WRoCAH AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award - Connecting Suffragettes, Technology and Society: Caroline Haslett’s International Correspondence Network

Session 2025 - Closing Date 12 noon (UK time) 5 March 2025

Before applying for this studentship, ensure you visit the WRoCAH website for full project details and application information.

Award provides fees and maintenance at UKRI Rates (£20,780 in Session 2025/26) plus £600 enhancement per annum.

This is an AHRC WRoCAH funded Collaborative Doctoral Award between the School of Philosophy, Religion & History of Science, University of Leeds and Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), London.

This project explores the extensive correspondence to, from and about Dame Caroline Haslett. An estimated 10,000+ items are held in the Archives of the Institution of Engineering & Technology plus collections in the National Archives & LSE, home of the Women’s Library. There may be additional international collections yet to be traced. Haslett’s correspondence remains little studied beyond enquiries on her key role as first Secretary of the Women’s Engineering Society (founded 1919) & first Director of the Electrical Association for Women (founded 1924). Initial archival surveys reveal a richer international picture of Haslett's support for women's initiatives in energy and business across Africa, Australasia, North America, Southern Asia and beyond.

Although interwar and post-war Britain are sometimes seen as retrogressive for women’s rights and opportunities, Haslett’s editing of 'The Woman Engineer' from 1919 and 'The Electrical Age for Women' from 1926 illustrate how women’s agency did quietly help to accomplish considerable enduring technological feats, e.g. the BS 1363 three-pin safety plug (1947). Such stories of women’s role in building a human-centred post-war material world are vital to complement stories of women’s international peace and suffrage movements: this project could provide a study of national-international networks of women in the same period for both engineering and business.

Key research questions to be addressed might include:

• How did Haslett’s early career enable her to build her authority as the UK's leading promoter of new electrical technologies and new professional opportunities for women?
• How does the correspondence illustrate Haslett’s leadership of initiatives at the national and international level?
• What new stories of women’s agency can be told from studying the letters in Haslett's correspondence?

About The IET Library and Archives

The Institution of Engineering and Technology’s mission is to inspire, inform and influence the global engineering community, supporting technology innovation to meet the needs of society. Its Libraries and Archives' Designated collections support this role by granting public access to such key resources as the paper and online digitised versions of 'The Woman Engineer' (journal of the Women’s Engineering Society) and 'The Electrical Age (for Women)' (magazine of the Electrical Association for Women).

Engagement, outreach, dissemination and impact initiatives

This project will help to make Haslett's correspondence accessible and comprehensible to a much wider global audience. The student will work with the IET Archives team and the Women’s Engineering Society Heritage Manager to promote research findings to wider public audiences via webinars, public lectures and social media campaigns co-hosted by the Women’s Engineering Society.

For further project information contact Professor Graeme Gooday

Application information contact Postgraduate Admissions team

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