Bluestocking Week
NUS says “Our blue stockings are on the line”
Our blue stockings are on the line is the theme of the National Union of Students’ Bluestocking Week 2013 celebrated this week 29 April – 3 May.
Events are organised across some campuses, but organisation of BSW has been hampered as NUS has mobilised their limited resources to campaign against the latest $2.3 billion higher education funding cuts announced by the federal government on 13 April. NTEU members are urged to support students on their campuses organising bluestocking week events by congratulating the organisers, promoting events and participating where possible.
NTEU will be running Bluestocking Week later this year – 12- 16 August. Reviving BSW was such a success last year, everyone was keen to keep it going. While we have much to celebrate we still have much to do for women’s equality and gender equity in (higher) education and research.
Due to the demands on NUS organising around the federal election later this year, NUS decided to go earlier this year, while NTEU is keen to consolidate the week in (wintery) August. So just for 2013 we have a BSW in both semester 1 and semester 2!
Organisation for NTEU’s semester 2 Bluestocking Week will begin soon. Watch this space www.nteu.org.au/women/bluestockingweek and contact your local NTEU Branch. If you have a good idea or suggested activity, please also contact your branch, your NTEU Women’s Action Committee (WAC) representatives through your Division office or NTEU National President Jeannie Rea on jrea@nteu.org.au
This website details Bluestocking Week events across the country, as well as provided some history on the traditions of Bluestocking women. It also has links to other resources focusing on the themes of women’s intellectualism, advancing feminism through education and rebelling against social constructs that prescribe roles for women and restrict women’s the freedom of expression and thought.
For further information on Bluestocking Week activities and events please contact NTEU National Office on 03 9254 1910 or email Policy and Research Officer, Terri MacDonald at tmacdonald@nteu.org.au. Information on NUS's Bluestocking week activities for 2013 can be found here
Here are some Links to different online resources related to Bluestocking week's roots, themes and activities:
National Union of Students (NUS) - Bluestocking Week website and blog page
To see what NUS organised celebrations and events are happening around the country, please see the NUS Bluestocking week website for updates.
International Women's Day: Blue Stockings, Babies and Bank accounts (Prof Marian Baird, USyd)
Marian Baird is a Professor of Employment Relations in the University of Sydney Business School and Director of the Women and Work Research Group. Please find the link to her presentation "International Women's Day: Blue Stockings, Babies and Bank accounts" (via the University of Sydney's website) that was delivered in recognition of this year's International Women's Day, in an event organised by the Staff and Student Equal Opportunity Unit.
Click here for a video link to Professor Baird's speech.
Bluestockings, women geniuses, and (old) gossip about Amanda Foreman
A blog article from the Georgiana Circle: Women Healing History website that has an excerpt from a Times on Line (UK) article (2009), concerning the media (and society’s) reaction to a modern day ‘bluestocking’, Doctoral student, Miss Gail Timble - who at the time, was deemed the “cleverest contestant on University Challenge” show, but who was beseiged by negative media obsessed with her sense of dress and looks. The article then goes on to discuss what it sees as the UK’s fear of intelligent women, and the role of media in sexually objectify them.
Reinventing the Feminine - Bluestocking history and resources
This is a Bluestocking orientated website by Masters student Katelyn Ludwig, detailing her research on the 18th century British literary salon, and the Bluestocking women writers who assisted in exposing the empowering possibilities of authorship. The website has a number of resources and links which examine the context for the social salon's development in 18th century London, the major players in the literary revolution, and examples of written works that sustained the movement from 1750 to 1790. By exploring the lives and works of Bluestocking women writers, this website provides a thorough approach to understanding the power of the cultural and social revolution.
Blue-stocking.org.uk I online journal
Drawing from the traditions of the original Bluestocking women, Blue-stocking.org.au is an online journal that investigates the intellectual and artistic achievements of women throughout history. It aims to publish insightful articles about the work of female thinkers of the past and present, raising the profile of women as major actors in the history of ideas. Bluestocking is edited and managed by Oxford students.
