Dr Paula Bartley
Dr Paula Bartley, Honorary Research Fellow, 果冻传媒.
I have written widely on women鈥檚 history.
I have won a number of awards, for example in 2014 I won the Elizabeth Longford research award to help my research on Ellen Wilkinson. In 2016 I won a Society of Authors鈥� Award and a grant from Vassar College, New York for my research on Labour Women.
I have been interviewed by Women鈥檚 Hour, Radio 4, Birmingham radio, the Foreign Pres Association, Australian radio, Mexican tv about my research. In March 2014 I was key-note speaker at the International Women鈥檚 Day event at the House of Commons. This can be viewed on parliamentary youtube: The Mighty Atom.In March 2016 I spoke about Queen Victoria at Kensington Palace, available online. I regularly speak conferences and many other different venues. In 2019 I spoke at the Vote 100 Conference organised by the House of Commons and Westminster University; in 2023 as a guest speaker at the Women鈥檚 Library, LSE and at the University of Milan Matteoti Conference. I was recently interviewed by Adam Boulton on his Times radio show. In 2025 I was invited back to the University of Milan to give a key note lecture on the first British women politicians. In 2026 I appeared on Standard Issue podcast.
I have been an active member of the Women鈥檚 History Network since its formation. I was a former judge and Chair of judges of the Women鈥檚 History Network Book prize. In 2022, I was given an Honorary Research Fellowship by the 果冻传媒 for my work on women鈥檚 history.
Books
Trailblazers: the first women elected to government, Polity, 2026.
Women鈥檚 Activism in 20th Century Britain, Palgrave Macmillan, 2022.
Labour Women in Power: Cabinet Ministers in the 20th Century, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.
Queen Victoria, Routledge, 2016.
Ellen Wilkinson: from Red Suffragist to Cabinet Minister, Pluto Press, 2013.
Votes for Women (third edition), Hodder Murray, 2007.
Emmeline Pankhurst, Routledge, 2002.
Prostitution, Prevention and Reform in England, 1860-1914, Routledge, 2000.
The Changing Role of Women, Hodder and Stoughton, 1996.
Medieval Islam, (co-author) Hodder and Stoughton, 1993.
Sainsbury鈥檚 Book of Famous Women and Men, 1992.
Plains Women, (co-author), Cambridge University Press, 1991.
From Workshop to Warfare (co-author, second edition), Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Modern Medicine, (co-author) Edward Arnold, 1989.
Life in the Industrial Revolution, Hodder and Stoughton, 1987.
Under Control, (co-author), Cambridge University Press, 1983.
Between 1983 and 1990 I co-founded and co-edited student books for Cambridge University Press鈥� highly successful Women in History series: Diane Atkinson鈥檚 Votes for Women, Hilary Bourdillon鈥檚 Women as Healers, Angela John鈥檚 Coalmining Women,Caroline Lang鈥檚 Keep Smiling Through, Cathy Porter鈥檚 Women in Revolutionary Russia,Gill Thomas鈥檚, Life on All Fronts, and Rosina Visram鈥檚, Women in India and Pakistan.
Articles in journals and chapters in books
No one wants to talk about the dark side of the suffragettes, The Telegraph, July 18th 2026
Campaigning for Women鈥檚 Rights in Britain, Donne in Europa nel primo Novecento, ed Michela Minesso, Franco Angeli, 2025.
Entries on 鈥楳adeline Symons鈥� and 鈥楧orothy Mary Elliot鈥�, DNB, 2023.
鈥楤arbara Castle鈥� in Maggie Andrews and Janis Lomas, A History of Women in 100 Objects, The History Press, 2019.
Contributor to Voice and Vote, Celebrating 100 Years of Votes for Women, Regal Press (a parliamentary publication), 2018.
鈥楳argaret Bondfield鈥� and 鈥楨llen Wilkinson鈥� in Maggie Andrews and Janis Lomas, Hidden Heroines, Robert Hale, 2018.
鈥樷�楨llen Wilkinson and Home Security鈥�, The Home Front in Britain: Images, Myths and Memories, (ed. Prof Maggie Andrews and Dr Janis Lomas), Palgrave, 2013.
鈥�Prostitution鈥�, (co-author) Companion to Women鈥檚 Historical Writing, (ed Mary Spongberg et al) Palgrave, 2005.
鈥�Emmeline Pankhurst鈥�, History Today, March 2003.
鈥榁otes for Women鈥�, Years of Expansion, (ed Michael Scott-Baumann), Hodder and Stoughton, 2002.
鈥楶rostitution and Mental Illness鈥�, New Perspective, 2001
鈥楶rostitution鈥�(co-author), Women in Twentieth-Century Britain, (ed Ina Zweiniger-Bargielowska), Longman, 2001.
鈥�Moral Regeneration鈥� Women and the Civic Gospel in Birmingham, 1870-1914鈥�, Midland History, 2000.
鈥�Suffragettes, Class and Pit-Brow Women鈥�, History Review, December 1999.
鈥楻eforming Women: Prostitution in Victorian Birmingham鈥�, Birmingham Historian, Number 12, 1999.
鈥楶reventing Prostitution: The Ladies鈥� Association for the Care and Protection of Young Girls in Birmingham, 1887-1914鈥�, Women鈥檚 History Review, 1998.
鈥橶omen鈥檚 Past鈥�, Secondary Issues, ILEA, 1986.
鈥�London Women鈥檚 History Walk: Southwark鈥�, South London Record, 1985.
I have also written an MA module for the Open University on Women since the First World War, regularly write book reviews for academic journals, contribute blogs on women鈥檚 history and speak on my research at various venues.