Risk and Uncertainty
Conceptions of risk and uncertainty are traditionally applied to moments of environmental and economic crisis, both real and imagined. This new History Workshop Online series seeks to understand how ordinary people calculated perceived and real risks and uncertainties in daily life. How have differences of race, class, gender and sexuality shaped experiences of risk and…
What’s In A Surname?
In Britain today, 9 out of 10 women marrying men will change their name on marriage. For History Workshop Online I discussed the history of female name changing after marriage in Britain, arguing that reference to tradition is not necessarily rooted in history.
Violence against wives in medieval and early modern Scotland
Whether it happened behind closed doors or openly in public spaces, violence against women in intimate relationships occurred as much in the past as it does today. But modern terms like ‘domestic abuse’ or ‘intimate partner violence’ do not easily translate across history. Five hundred years ago, violence against women in intimate relationships was primarily seen as physical…
Divorce and women’s rights in Scottish history
For centuries, nothing determined a Scottish woman’s identity more than her marital status. For a woman living in Scotland during the sixteenth century, her legal rights were inextricably connected to her relationship to a man: as a daughter to a father, a wife to a husband, or a widow to a former husband. Whether a…
Women accessing justice in early modern Scotland
When Jonet Pollock brought suit before Glasgow’s commissary court in 1694, she listed a string of accusations and complaints against her ex-partner, William Jamieson. In her complaint, Jonet insisted that William had refused to pay an outstanding debt due to her, despite the fact she had obtained a favourable ruling from the commissary judge four…
Women’s History Network ECR Fellowship 2021/22
I’m really grateful to Women’s History Network for their support and encouragement of my research into women’s access to justice in early modern Scotland. This Fellowship enables me to complete my monograph and other related publications/activities over the next year. Thank you! To read more about the other WHN Fellows, see: https://womenshistorynetwork.org/whn-early-career-fellows-2021-22/
‘Gender and Justice’ symposium – a reflection
On the 6 and 7 May 2021, the ESRC project held a two-day symposium on the theme of gender and justice in Scotland in historical and legal perspective. Day one included three panels – a first on intimate lives, a second on employment opportunities, and a third on seeking justice – that explored women’s rights…
Cohabitation in Scotland: Lessons from history
*First published on the University of Glasgow School of Law Blog on 18 December 2020* Picture: David Allan, The Black Stool (The Stool of Repentance), 1795. National Galleries of Scotland, Accession number: D 4373. Source: https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/8323/black-stool-stool-repentance. Here we can see a young mother weeping while cradling her new-born infant, while her own mother furiously glares…
Women, Marriage and Law in Scotland 