Resources

From resources introducing elements of our collections, to reading lists and project reports, research and more.

Posters with the statement ‘Everybody’s got a right to live’ from the Poor People’s campaign, drying having been screen printed in the Interference Archives, Brooklyn, New York, 30 March 2019

Moving Mountains

Feminist Leadership is an under-researched area. In 2018/2019 GWL’s co-founder and Creative Development Manager Adele Patrick took time out to reflect, learn and develop new feminist intersectional approaches supported by Clore Leadership.

The Making of a Magazine, Sappho Vol. 6, No. 7 (collage detail)

LGBTQ+ Collections Online Resource

Early Lesbian and Gay Publications Feminism and Lesbian Politics We Recruit!Campaigns and Organisations The Personal is PoliticalLesbian Life LGBTQ Life in Scotland Bibliography Welcome to our new online resource which […]

The Handling Collection

Glasgow Women’s Library’s handling collection is a fantastic and accessible resource for groups and individuals to learn more about the stored materials in our archive and museum, and about women’s issues, campaigns and achievements.

Film still from Shifting Sands, featuring a woman sitting with her face in her hands.

Shifting Sands: Coercive Control Training Toolkit

Charting a journey of survival and hope, Shifting Sands tells a story of a woman in an abusive and controlling relationship. Alongside the film, we have developed a toolkit to promote an understanding of coercive control and how to effectively support victims.

Equality in Progress: Research from a grassroots museum

GWL is a values-led feminist museum that rethinks the traditions of museum practice; and stands as a model of good practice with an innovative and proactive approach to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). The Equality in Progress project aims to support the wider museum sector to gain a better understanding of ‘equality’ as a theory, with the intention of widening access, representation and inclusion for people with Protected Characteristics. This report responds to the need for analysis of the complex systems of intersectional inequality in museums. As a project we deconstructed the power relationships between museums and people, exposing the barriers to information, learning and resources; unpacking the methods that have established, and maintain, inequality of access to museums.

A poster by the Guerrilla Girls with 'You're Seeing Less Than Half The Picture' in bold text on the right edge of a large blank space. Below, in smaller text, it continues 'without the vision of women artists and artists of colour'. — 'You're Seeing Less Than Half The Picture' - Guerrilla Girls Poster, 1989

Decoding Inequality Sector Report 2019

The Decoding Inequality project turns the analytical attention of our Equality in Progress project directly to GWL's collections and interpretation. The Equality in Progress project has used theories of intersectional feminism to interrogate museums as institutions, with the aim of supporting practitioners to develop much better awareness of systems of inequality. The Decoding Inequality project builds on this work by conducting a process of feminist interpretation or ‘decoding’ of our collection.

Speaking Out Learning Resource

The Speaking Out learning resource has been developed for use in secondary schools and by youth organisations in Scotland. Using material gathered as part of the Speaking Out oral history project, the resource aims to engage and develop discussions amongst young people on the connection between gender inequality and violence against women and girls, specifically, domestic abuse.

A small selection from the Women and Sectarianism Resource

Mixing The Colours Resource

Mixing The Colours Mixing The Colours: The Story So Far Mixing The Colours Conference 2015 Mixing The Colours Podcasts Mixing The Colours Film Mixing The Colours Publication Our permanent public reference […]

Photograph of books from the Violence Against Women Collection at GWL

In Her Shoes: Women and Hate Crime Resources

The resources listed below discuss women’s experiences of targeted hostility based on specific characteristics and identities, and their responses to this through self-defence and collective action. These resources are […]

Art Fund Museum of the Year 2018 Finalist

Museum of the Year Dossier

Glasgow Women’s Library applied to become Art Fund Museum of the Year 2018. As the first equalities focussed Accredited Museum to have been a Finalist for this, the most prestigious accolade for Museums, we are keen to see other groups who work with social justice to apply for this Award. We are sharing the following dossier for those interested in our work or in the sector in general, and / or are researching museums (and equalities); and specifically make available what we presented to be considered as Museum of the Year in 2018.

Black and white photograph of a group of suffragettes gathered on a set of stairs. Many of the suffragettes are wearing tartan sashes. — Suffragettes with tartan sashes, 1908. Image courtesy LSE Library

Vote 100: The Moving Story

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Representation of the People Act, GWL has developed an animated web resource highlighting the forgotten heroines who have campaigned for women across the world to have the right to vote. These films are unique animations that showcase not only the achievements of these often overlooked women but also the rich talents of up-and-coming animators from across Scotland. An educational toolkit to accompany the animations will be launched later in the year.

Vote 100: Toolkit for Schools

Do you work with secondary school students? Would you like to use the Vote 100 films as a multimedia approach to the history of suffrage? Then check out our free, downloadable Vote 100: The Moving Story Toolkit!

Women in the Landscape

Where you are, where you’ve been, where you grew up . . . how has it shaped who you are? How have you shaped the places you’ve been, where you’ve lived and passed through? Seeking out and sharing women’s words, inspired and borne out of both rural and urban landscapes across Scotland and beyond, the Glasgow Women’s Library Women in the Landscape project aims to reveal, to celebrate and to preserve women’s stories, experiences and environmental heritage.

Women's Heritage Walks & Audio Tours

Our Women's Heritage Walks highlight the hidden histories of trailblazing, hardwork and ingenious women who have inhabited Glasgow over the centuries, from housewives to hawkers, artists to activists, and entrepreneurs to entertainers.

Feminist Lines of Flight

In order to explore the question of how we have gone on, how we do go on now, and how we dream/ desire to go on in the future in response to a feminist heritage, this rich and expansive archive of texts, publications, audio/video, film-clips and images offers a range of starting points for feminist lines of flight in art and politics.

Sex in the Women's Library

Our Sex in the Women’s Library programme, in partnership with the Wellcome Collection’s Institute of Sexology season, spotlighted items in the GWL’s diverse library, museum and archive collection which focus on the terrain of sex, sexual identity, feminism and power, and used these as a catalyst for discussions, screenings and performances.

Clydebank Press 1959 Electric service advert detail

Women Making History in West Dunbartonshire

Women Making History in West Dunbartonshire is a year-long project that ran from 2014-2015. Previous to this, in 2009, a group of wonderful women met every Wednesday in a community centre in Clydebank and had invited Glasgow Women’s Library down to talk to their group about the library and women’s history. What became obvious during this meeting was that these women had a wealth of stories and life experiences rich with anecdote and humour that was its very own unique narrative, and that this narrative was often under-represented in the traditional view of West Dunbartonshire history. The group decided that it was time to create something lasting that was created by the women of West Dunbartonshire for the West Dunbartonshire community. They created two unique memory boxes on the theme of women’s lives in the 1950s and 1960s, and they started gathering stories, including telling their own.

Lilias of Ancrum memorial stone — This memorial stone dedicated to the folk heroine Lilias of Ancrum is just one of many recorded on the Women of Scotland site.

Mapping Memorials to Women in Scotland

All over Scotland, in towns, villages and in the countryside, there are many types of memorials, large and small, commemorating the lives and achievements of women. The Women of Scotland website was set up by Women's History Scotland and Glasgow Women's Library to record and map these memorials and the women they celebrate.