GWL was at the Dundee Women’s Festival in March, organising workshops to complement our mobile exhibition “Between Future and Past”. At the Women’s History Bring and Tell workshops in the afternoon, Elaine told us about her admiration for her daughter, and Sheila brought some beautiful photographs of her mother as a young woman when she worked in the Dundee Jute Mills.
Her mother started working there when she was 12, when some children went to school in the morning and then worked in the Jute Mills in the afternoon. We talked about how difficult life was for women then, how things have changed (or not!) and about some of the pressures facing young women today.
In the evening a showing of the F Word provoked some lively discussion. We asked the women what they would campaign for now and the new campaign “demands” included “Freedom for young girls – they don’t have to wear pink or play with Barbies”and “Freedom from stereotypes”. This was a great workshop and would have gone on much longer if the building hadn’t closed!
