Dr Valerie Wright

Contact Details

v.wright@dundee.ac.uk

Tel: + 44 (0)1382 384371

Profile

Current

I am a Post-Doctoral Research Assistant on the Leverhulme funded project 'Jute & Dundee: The management of industrial decline', which began in October 2008. The principal researchers, Dr Carlo Morelli and Professor Jim Tomlinson are based in Economic Studies and History in the Schools of Social Science and Humanities respectively. The central objective of this study is to use the case of jute and Dundee to advance understanding of the political economy of Britain in the period of the post-war 'golden age', and its aftermath in the recessionary years of the mid-1970s and 1980s. Objectives include providing an analysis of the dynamics of decision-making relating to the jute industry, which involves considering the forces making for decline, the role of trade unions and workers, and the part, if any, played by 'entrepreneurial failure'. This project will also involve analysing and challenging the context of wider debates about Britain's industrial 'decline' and considering the forces shaping the governmental response to decline.

Previous

My PhD thesis, completed in 2008 in the Department of Economic and Social History at the University of Glasgow, is entitled 'Women's Organisations and Feminism in Interwar Scotland'. The Economic and Social Research Council provided funding for this research, under its 1+3 scheme. This thesis was supervised by Professor Eleanor Gordon and Dr Annmarie Hughes.

I received an MPhil in Social History in 2004, from the University of Glasgow and the University of Strathclyde, and an M.A. (Hons) in Economic and Social History and Geography Joint, from the University of Glasgow. I was also a graduate teaching assistant from 2004-2008 in the Department of Economic and Social History, University of Glasgow, on its Level One and Two Courses

Research Interests

The research completed for my PhD contributes to the growing historiography which questions the theory that feminism was diminished in the interwar years following the partial enfranchisement of women in 1918. It highlights that a diverse range of women's organisations were thriving in interwar Scotland. This includes the outwardly feminist Glasgow Society for Equal Citizenship (GSEC) and Edinburgh Women Citizens Association (EWCA); the Scottish Cooperative Women's Guild (the Guild), which was a largely based in urban working-class areas; and finally the Scottish Women's Rural Institutes (the Rurals), which provides a rural comparison. This thesis builds upon recent studies of women's political experiences in interwar Scotland, and contributes to the wider historiography of interwar feminism. It also places women's political experience in this period within the broader Scottish historiography, thereby including women in accounts of interwar political culture, as well as challenging the neglect of women in the historiography relating to interwar Scotland.

Therefore, my research interests largely focus upon women's historical involvement in politics. My PhD research allowed me to consider the ways in which women became involved in politics in a broad sense, which includes an examination of women's roles in local politics through campaigns for welfare improvements and professional equality. I have also explored the extent to which such activities could be termed feminist. This involves a consideration of how feminism was defined.

In the future I would like to pursue these interests further, by considering women's involvement in broadly defined forms of politics in post 1945 period, focusing in particular on women's role in shaping debates concerning housing conditions. I am also interested in the development of new employment opportunities for women in Scotland in the post war years.

Publications

V. Wright '"Education for Active Citizenship": Women's Organisations in interwar Scotland', History of Education, Vol. 38 No. 3, 2009 (forthcoming).