Selection of colourful Pride badges scattered on a white background.

OUT in the Archive

Three Decades of Changing Minds Glasgow Women’s Library (launched in 1991), and Women in Profile (the organisation that GWL grew from), involved LGBTQ+ people right from inception in 1987. For […]

The community room at the library with benabags on the floor and a large white curtain in the background, the curtain has large illustrations by the artist Oliva Plender on

Life Support: Forms of Care in Art and Activism

How have individuals and collectives imagined alternative ways of living and organising? Inspired by our communities and collections, Life Support considers how artists and activists have addressed and challenged experiences […]

Artwork by Hannah Harkes: As Long As We Make It. A figure walks away from the camera along a bath, different braids of rope over their shoulder.

Weemin’s Wark

  The Weemin’s Wark (Shetland dialect Women’s Work) exhibition and collaborative project (November 2020 – May 2021) aims to increase the visibility of women’s contribution to contemporary island culture by […]

A selection of items donated to the GWL collection during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown in 2020. The include a floral patterend face mask, a black and white photograph of a door chain, a roller derby t-shirt, a pink and black Womenzade badge, a bottle of perfume with a postcard of a bottle of perfume being clutched by many hads, and a zine titles Nuclear ReSisters

Collecting in the Time of Coronavirus

As the UK-wide lockdown began on 23rd March, the Glasgow Women’s Library team was already working from home. Amazingly, our museum and archive collections continued to grow. Throughout lockdown, thoughtful first-time donors and long-time champions got in touch. All were keen to preserve part of their personal histories at this momentous time.

A smiling lady in a red trouser-suit and high heeled shoes rides a bicycle. In the background a bald, white-bearded gentleman in an old-fashioned farmworker's smock is so surprised that his hat has popped off and he's dropping his pitchfork. The caption reads: "What it will come to [...] Then they will be satisfied"

Postcards and the Fight for Women’s Suffrage

The GWL collections feature a wide variety of books and objects relating to the Suffrage movement but our range of postcards is arguably the most visually arresting. Both for and against women’s suffrage, they have pictures and slogans that are often shocking and grotesque.

A black badge with the text, "Support Women Writers", printed in white.

Agnes Owens as seen through objects from the Glasgow Women’s Library Collections

Explore the life of Agnes Owens through objects from the Glasgow Women’s Library Archive and Museum collections.

A quilt, runes, cards, and a book called 'How to turn your ex-boyfriend into a toad & other spells'

Janet Paisley as seen through objects from the Glasgow Women’s Library Collections

Explore the life of Janet Paisley through objects from the Glasgow Women’s Library Archive and Museum collections.

A black and white image of Naomi, who is looking at the camera with a slight smile on her lips.

Naomi Mitchison as seen through objects from the Glasgow Women’s Library Collections

Explore the life of Naomi Mitchison through objects from the Glasgow Women’s Library Archive and Museum collections.

When we are not seen, heard or recognised

By speaking out, we expose inequalities and increase mutual understanding to fight discrimination and stigma. The majority of the objects are by activists which articulate the multiple inequalities that women […]

When we do not have equal access to health care

Women consistently report negative experiences of the health care system. Poor services, or a lack of services at all, are the result of the benevolent moral and political policing, and medicalisation […]