SEX AND GENDER
Manuscript Sources from the Public Record Office

Part 1: Empire and Suffrage (AR, CAB, CO and DO files)

Professor Harold L Smith, Department of History, University of Houston-Victoria

There is a huge amount of material in the Public Record Office relating to Sex and Gender. A thorough survey and listing of this material was completed recently and is the basis for this current project. We are approaching the material on a thematic basis with the assistance of scholars who have used the sources extensively in their research.

Part 1 focuses on Empire and Suffrage and our consultant editor is Professor Ian Christopher Fletcher in the Department of History at Georgia State University. One of the most attractive features of this part is the coverage of suffrage on an international basis. All of the main sites of Empire are featured with material that spans the years c1879 to 1970. There are documents concerning Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe. The different pace of suffrage throughout the world can be examined and related to issues of race, class and democracy. Files include:

- FO 371/90795 Cuba: Law concerning equal civil rights of women in Cuba, 1951

- CAB 37/109/17 Women's rights in public life in Norway, 1912

- CO 37/277/1 Bermuda: Enfranchisement of women

- CO 847/5/6 Africa: Status of women in Africa, 1935

- FO 371/67827 Liberia: Female suffrage in Liberia

- FO 371/97702 Bolivia: Establishment of universal suffrage, 1952

- FO 371/105457 Japan: Social welfare legislation: Emancipation of Japanese women, 1953

- CO 822/1139 Kenya: Advancement of African women in Kenya, 1954-1955

- CO 1032/103-105 Suffrage arrangements in Colonial territories, 1954-1957

For all those studying Women's Issues on a world historical basis, this will be an essential platform for research.