Electric Dreams - a Festival of Womanpower
CELEBRATING WOMEN'S ROLE IN ENERGY
You are invited to take part in Electric Dreams, a 2024 festival of womanpower to mark the centenary of the Electrical Association for Women (EAW), founded on 12 November 1924.
Our aims are:
You are invited to take part in Electric Dreams, a 2024 festival of womanpower to mark the centenary of the Electrical Association for Women (EAW), founded on 12 November 1924.
Our aims are:
- To enlighten participants about energy generation and use
- To highlight women’s pioneering role in the electricity industry
- To spread awareness of the climate crisis and the measures needed to reduce its impact
- To celebrate and inspire the women shaping our futures
Electric Dreams Festival, 2024
Taking place throughout 2024, this festival will include events across a number of UK locations.
Taking place throughout 2024, this festival will include events across a number of UK locations.
- 26 November 2024: Glasgow Museums Kelvinhall Weekday Wonders series: Talk by Nina Baker: "Scotswomen in an Electrically-minded Country: the Electrical Association for Women in Glasgow"
- 19 November 2024: Helensburgh Parish Church Link Group: Talk by Nina Baker: "Scotswomen in an Electrically-minded Country: the Electrical Association for Women in Helensburgh"
- 19 October until 16 November: The Stradling Collection, Bristol, Electricity: Emancipating Women The All Electric House will be the focus of the Bristol event with a small exhibition taking place at the Stradling Collection to showcase the All Electric House, the appliances, and the Bauhaus-inspired furniture it contained, designed by Crofton Gane. Exhibition starts on 16 October.
- 16 November: The Common Room, Newcastle - here we will run an outreach event in collaboration with the Common Room aimed at families, which will include some theatricals! Come along and take part in the first meeting of the Electrical Association for Women, and learn more about careers in the energy sector.
- 12 November: London We will host a conference in collaboration with the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) to discuss the past, present and future of the EAW and current day issues related to renewable energy, and the role of women.
- 12 November 2024, 7pm: Wakefield Historical Society, West Yorkshire Archives History Centre, 127 Kirkgate, Wakefield, WF1 1JG https://experiencewakefield.co.uk/venue/west-yorkshire-history-centre/
Katie Carpenter & Graeme Gooday: ‘From Lucy Hanson to Mabel Matthews A.I.E.E., or: how a Wakefield-born woman helped electrify Britain.’ - 4 November: RSA, London, Women in Industry and Innovation
An evening of celebration for Dame Caroline Haslett FRSA, one of 50 Fellows of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce recently selected for celebration of the Society's 270th anniversary. - 24 October 2024: Prior’s Hall, Hexham Abbey, Northumberland. Henrietta Heald will speak to members of Tynedale u3a about her book Magnificent Women and Their Revolutionary Machines, which covers the early years of the Electrical Association for Women, and Magician of the North, her biography of William Armstrong, who built the first house in the world lit by hydroelectricity.
Throughout November and December: Around the Country: the erection of temporary or permanent blue plaques to commemorate and celebrate the work of the individuals who made the Women's Engineering Society and the Electrical Association for Women, a reality. See the list of women we are celebrating here. - 30 September - postponed: Monmouth - learn more about prominent local resident Lady Eleanor Shelley-Rolls and her involvement with EAW, and the amazing work she did to promote the use of electricity. School outreach activities and local exhibition planned.
- 18 September: Offley Village Hall, Hertfordshire Dawn Bonfield speaking to the Women's Institute on the History and Legacy of the Electrical Association for Women
- 17 September: Tiffin Girls' School, Richmond
EAW: The Play recreation, and careers outreach activity for sixth form physics students - 12 September: Central Library, Bristol Talk by Fiona Gleed 'Electric Dreams 2024 - Electrical Networks Then and Now'. This talk is in conjunction with WES, The Open University and Bristol Library Service
- 12 September: WES Heritage Open Day Event Talk by Nina baker and Eleanor Peters: "Scotswomen in an Electrically-minded Country: the work of the Electrical Association for Women"
- 9 September 2024: Pontefract Civic Society, Pontefract Town Hall
Katie Carpenter & Graeme Gooday: ‘Electrifying Change: Mabel Matthews and the Electrical Association for Women in the West Riding’ - 6 September: Royal Holloway, Women's History Network Annual Conference Henrietta Heald: Electric Dreams: Pioneering Women in the Energy Industry and Their Legacy; Nina Baker: From the waterfall to the washer: how the women of Scotland took on electrification; Lucy Wood: Energy users or energy managers? Women, technology and domestic energy transition in Britain and Ireland, 1890s – 1930s; Eleanor Peters: ‘She’s One of Us!' Post-War Women Demonstrators at the North of Scotland HydroElectric Board
- 26 June 2024: Women in STEM Wikithon Tickets, Wed 26 Jun 2024 at 14:00 | Eventbrite
- 19 July 2024: Inverclyde Heritage Network Talk by Nina Baker: "Scotswomen in an Electrically-minded Country: the Electrical Association for Women in Inverclyde"
- 14 March 2024: National Library of Scotland: talk by Nina baker and Eleanor Peters: "Scotswomen in an Electrically-minded Country: the work of the Electrical Association for Women"
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The year long celebrations include aspirations to work on three different strands of activity: History/heritage; outreach/communication/public engagement; campaign/action.
