Fertility and Maternity, Then and Now

Institute of Historical Research ‘Conversations and Disputations’ Seminar

February 10th, 5.30 pm

In 1915, Margaret Lleyelwn Davies published 5181mxqwjTL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_, a compilation of letters by members of the Women’s Co-operative Guild. They made for a vivid and poignant portrait of pregnancy and pre-natal care, abortion and death, exhaustion and self-sacrifice in industrial Britain. Davies was encouraged by Virginia Woolf: “Do publish these letters…. they are so amazing.” In the near hundred years since, scholars of various stripes have explored women’s experiences of fertility and maternity. They have focused especially on the event of birth and on the ideology of motherhood. This roundtable brings together analysts of past and present to discuss research on fertility and maternity in the expansive sense identified by Davies and her compatriots.

Venue: Holden Room (room 103), Senate House, London WC1

Speakers: Angela Davis (Warwick), Sarah Franklin (Cambridge), Sarah Knott (Indiana).

All welcome. For more info, email b.g.taylor@qmul.ac.uk

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