Miriam E. David
I arrived in Bristol in the late summer of 1973, as a Lecturer in Social Administration at the University. Hilary Land had advocated strongly for me. I had met her as a researcher at London School of Economics (LSE) when we were both in the Social Admin department in 1968-9. As I had spent the previous academic year (1972-3) in Cambridge, Mass at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, returning to the UK to Bristol rather than London felt very strange.
Up til then I had been a researcher in various colleges/research institutes of the University of London, from 1966 – 1972, followed by that difficult year as a researcher at the elite and snobbish Harvard Ed School. I had thrown myself into the women’s liberation movement (WLM) in London, arriving there from Leeds University. I was in the Belsize Park group, and we wrote an early issue of Shrew. We joined the first demo in March 1971. It was very difficult in Cambridge, Mass as the WLM was very hard to find! Eventually I found a Jewish-feminist group where I met lots of lovely feminist women, most especially Nira Yuval-Davis. The time it took though meant I was rather cautious about Bristol.
My experience in Bristol was the exact opposite. The WLM was on the move and there were lots of ‘town and gown’ activities. Ellen Malos had set up the Women’s Centre in her house basement in the locality and it was very politically vibrant. She had been a doctoral student at the university, and taught courses in women’s studies. At the university, Hilary and I joined forces with Jackie West who was the first female and youngest member of the Sociology Department. We planned an inaugural undergraduate feminist course called Family & Social Policy. It went into effect in 1975. We all got deeply involved in presenting extra-mural courses in women’s studies not only in the city but in the region. We often went to Gloucester or Cheltenham on a Sunday afternoon to draw women into the women’s movement through learning.
In 1975, Helen Weinreich-Haste invited several activist feminist academics from the local universities, including Bath, where she worked as a lecturer in psychology, to a meeting in her house. It was to discuss whether there was any potential to develop a reader in women’s studies. We were all a bit apprehensive. Helen Taylor, teaching literature at Bristol poly, was bold. She knew people at Virago. We started meeting regularly and Ursula Owen came to discuss the prospect with us. Initially we had been seven women: myself, Ellen Malos, Marilyn Porter (a mature sociology doctoral student), Suzy Skevington (teaching psychology at Bath), Helen Taylor, Helen W-H and Jackie West. Liz Bird joined us in 1976, having been appointed to the University Extra-Mural Dept. She gave the group added impetus, as did Linda Ward (my PhD student in the history of birth control) when she joined us.
By 1977-8, the idea had crystallized into a plan, with us all choosing chapters to work on with others: we always worked at least in pairs and not in larger groupings. Most of our meetings eventually took place in Marilyn’s home overlooking the Suspension Bridge. We argued about our name and wanted to be Matrix, or some other acronym. Virago insisted on us being the Bristol Women’s Studies Group (BWSG). The name was a misnomer because there were as many of us teachers outside the group as within it. But Virago had the last word. We also included in many of our meetings, Sarah Braun, who was our illustrator. We became 10. We quickly settled on the old Chinese phrase ‘Women Hold Up Half the Sky’ for the title. Virago was happy with calling the book Half The Sky: an introduction to women’s studies.
The book was published in both hardback and paperback in 1979, to popular feminist acclaim. It was reprinted in 1984 and remained in print until well into the 21st century. We were a strong friendship group for many years, although several of us moved away from Bristol in the 1980s and 1990s. We stayed in touch and had decennial parties with a cake with the book cover as icing. Initially we met at Helen Taylor’s home in the docklands, later at Liz Bird’s home in Backwell.
Five of the authors on publication day in 1979
Original group of ten twenty years after publication, 1999
Five of the authors on publication day in 1979
In the late second decade of the 21st century, our group literally began to fall apart. At our 40th anniversary party at Liz’ home in May 2019, it was clear that Sarah was seriously ill. She did not survive very long and passed away on 8 November 2019 a month or so before her 80th birthday. She was deeply missed not only by her loving family but by her many feminist friends.
In March 2020, Helen Taylor started editing an online Journal of the Plague Year, to emulate the journal edited by Daniel Defoe in the eighteenth century. Many of us from Half The Sky contributed stories, with Liz Bird contributing a weekly diary and her drawings. It was a complete shock for many of us to learn after her death on 11 October 2021 that she had been diagnosed with lung cancer not six months before. She had been cared for and supported in those months by her close friends in Bristol. She was just 76 when she passed away (21 September 1945 to 11 October 2021). Liz’s manifold contributions to WLM were celebrated at a memorial event held by the University in March 2022.
In 2023 we learnt of two more deaths. First, Jackie West passed away the day before her 75th birthday in July 2023. This was also completely unexpected. She died of an aneurysm. She too was a caring and loving feminist, and inaugurator of feminist work within the university as well as activism outside, e.g. the Working Women’s Charter. Second, Ellen Malos passed away about a month later in August 2023, aged 86. Ellen was the mother of the women’s movement in Bristol. She was born in Australia in 1937 and was always womanly wise before her years. She was involved in a myriad of socialist and feminist projects and activities in and around the University.
It feels as if Half The Sky is now just a quarter of the sky. We have lost 4 vibrant women and with only 6 left, with some in poor health, is our feminist project fading? We sincerely hope not and that we put women’s studies on the map in the UK.
Obituaries of Ellen Malos, Liz Bird and Jackie West who are mentioned in this piece can be found in the obituary section of the HOWL website.