Women On The Margin

March 2022

Inspired by International Women's Day, we hosted a lecture mini-series that looks at the plight of women on the margins of society between 1500 and 1800 in Europe (Speaker: Dr. Mark Williams taught at the University of Kingston, and as an associate lecturer at the University of Chichester).

The first lecture considered the phenomenon of the witch hunts, where around 75% of those accused of witchcraft were women, and where stereotypes of the witch were increasingly tied to women's bodies and women's spaces. This lecture examined how historians have explained the link between women and witchcraft, and how those theories have been challenged and developed. The second lecture considered the practice of female prostitution in European society, where historians have estimated that around 10% of the female population in places such as Paris and London in the eighteenth century earned all or part of their income from prostitution. We tried to uncover the lived experiences of women who turned to prostitution at that time, as well as the changing social attitudes towards female sex workers.

Because of the subject matter of these lectures, they were not recommended for under-16s.

NEW DATES COMING SOON….