Thanks for Typing: Remembering Forgotten Women in History

Product Description

This collection uncovers the wives, daughters, mothers, companions and female assistants who laboured in the shadows of famous men. Revealing the reality of uncredited female contributions throughout history, this book highlights the work of neglected and forgotten women associated with celebrated male writers, scholars, activists and politicians.
As the #ThanksforTyping movement has shown, anonymous women working to support the work of their male relations and colleagues has been, and often still is, a universal phenomenon. These essays show just how long intelligent and determined women have been sidelined, ignored or forgotten throughout history. From a learned and saintly 5th century Byzantine empress, to the wife of Ghana's first president, to the mother of the poet Philip Larkin, these women have their voices returned to them in these chapters. Spanning ancient times to the modern day, they return agency to women who occupied crucial roles behind the scenes, but were always restricted to the supporting role they were obliged to play.
The universal importance of these women take on new meaning in our modern era where women's voices are becoming ever-louder and increasingly recognised through the #ThanksforTyping movement.This collection uncovers the wives, daughters, mothers, companions and female assistants who laboured in the shadows of famous men. Revealing the reality of uncredited female contributions throughout history, this book highlights the work of neglected and forgotten women associated with celebrated male writers, scholars, activists and politicians.
As the #ThanksforTyping movement has shown, anonymous women working to support the work of their male relations and colleagues has been, and often still is, a universal phenomenon. These essays show just how long intelligent and determined women have been sidelined, ignored or forgotten throughout history. From a learned and saintly 5th century Byzantine empress, to the wife of Ghana's first president, to the mother of the poet Philip Larkin, these women have their voices returned to them in these chapters. Spanning ancient times to the modern day, they return agency to women who occupied crucial roles behind the scenes, but were always restricted to the supporting role they were obliged to play.
The universal importance of these women take on new meaning in our modern era where women's voices are becoming ever-louder and increasingly recognised through the #ThanksforTyping movement.
Juliana Dresvina is a member of the History Faculty at the University of Oxford, UK. Educated in Moscow, Oxford and Cambridge in history, theology and English she has worked at Cambridge and King's College London as a medievalist historian, taught English at Queen Mary University London, Reading, Oxford and Winchester, and has held postdoctoral positions in art history in London and Paris.