be dark hair (hard to tell due to the huge slouchy hat).

#OTD, 5 Dec 1922, Lucille Atcherson is appointed in the US Diplomatic Service. She was the first woman appointed, and was finally allowed an overseas posting in 1925.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #AmericanHistory 🗃️

Shop | Glasgow Women's Library

We've got some lovely new items for sale in the @womenslibrary.bsky.social shop. Online, or pop in. womenslibrary.org.uk/shop/

Feinstein goes on to win two more terms, and to be elected to the US Senate where she served until her death in 2023.

During her mayoralty, she launched the first AIDS awareness week.

As a Senator she pushed for greater gun control and supported abortion rights.

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Dianne Feinstein (on the right) being sworn in by Chief Justice Rose Bird (left). They are both white women with dark hair.

#OnThisDay, 4 Dec 1978, Dianne Feinstein was formally sworn in as Mayor of San Francisco.

She had been the acting Mayor after the assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and supervisor Harvey Milk the week before.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #AmericanHistory 🗃️

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Wes Streeting orders review of mental health diagnoses as benefit claims soar Health secretary has asked experts to investigate whether normal feelings have become ‘over-pathologised’

Wes Streeting accuses welfare state disabilty benefits of 'trapping people, not just in poverty, but out of work.' But where is the recognition that disability benefits are often what makes it possible for people with higher living and transport costs to work?
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

‘They rose out of the ground!’: Scotland’s brutalist beauties – in pictures The imposing concrete buildings that defined British postwar architecture held a vision of the future – but many fell into disrepair. A new book finds the finest examples

‘They rose out of the ground!’: Scotland’s brutalist beauties – in pictures

This ongoing toxic discourse has multiple real-life, everyday consequences

It leads to the man sitting next to me on a bus not accepting I'm from Manchester as I have 'dark skin'

Declaring, while gesturing around the bus- 'you can fool all of them, but you can't fool me'

It permits open racism

ICYMI we published a new blog post last week, about women, piracy and privateering.

Posed photo of Emmeline Freda Du Faur in her mountaineering skirt.

#OnThisDay, 3 Dec 1910, Emmeline Freda Du Faur becomes the first white woman to climb Aoraki (Mount Cook) in New Zealand.

If other women climbed it earlier, their climbs were not recorded.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #NZHistory 🗃️

That’s why we use that phrasing! Sometimes we use a phrasing that implies “why would *anyone* do that?” as well.

"In a society where the rights and potential of women are constrained, no man can be truly free. He may have power, but he will not have freedom."

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Mary Robinson signing the papers that made her President, with lots of men looking on. She’s wearing a purple suit that really pops.

“I was elected by the women of Ireland, who instead of rocking the cradle, rocked the system.”

#OnThisDay, 3 Dec 1990, Mary Robinson was inaugurated as the first woman to be President of the Republic of Ireland.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #IrishHistory 🗃️

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Posed photo of Emmeline Freda Du Faur in her mountaineering skirt.

#OnThisDay, 3 Dec 1910, Emmeline Freda Du Faur becomes the first white woman to climb Aoraki (Mount Cook) in New Zealand.

If other women climbed it earlier, their climbs were not recorded.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #NZHistory 🗃️

I love the footage of her arriving at Sydney Opera House in a fur coat and hard hat.

… and the subject of London’s latest blue plaque, which I recently spotted in Mayfair. This is 3 minutes of spirit-lifting joy. It will do you good.

Any book suggestions for recent biographies of women activists? Particularly ones that use oral history sources?

I’ve just finished Judith Brett’s Fearless Beatrice Faust…

#womenshistory

Charted in November 1954 in the Uk & peaked at # 1 Winifred Atwell - Let`s Have Another Party ( 1954 )

Let's Have Another Party (audio only): youtu.be/umJxL4Gmx3Y

The Poor People of Paris (video): youtu.be/eY_PabVEUbY

Waltzin' Matilda (video): www.nfsa.gov.au/coll...

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Her hands were insured by Lloyds of London with a clause stating that she must never wash the dishes.

She was also the first woman to play at Sydney Opera House when she played to the construction workers during a tour.

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Winifred Atwell seated at a piano and looking upwards

#OnThisDay, 2 Dec 1954, Winifred Atwell becomes the first Black person to top the British singles chart, with “Let's Have Another Party”. Originally from Trinidad, she moved to London to take up a place at the Royal Academy of Music.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #WomensHistory #BritishHistory 🗃️

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We are very close to having sold enough books that our affiliate payouts cover the running costs for the year. We're with the UK bookshop dot org as 10% of the cover price also goes into a pot that is shared with indie bricks-and-mortar bookshops. So you're supporting us *and* real bookshops.

Read more women: Mags' fiction recs Mags' list of fiction by women that she's enjoyed.

And Mags' fiction reads is a short, punchy list which includes ghost stories, horror and crime. Because who doesn't like a bit of darkness with the mince pies?
uk.bookshop.org/lists/read-m...