The Discourse

The visibility of women in Scottish memory is not a prominent topic academically nor popularly, but avenues for discussion are slowly beginning to appear. As the EBHP works to expand these discussions, we must highlight those already making waves. Here are some of the project’s biggest influences.

 
 

Mapping Memorials to Women in Scotland (2010)

http://womenofscotland.org.uk/

Managed by Women’s History Scotland, this crowdsourced digital mapping project represents one of the foremost authorities on women’s memorialization in Scotland. Not only did it provide the inspiration for the EBHP, it continues to engage with viewers around the world in its quest for visibility and representation.

Where are the Women? A Guide to an Imagined Scotland by Sara Sheridan (2019)

http://www.sarasheridan.com/books/historical-fiction/

Together with Historic Environment Scotland, author Sara Sheridan shapes an imagined atlas where streets, buildings, statues and monuments are dedicated to real women, telling their often untold or unknown stories. Although a work of fiction, Sheridan’s well-researched guidebook represents a crucial step toward the visibility of women in Scottish history and heritage. After all, “If we cannot imagine it, how can we build it?”

The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women edited by Elizabeth Ewan, Rose Pipes, Jane Rendall, and Sian Reynolds (1st edition 2006, 2nd edition 2018)

https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-new-biographical-dictionary-of-scottish-women.html

Together, this all-female team of scholars compiles an extensive collection of short biographies on some of the foremost — and forgotten — women in Scottish history. Their collection represents a striking inquest into the nature of female contribution and asserts that women’s actions and influence have always helped to shape the nation despite dominant depictions to the contrary. The second edition expands the collection to over 180 women from all manner of backgrounds, professions, and accomplishments.

WISH: Women in Scottish History Database (2000-2016)

https://womeninscottishhistory.org/wish-database/

Developed by Elizabeth Ewan and the University of Guelph in Ontario, WISH is a database of primary documents, a searchable bibliography of primary and secondary books and articles, a list of researchers in the field, and brief biographies of women not included in The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women (2006). It is unclear whether the database is being maintained, particularly with the 2018 publication of The New Biographical Dictionary but even as it stands it is a valuable collection of women’s history documents pertaining to Scotland.

Damn Rebel Bitches: The Women of the ‘45 by Maggie Craig (2000)

http://www.maggiecraig.co.uk/non-fiction/damn-rebel-bitches/

Author Maggie Craig compiles the first definitive account of female involvement in the Jacobite Rising of 1745. An often overlooked aspect of a renown historical subject, Craig’s work stands not only as a tribute to these unsung Scottish heroines, but also as a reminder of the social conditions of the 18th century — and the 21st — that solidified their collective legacy.

“Where are the statues of Scots women?” by Dani Garavelli (2016)

https://www.scotsman.com/news-2-15012/where-are-the-statues-of-scots-women-1-4009631

Dani Garavelli uses her platform as a writer for prominent newspaper The Scotsman to highlight the lack of statuary to women in Edinburgh. Her examples are timely and striking, and interviews with local women underscore both the pervasiveness of representational issues and their impact on the female spirit.

“More Statues of Women Will Not Recast the Men in Bronze” by Cat Boyd (2018)

https://www.thenational.scot/news/16082018.more-statues-of-women-will-not-recast-the-men-in-bronze/

Journalist Cat Boyd, writer for the independent newspaper The National, offers her thoughts on the underrepresentation of women in Scottish public art. Not only does she corroborate what contemporaries like Catherine Criado-Perez point out in terms of numbers, but she uses her piece to delve deeper into the power dynamic of masculinity and authority in public spaces. As her title reveals, the goal is not to completely overturn male hegemony in one fell swoop but more so to challenge manifestations of British imperial politics, upper class dominion, and female silence in the built environment and reinforce the idea that even just one statue of a woman, like that of Mary Barbour in Glasgow, can represent a powerful force for change.

Mapping Scotland’s Witches (2019)

https://witches.is.ed.ac.uk/

This brand new project by the University of Edinburgh highlights the potential for data science through the analysis of real-world data sets. The team utilized the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft Database to geolocate and plot the residences, detention locations, trial locations, and death locations for 3,141 Scots accused of witchcraft. They also created Wikidata pages for each witch to help expand the narrative and provide more details on the witchcraft paranoia that swept Scotland in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Non-Scottish Attention

© Carys O’Neill, 2019