Women's History and Oral History

While traditional historical sources have neglected women's lives, feminist historians have been working to embrace oral history as a valuable tool for uncovering their experiences. Oral history offers a means of "integrating women into historical scholarship, even contesting the reigning definitions of social, economic and political importance that obscured women's lives." (Sangster, 1998:87). The opportunities to locate women's voices more centrally enables us to provide a rich source of historical evidence by incorporating the lived experiences of those who have lived through particular periods in recent history - for example, memories of living through the Second World War, or migrating to Britain in the 1950s.

These can generate new understandings of the ways in which gender plays a part of those experiences. For instance, what kinds of work did women take on during the Second World War, often while looking after their families too, while husbands and fathers were away fighting? How did black women experience migration and settling into life in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s?

Consider these questions again after listening to the clips below:

	mb21, ID 8	Ariving in the U.K.
	ch06, ID 26	Views on marriage
	gk07, ID 3	Girls' education and freedom
	ch06, ID 23	Career, aspirations and work
	mb21, ID 11	Disagreement with Emplyer
	gk07, ID 21	Raising issues concerning Asian women