Blog
Uncertain times: has it always been this way?
Uncertain times: has it always been this way? A historian shows how ordinary people across centuries endured upheaval and what that means for us now. It is a truism in our moment in history that we live in an age of uncertainty. In a world driven by complex and varied interactions, using new technologies, and…
Blended families and childcare in early modern Scotland
The nuclear family – consisting of two parents married to each other with biological children – has been privileged for the past century as the normative ordering of society and the upholder of ‘traditional family values’. Men and women who joined together in marriage to start a family were favored by law and society, while…
The Strike that Made Me
The Strike that Made Me This article was first published in History Workshop Magazine. Growing up in West Belfast in the 1990s, I was surrounded by the legacy of a particular strike that left an indelible mark on my community: the 1981 hunger strike. The 1981 hunger strike was the result of the British Government’s…
Young women are fearful about a regression in their human rights
Across the world, young women’s human rights are facing unprecedented growing threats, from higher levels of discrimination to weaker legal protections, and less funding for programmes and organisations that support them. The Status of Young Women in Scotland 2024-25: Gender Justice and Young Women’s Human Rights report shines a light on young women’s feelings around their human rights…
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/
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Dr Rebecca Mason 