The IET Archives are excited to announce a WRoCAH funded Collaborative Doctoral Award project with the University of Leeds - Connecting suffragettes, technology and society: Caroline Haslett’s international correspondence network. This is open to UK and international applicants to study on a full-time or part-time basis.
If you are a student with a background in the history of science and/or technology, women’s history, gender history, social history, or international history, this could be the project for you. The deadline for applications is 12 noon (UK time) on Wednesday 5th March 2025.
Project summary
One-time suffragette Dame Caroline Haslett (1895-1957) was arguably the most transformative woman of 20th Century Britain outside parliament. While her international work in promoting women’s roles in engineering and industry is documented in 10,000+ surviving letters, there is as yet no systematic map of Haslett’s global networking. This PhD project is an opportunity to form a richer picture of both the overlapping women’s organisations that Haslett led, and the international networking for women enabled by funding from the Caroline Haslett Memorial Trust.
PhD Project description
This project explores the extensive correspondence to, from and about Dame Caroline Haslett. An estimated 10,000+ items are held in the Archives of the Institution of Engineering & Technology plus collections in the National Archives & LSE, home of the Women’s Library. There may be additional international collections yet to be traced. Haslett’s correspondence remains little studied beyond enquiries on her key role as first Secretary of the Women’s Engineering Society (founded 1919) & first Director of the Electrical Association for Women (founded 1924). Initial archival surveys reveal a richer international picture of Haslett's support for women's initiatives in energy and business across Africa, Australasia, North America, Southern Asia and beyond. Although interwar and post-war Britain are sometimes seen as retrogressive for women’s rights and opportunities, Haslett’s editing of 'The Woman Engineer' from 1919 and 'The Electrical Age for Women' from 1926 illustrate how women’s agency did quietly help to accomplish considerable enduring technological feats, e.g. the BS 1363 three-pin safety plug (1947). Such stories of women’s role in building a human-centred post-war material world are vital to complement stories of women’s international peace and suffrage movements: this project could provide a study of national-international networks of women in the same period for both engineering and business.
For more information on financial support and how to apply, please visit the WRoCAH website. You can also contact the collaborative partners:
Centre for History & Philosophy of Science, School of Philosophy, Religion & History of Science, University of Leeds
Contact: Graeme Gooday: email g.j.n.gooday@leeds.ac.uk
IET Archives
Contact: Anne Locker: email alocker@theiet.org