Strangers and friends: report on women and brainpower conference at royal holloway and bedford new college, university of london, 4-6 july 1999

Abstract

Abstract This article is a report of the Conference held to celebrate the opening of the new Bedford Centre for the History of Women which holds the archives of the first steps on the road towards higher education for women in Britain. 1999 marked the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Ladies' College at 47 Bedford Square, London, founded by Elizabeth Jesser Reid. In 1982 a partnership agreement was signed between Bedford College and Royal Holloway College, following severe cuts in government spending on higher education. Overall the Conference considered what the cultivation of women's brainpower had contributed to the wealth and well-being of the nation. It also raised the problematic question of the future of women's history, if it becomes subsumed under the banner of ‘gender history’, what might be the gains and what might be the losses for women?