Students celebrate reforming Victorian ladies in Women of Winchester exhibition

Event Management students from the University of Winchester (@_UoW) are preparing a special exhibition to highlight the work of some remarkable Victorians to mark International Women’s Day (IWD).

The team from the first year ‘Introduction to Event Operations’ module with their lecturers Marie Haverly and Matt Bunday have been researching the lives and achievements of six ‘Women of Winchester’ whose impact can still be felt in today’s society.

The project has challenged the students to put some of their newly learned skills into practice in the real world.

The result of their work will be a pop-up poster exhibition at the University’s West Downs Centre on March 7, the eve of IWD.

Visitors to the exhibition will learn about:

• Laura Ridding: daughter of the first Earl of Selborne and wife of George Ridding, the headmaster of Winchester College, who founded the National Union of Women Workers
• Josephine Butler: feminist, campaigner for women’s suffrage and abolition of child prostitution
• Ellen Joyce: organiser of women’s emigration, founder of British Women’s Emigration Association
• Charlotte Moberley: academic, first principal of St Hugh’s College Oxford and self-confessed ‘time traveller’
• Charlotte Yonge: a novelist, whose many books promoted the church and showed her interests in philanthropy and women’s education
• Mary Sumner, a rector’s wife from Alresford, who founded the Mothers Union

The students’ research has involved a history walk around Winchester, delving into historical articles and sources, and meeting with the founders of the Women of Winchester project Dr Ellie Simpson and Dr Catherine Holloway and Dr Sue Anderson-Faithful from the University’s Cluster for the History of Women’s Education.

Marie Haverly,  Programme leader for the BA (Hons) Event Management, said:

“It is great for the students to be able to put on such an interesting event for this module that allows them to be part of a wider and more elaborate project around the university. 

“This will be the first practical live event that our Level 4 students have undertaken, and they are already getting excited.”

The exhibition will be on view in the foyer at the West Downs Centre between 1pm and 3pm on Thursday, 7 March. 

• To find out more about University of Winchester events marking IWD visit International Women’s Day – University of Winchester