SEX AND GENDER
Manuscript Sources from the Public Record Office

Part 2: Empire and Suffrage (FO, HO, LAB, LO, PREM, T and WO files)

Part 2 continues our examination of the twin themes of Empire and Suffrage with manuscript material from the British National Archives at Kew. Here we concentrate on material from the Foreign Office and Home Office, as well as files from the Ministry of Labour and the Treasury.

• There are papers on women’s rights in Palestine and Egypt.
• A substantial section of material is devoted to UN Commission on the Status of Women. There is a strong focus on Human Rights issues, records of meetings and many questionnaires with good responses regarding Tanganyika, Gambia, Nigeria,
  the Cameroons and other African countries.
• There are records of UN seminars on Human Rights in Developing Countries with papers on women in public life and the problems of apartheid.
• We include all the papers of the Equal Franchise Committee, 1927-1928.
• There are Home Office reports on prostitution and the white slave traffic.
• The Treasury files include material on deputations from the Women’s Tax Resistance League and from the Working Women Suffragists in 1913.
• There is also material by Annie Besant on Dominion Status for India.