Bronze Ceiling

Four  guests for our fourth episode! Sculptor ⁠Hazel Reeves⁠ is back to discuss her award-winning statue of Emmline Pankhurst, founder of the Women’s Social and Political Union in Manchester in 1903, with Manchester City ⁠Councillor Andrew Simcock⁠, ⁠Professor Helen Pankhurst⁠ and ⁠Dr Helen Antrobus⁠ (briefly accompanied in the background by her infant daughter, whose views, if not entirely clear, are certainly forcefully expressed :)).Useful links about things discussedThe Statue: you can read a brief entry on the statue on our crowd-sourced map here. Emmeline in London: A black and white newsreel of the unveiling of the statue erected to Emmeline Pankhurst in London in 1930 is visible ⁠here⁠. Emmeline and Manchester: We discussed what might have caused the rekindling of the connection between Manchester and the Pankhurst family from the 1970s. Helen Pankhurst suggested that this may have been due in part to the success of the hit BBC show Shoulder to Shoulder, which is accessible here⁠ (and elsewhere if you are not in the UK, but we don’t have good lawyers so you’ll have to find them yourselves :)) and may well have contributed to the desire to save 62 Nelson Street, the Pankhursts' home, from destruction, leading to its transformation into the Pankhurst centre, the website of which is ⁠here⁠.WoManchester: Andrew and Helen Antrobus’s highly readable book about both the WoManchester campaign and the twenty women on the long list can be purchased ⁠here⁠. You can also watch the unveiling ceremony in full ⁠here⁠.Hazel’s Next Project: Please spread the word and, if you can, contribute to the campaign for Hazel’s next site of feminist memory (fingers crossed!): a statue to Ada Nield Chew in Crew. The campaign's website can be found ⁠here⁠.Essential readingLaura E. Nym Mayhall. (1999). “Domesticating Emmeline: Representing the Suffragette, 1930-1993”. NWSA Journal, 11(2), 1–24 (accessible here by creating a free account on JStor or using your institution's subscription)ErrataAndrew mentions his visit to the "Ellen Wilkinson Museum" in Gateshead during his bicycle ride to raise awareness about the WoManchester campaign. This is in fact the South Shields Museum, which had organised an exhibition to mark the 80th anniversary of the Jarrow Crusade, the page of which is accessible ⁠here⁠.About UsBronze Ceiling is the podcast series of HerStory Maps, a citizen-science project aiming to map the sites of feminist memory everywhere in the world. The current map is ⁠here⁠ but a much more user-friendly and content rich one (including these podcasts, as well as videos, a serious game and maybe even guided audio tours) will be going live in March 2027 (at the latest)!If you would like to get in touch, please email us at: [email protected] InformationDate of recording: 13 May 2026Host: Marc Calvini-LefebvreResearch: Blanche Plaquevent and Marc Calvini-LefebvreSound: Elias MouktafiEditing: Marc Calvini-Lefebvre

“And though she be but little, she is fierce” (Helena, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 3, scene 2). This is how our three guests today - activist Susan Munro, historian Maureen Wright, and sculptor Hazel Reeves - describe the woman whose statue they unveiled on International Women’s Day 2022 on Congleton High Street, the impressive yet insufficiently known suffragist Elizabeth Wolstenholme-Elmy. Useful links about things discussedThe Statue: you can read a brief entry on the statue on our map here. Elizabeth Group: The campaigning organisation chaired by Susan did a sterling job of documenting their actions and Hazel’s work. Find out more on their website here⁠ and on their YouTube channel here. ⁠ Visible Women: Sue mentions the importance of this organisation to her own campaign. Their activities can be followed here. Notable Women: Our guests mention a benefactor, Denise Coates, and the guest of honour at the unveiling, Baroness Hale⁠.Sir -: Want to know exactly what Sue wrote to the Guardian? Read her letter here.Your Next Read: Sue’s novel is available now! Order it here.  Hazel’s Next Project: Please spread the word and, if you can, contribute to the campaign for Hazel’s next site of feminist memory (fingers crossed!): a statue to Ada Nield Chew in Crew. The campaign's website can be found ⁠here⁠.Teaser: Hazel’s statue of Emmeline Pankhurst in Manchester is the focus of our next episode! Listen here.Essential readingWright, Maureen, “A grand day for Congleton: unveiling the statue Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy, Britain’s most radical suffragist”, Women’s History Review, 32(3), 2023, 415–423Wright, Maureen, Elizabeth Wolstenholme-Elmy and the Victorian feminist movement: the biography of an insurgent woman, Manchester University Press, 2011About UsBronze Ceiling is the podcast series of HerStory Maps, a citizen-science project aiming to map the sites of feminist memory everywhere in the world. The current map is ⁠here⁠ but a much more user-friendly and content rich one (including these podcasts, as well as videos, a serious game and maybe even guided audio tours) will be going live in March 2027 (at the latest)!If you would like to get in touch, please email us at: [email protected] InformationDate of recording: 17 June 2025Host: Marc Calvini-LefebvreResearch: Blanche Plaquevent and Marc Calvini-LefebvreEditing: Blanche Plaquevent and Marc Calvini-Lefebvre

