WiF UK-Ireland Mission Statement
Women in French UK-Ireland is a scholarly association. Our aims are to foster and promote:
- The study of Francophone women’s history, politics, social and political situation and cultural production (including writing, visual cultures, performance, etc)
- The study of cultural representations of women and women’s lives within the Francophone world
- The sharing of information and debates about the position of women in Higher Education in the UK and Ireland
- A supportive and collaborative network of/for female scholars
- Relevant publications (such as conference proceedings)
History
It was at the 1987 annual conference of one of the major UK French subject associations, French Studies, that women participants recognised the absence of women’s voices within French Studies. They were also aware that whilst a majority of undergraduates studying French were women, the number of women dwindled at postgraduate level and still more as one ascended the hierarchy of academic posts.
The first meeting to assess the situation and plan strategies took place in December that year in the University of London Union.
One-day meetings followed (April and November 1988, May 1989), combining academic papers on women-related topics with practical sessions on, for example, assertiveness techniques. Women-only fringe meetings were organised at most of the major conferences. In November 1990 Maggie Allison organised the first week-end conference in Ilkley (Yorkshire) of what was then called Women Teaching French Teaching Women. In 2002, the conference moved to Hinsley Hall in Leeds and the biennial Ilkley conference rapidly became a fixture. The conference has always been thoroughly inter-generational, attended by senior, mid-career and junior academics and always with a strong contingent of postgraduates who have found it a supportive environment in which to try out first papers; since 2002 attendance has been maintained at sixty residents, the maximum possible at Hinsley Hall, with occasional day-attendees, and an increasingly international profile of speakers and participants. From a predominance of literary papers (though film studies was present from the start), the conferences have become increasingly multi- and inter-disciplinary, as has French Studies itself, with politics, history, media, feminist theory, linguistics and economics all represented.
Women in French UK-Ireland has so far been an informal association, but is now formalising its existence.
EDI Statement and Membership
WIF UK-Ireland membership is limited to scholars researching any aspect of women’s studies in French.
Our membership is based on commonality of interest and on shared values, and we welcome scholars of any gender, age, colour, or other protected characteristics.
We aim for the Association to uphold ethical standards in all aspects of its activities, including funding, banking, data collection, marketing and voting processes.
Women in French UK-Ireland 