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History and Heritage
EAW has a long and rich history and has been a pivotal organisation for social change, supporting women to 'escape the drudgery' (in the words of Caroline Haslett) of everyday domestic tasks and allow them time and space to enter the workforce, become independent, and follow their dreams. We would like to explore this history, bringing to light the stories of the organisation, and use them to inspire the next generation of engineers and empowered women. We would also like to digitise the publication that the organisation produced for many years, called The Electric Age, to enable it to be accessible to research scholars and others interested in this period of history. |
Outreach/Communication/Public Engagement
This strand of activity will bring the stories that we uncover about EAW to the public in an accessible way, and allow us to engage with the general popluation on the issues that matter today, related to the use of energy. We will create a new set of teatowels - mirroring the communication method of the past - to illuminate the key messages around renewable energy and sustainability, and we will do this with a view to encouraging more young people and young women in particular to consider careers in engineering and the energy sector. We will engage with museums, to get our stories to the public in an engaging way. We will create theatre and participatory experiences. And we are hoping to encourage the erection of up to 10 new Blue Plaques to commemorate the work of the women of WES and EAW. |
Campaign/Action
Here we will look at what we imagine the EAW would focus their attention on today, and update the conversation accordingly. Renewable energy; the cost of energy and of data storage; the choice and use of home appliances; the repairability of appliances; the skills shortage...these are issues that we will get involved in, and will work with collaborators to devise campaigns, surveys, or activities that bring these issues to life. |
The Electric Dreams Team
Biographies:
Dawn Bonfield is Professor of Practice in Engineering for Sustainable Development at King's College London working with young engineers to address the Sustainable Development Goals. She has been Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor of Inclusive Engineering at Aston University since 2017, and is the Founder & Director of Towards Vision, a not-for-profit which works towards a vision of diversity and inclusion in engineering. She is President of the Commonwealth Engineers’ Council and is Past President and former Chief Executive of the Women's Engineering Society (WES). Dawn is Deputy Chair of the Women in Engineering Committee of the World Federation of Engineering Organisations working on the application of engineering and technology to address gender inequality globally. She is founder of the social enterprise ‘Magnificent Women’ which celebrates the history of women in engineering, and she was the founder of International Women in Engineering Day (INWED) which takes place on 23 June annually.
Dr Katie Carpenter is Lecturer in Public History in the School of History at the University of Leeds. She received her PhD in History from Royal Holloway, University of London in 2019. Katie’s thesis examined the middle-class kitchen and its material culture from c. 1870 to 1914 in Britain, to explore how housewives encountered science and technology through daily tasks such as cooking and cleaning. From 2019 to 2020, Katie was a Creative Economy Engagement Fellow placed in the Parliamentary Archives, where she developed a portfolio of public-facing work including blogs, videos, exhibitions and social media, primarily on early nineteenth-century radicalism. She is currently working on a number of public engagement projects about women and the history of science, technology and medicine.
Helen Close is a Women’s Historian and Heritage Manager for the Women’s Engineering Society. She has worked on numerous heritage, museum and education projects over the last 30 years. Helen is passionate about discovering and sharing the stories of women lost in the historical record. She has as a degree in history, and Masters’ degrees in both Women’s History and Heritage Management
Graeme Gooday is Professor of the History of Science and Technology at the University of Leeds, having been educated in Natural Sciences at Cambridge and a PhD from the University of Kent. He has won international and national prizes for both educational work and his research, and is the author of several books including The Morals of Measurement (CUP, 2004), Domesticating Electricity (Pickering & Chatto 2008), Patently Contestable (2013). From 2014-2019 he was Head of the School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science at the University of Leeds. His recent work has been on the history of women in engineering, and from 2019-20 led the AHRC-funded project Electrifying Women: Understanding the Long History of Women in Engineering to commemorate the Women’s Engineering Society centenary. Recently he has been supporting University of Leeds students to write blogposts for the I.E.T. Archives on the E.A.W.’s journal The Electrical Age for Women
Henrietta Heald is a writer and historian who campaigns for women in engineering. She is the author of Magnificent Women and Their Revolutionary Machines, a centenary history of the Women’s Engineering Society – the organisation from which came, in 1924, the Electrical Association for Women (EAW). Henrietta’s other books include Magician of the North, a biography of the Victorian engineer and inventor William Armstrong, who built Cragside in Northumberland, the first house in the world to be lit by hydroelectricity.