Sculptor Christine Charlesworth is back to discuss her statue of Dame Ethel Smyth, composer of the suffragette anthem “The March of the Women”, erected in Woking on International Women’s Day in 2022. She is joined by two other members of “Team Ethel”: Riëtte Thomas, project manager for Woking Borough Council, and Christopher Wiley, Head of Music and Media at the University of Surrey. Useful links about things discussedThe Statue: you can read a brief entry on the statue on our map here. Refresher: Christine’s statue to Emily Wilding Davison was the subject of our very first (and immediately previous) episode. Listen here. Unveiling: the video documenting the festivities on the day of the unveiling is visible here.Masterpieces: As Chris mentions during our discussion, the Retrospect Opera has recorded anew a number of Dame Ethel’s operas. You can find their output here. Local Historian/Hero: Our guests mention the labour of love conducted by local historian Lewis Orchard in compiling information about Dame Ethel and keeping her memory alive in Woking. A sample of his work can be found here. Aphra Behn: Want more information about the sculpture of Aphra Behn that Christine mentions at the end? You can find it here. Essential readingGates, Eugene, "Damned if you do and damned if you don't: sexual aesthetics and the music of Dame Ethel Smyth", Journal of Aesthetic Education, vol. 31, no. 1, 1998, pp.-63-71Wiley, Christopher, "Dame Ethel Smyth", Surrey Cultural Lives, published 9 May 2024Wiley, Christopher, "The statue of Dame Ethel Smyth in Dukes Plaza, Woking" Women’s History Review, 32(3), 2023, pp. 424–434Wiley, Christopher, “Ethel Smyth, suffrage, and Surrey: From Firmley Green to Hook Heath, Woking", Women’s History: The Journal of the Women’s History Network, Special Issue: 1918-2018, Vol.2(11), 2018, pp.11-18Wiley, Christopher, "Music and literature: Ethel Smyth, Virginia Woolf, and the "the first woman to write an opera", The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 96, No. 2 (Summer 2013), pp. 263-95.Wiley, Christopher, "'When a woman speaks the truth about her body': Ethel Smyth, Virginia Woolf, and the challenges of lesbian auto/biography." Music and Letters, vol. 85 no. 3, 2004, p. 388-414⁠About UsBronze Ceiling is the podcast series of HerStory Maps, a citizen-science project aiming to map the sites of feminist memory everywhere in the world. The current map is ⁠here⁠ but a much more user-friendly and content rich one (including these podcasts, as well as videos, a serious game and maybe even guided audio tours) will be going live in March 2027 (at the latest)!If you would like to get in touch, please email us at: [email protected] InformationDate of recording: 22 May 2025Host: Marc Calvini-LefebvreResearch: Blanche Plaquevent and Marc Calvini-LefebvreEditing: Blanche Plaquevent and Marc Calvini-Lefebvre

For our first episode we talk to Christine Charlesworth, the artist commissioned to make a statue to the militant suffragette Emily Wilding Davison in Epsom, home to the famous derby where she tragically lost her life in 1913.Useful links about things discussedThe Statue: you can read a brief entry on the statue on our crowd-sourced map here. Global news: Emily Davison’s tragic passing made the world’s headlines at the time. Black and white newsreels of the accident and of her funeral are visible here and here. Craftswomanship: the videos documenting each stage of Christine’s work are visible on the YouTube channel of the Emily Davison Memorial Project here.Short Straw Theory: Christine mentions at one point that the reason why it was Emily and not another suffragette who went onto the race course was because she had “drawn the short straw”. This is a theory put forward by journalist Cate Balding in her documentary Secrets of a Suffragette, as Marina Warner explains here.Essential readingCrawford, Elizabeth. 2014. “Emily Wilding Davison: Centennial Celebrations.” Women’s History Review 23 (6): 1000–1007 Liddington, Jill & Crawford, Elizabeth. 2011. “Women do not count, neither shall they be counted’: Suffrage, Citizenship and the Battle for the 1911 Census.” History Workshop Journal 71 (1): 98–127Purvis, June. 2013. “Remembering Emily Wilding Davison (1872–1913).” Women’s History Review 22 (3): 353–62About UsBronze Ceiling is the podcast series of HerStory Maps, a citizen-science project aiming to map the sites of feminist memory everywhere in the world. The current map is ⁠here⁠ but a much more user-friendly and content rich one (including these podcasts, as well as videos, a serious game and maybe even guided audio tours) will be going live in March 2027 (at the latest)!If you would like to get in touch, please email us at: [email protected] InformationDate of recording: 14 May 2025Host: Marc Calvini-LefebvreResearch: Blanche Plaquevent and Marc Calvini-LefebvreEditing: Blanche Plaquevent and Marc Calvini-Lefebvre

Wondering what Bronze Ceiling is about? This short trailer explains all (but if you're in a real hurry, the basics are below)Sneak PeakBronze Ceiling is the podcast series of HerStory Maps, a citizen-science project aiming to map the sites of feminist memory everywhere in the world. The current map is ⁠here⁠ but a much more user-friendly and content rich one (including these podcasts, as well as videos, a serious game and maybe even guided audio tours) will be going live in March 2027 (at the latest)!If you would like to get in touch, please email us at: ⁠[email protected]⁠⁠