Grrl power

OMG! We are gobsmacked. Our HERstory talk has sold out FOR THE SECOND TIME!

We were delighted to invite back two of our former colleagues here at the Trust – Karen Mailley-Watt and Rachel Purse, aka The History Girls – to give a talk about influential women in Glasgow, alongside Dr Catriona Burness of the Remember Mary Barbour Association. The talk – HERstory: The Influential Women of Glasgow – will be held two days before a new statue to Mary Barbour is unveiled in Govan, and aims to bring to light some of the amazing Weegie women who have helped to shape this fair city, or have achieved incredible things in their own lives.

We were then equally delighted and a tad overwhelmed when that event sold out in 48 hours! The Trust has a very loyal core audience of folk who turn up for our events, and we always have a great turn out, but this level of interest was unbelievable. At the time of writing, 875 people have indicated their interest in the event on Facebook! Clearly, there is a huge appetite out there for telling women’s stories and hearing the history of Glasgow through new perspectives, as shown by the success of the Glasgow Women’s Library and many other organisations and events.

So many disappointed folk got in touch with us about putting the talk on for an extra night, and we posted that we were on the look out for a new venue, so we could invite more people along than can fit in our wee meeting space.

One of the people that saw that message was Glasgow’s Lord Provost, Eva Bolander, who promptly contacted the Trust personally and offered a space in the City Chambers for our event. The Lord Provost studied archaeology at university in Stockholm and worked at the Museum of National Antiquities so has a strong interest in heritage. She is also an advocate for gender equality, supporting women to take part in civic and political life through initiatives like the Lean In group at the council, of which she is a member. In her role as Lord Provost, she hopes to open up the City Chambers and invite Glasgow’s communities in to use the space, and we are delighted to be able to hold our event in the prestigious Satinwood Suite.

If you missed out on tickets – follow The History Girls on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and check out their blog where you’ll find details of any upcoming events.

Girl power!