Anne Locker is the Library and Archives Manager at the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). She has worked with engineering archives for over 25 years, and has written on the history of engineering and technology and the history of women in engineering. She has been a volunteer editor for the Dictionary of National Biography and has organised a series of Wikipedia events to improve online information on women in STEM.
Dr Eleanor Peters is a historian investigating the intersection between gender, technology, and science. She is especially interested in researching women’s roles as mediators of science and technology. Eleanor received an Elphinstone Scholarship from the University of Aberdeen and is published in Notes and Records: The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science, Women’s History Review, and the Journal of Scottish Historical Studies. In addition to working on the Electric Dreams project, Eleanor is the current Vice Convener of Women's History Scotland. This organisation exists to promote study and research in women’s and gender history, particularly for those working in Scotland or working on Scottish themes.
- Dawn Bonfield
- Katie Carpenter
- Helen Close
- Graeme Gooday
- Henrietta Heald
- Anne Locker
- Eleanor Peters
- Jan Peters
Biographies:
Dawn Bonfield is Professor of Practice in Engineering for Sustainable Development at King's College London working with young engineers to address the Sustainable Development Goals. She has been Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor of Inclusive Engineering at Aston University since 2017, and is the Founder & Director of Towards Vision, a not-for-profit which works towards a vision of diversity and inclusion in engineering. She is President of the Commonwealth Engineers’ Council and is Past President and former Chief Executive of the Women's Engineering Society (WES). Dawn is Deputy Chair of the Women in Engineering Committee of the World Federation of Engineering Organisations working on the application of engineering and technology to address gender inequality globally. She is founder of the social enterprise ‘Magnificent Women’ which celebrates the history of women in engineering, and she was the founder of International Women in Engineering Day (INWED) which takes place on 23 June annually.
Dr Katie Carpenter is Lecturer in Public History in the School of History at the University of Leeds. She received her PhD in History from Royal Holloway, University of London in 2019. Katie’s thesis examined the middle-class kitchen and its material culture from c. 1870 to 1914 in Britain, to explore how housewives encountered science and technology through daily tasks such as cooking and cleaning. From 2019 to 2020, Katie was a Creative Economy Engagement Fellow placed in the Parliamentary Archives, where she developed a portfolio of public-facing work including blogs, videos, exhibitions and social media, primarily on early nineteenth-century radicalism. She is currently working on a number of public engagement projects about women and the history of science, technology and medicine.
Helen Close is a Women’s Historian and Heritage Manager for the Women’s Engineering Society. She has worked on numerous heritage, museum and education projects over the last 30 years. Helen is passionate about discovering and sharing the stories of women lost in the historical record. She has as a degree in history, and Masters’ degrees in both Women’s History and Heritage Management
Graeme Gooday is Professor of the History of Science and Technology at the University of Leeds, having been educated in Natural Sciences at Cambridge and a PhD from the University of Kent. He has won international and national prizes for both educational work and his research, and is the author of several books including The Morals of Measurement (CUP, 2004), Domesticating Electricity (Pickering & Chatto 2008), Patently Contestable (2013). From 2014-2019 he was Head of the School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science at the University of Leeds. His recent work has been on the history of women in engineering, and from 2019-20 led the AHRC-funded project Electrifying Women: Understanding the Long History of Women in Engineering to commemorate the Women’s Engineering Society centenary. Recently he has been supporting University of Leeds students to write blogposts for the I.E.T. Archives on the E.A.W.’s journal The Electrical Age for Women
Henrietta Heald is a writer and historian who campaigns for women in engineering. She is the author of Magnificent Women and Their Revolutionary Machines, a centenary history of the Women’s Engineering Society – the organisation from which came, in 1924, the Electrical Association for Women (EAW). Henrietta’s other books include Magician of the North, a biography of the Victorian engineer and inventor William Armstrong, who built Cragside in Northumberland, the first house in the world to be lit by hydroelectricity.
Anne Locker is the Library and Archives Manager at the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). She has worked with engineering archives for over 25 years, and has written on the history of engineering and technology and the history of women in engineering. She has been a volunteer editor for the Dictionary of National Biography and has organised a series of Wikipedia events to improve online information on women in STEM.
Dr Eleanor Peters is a historian investigating the intersection between gender, technology, and science. She is especially interested in researching women’s roles as mediators of science and technology. Eleanor received an Elphinstone Scholarship from the University of Aberdeen and is published in Notes and Records: The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science, Women’s History Review, and the Journal of Scottish Historical Studies. In addition to working on the Electric Dreams project, Eleanor is the current Vice Convener of Women's History Scotland. This organisation exists to promote study and research in women’s and gender history, particularly for those working in Scotland or working on Scottish themes.
Get involved – together we can shape the future!
For further details contact Henrietta Heald at [email protected] or Dawn Bonfield at dawnbonfield (at) btinternet.com
For further details contact Henrietta Heald at [email protected] or Dawn Bonfield at dawnbonfield (at) btinternet.com
Electric Dreams Partners
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