Women of War

Like a river flows surely to the sea, as a tapestry is actually an embroidery, we’re having a format change. This week Hannah and Nicola look at the women who created the most famous fabric art in world history, the women on the most famous fabric art in world history and the story in it. There will be Williams who conquer, Edwards who confess, and Harolds who get hit in the eye with an arrow….or was he?

To follow along with the pa...

Everything you learnt about Truganini in school is wrong. This week, join Nicola and Hannah as they look between the lines of Australian colonialism to trace the story of Nuenonne woman Truganini, a woman who lived through the unimaginable. And became a bushranger. Which was a valid life choice.

Women of War is written and recorded on the lands of the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders, past ...

Ten bucks to anyone who can name an Australian war poet (who hasn't got a literature degree). This fortnight's episode looks at the venerated poet, committed communist and radical racist, Dame Mary Gilmore, who wrote some of Australia's best known (?) poems (?) throughout World Wars I and II, and did a lot of shouting about socialism during the Cold War years. Also contains sledging of various Australian politicians, ruminations on...

Finally, an episode where we know some things about a woman! Maybe too much. Join Hannah and Nicola as they learn about Doña Manuela Sáenz de Vergara y Aizpuru, the Ecuadorian woman who worked to free South America from Spanish colonisation. Put on your best colonel's uniform and jump astride your horse to find out how the Libertadora del Libertador not only helped South American countries gain independence from Spain but worked al...

This week we go back to find a decent German woman, and some historical sources on her.

We find neither. Though we are in Germany. But we're not actually, we're in Germania, looking at a woman who inspired an anti-Roman rebellion, and her sisters-in-arms, the prophet-women of the Cimbri, the Bructeri and other tribes. We also look at a lot of dead bodies, but alas, the Dutch did something disgusting to a lot of them so there's les...

What do you do when you're in the middle of a naval battle against the Persian fleet in 480BCE and your ally blocks your escape? Sink the fuck out of your ally, of course. What do you do when your brother/husband dies and leaves you with a politically unstable kingdom? Build one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, duh. 

This week, join Hannah and Nicola as they dive into the Aegean Sea to learn about two naval queens who hel...

Welcome back (or welcome for the first time) to Women of War, and an episode with all the horrors of the Russian Revolution, the cruelties of the Tsarist regime, the horrors of the Russian Civil War, the cruelties of the Bolshevik regime AND the absence of women from the historical narrative! Yay! Let's put this woman back in the narrative, stop wasting time on tears, she (did not) live another fifty years...

This episode - meet o...

What do you do with a female sailor, what do you do with a female sailor, what do you do with a female sailor, in the sixteenth century? Give her some castles, a fleet of ships, the blessing of the Queen and let her take to the seas as a fearless pirate. Join Hannah and Nicola this week as we fall in love with Gráinne O’Malley, the Irish Pirate Queen who spent decades pissing off the British in the Elizabethan Wars. There’s piracy,...

This week - our last episode of the season brings all the horrors of World War I with the additional terror of an unexplained pandemic! In this episode Nicola and Hannah discuss the gendered expectations of soldiers returning from WWI with disabilities, especially facial injuries, and the expectations of women in their lives. There’s a brief Robin Williams-diversion, and then a discussion of the work of American artist Anna Coleman...

Clara Barton had finally made her way to the battlefront of the American Civil War, but now what? How about operating on a soldier without training, changing the very way the War Department organised medical aid, some typhus, an extramarital affair, and setting up an office to find missing and wounded soldiers. That might be a good place to start. 

Women of War is recorded on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nations....

When Confederate forces attacked the American Army at Fort Sumter on April 12th, 1861, no-one could have predicted the scale of tragedy and devastation that followed in the American Civil War. Certainly not the American Government, who struggled to find the food and clothing necessary to supply the Union forces. Enter women like Clara Barton, a former teacher and clerk at the US Patent Office who had trouble sitting by doing nothin...

-Archbishop Desmond Tutu. 

“If you play at being an apolitical artist in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If you make films about the oppressor holding him as a hero, then spe...

Please note, as this episode was recorded in isolation during Melbourne's fifth lockdown, there are a few audio issues. Thank you for your understanding.

Born at the close of the 60s, Marjane Satrapi grew up in a changing world. A child of upper middle class, left-wing Iranian parents Marjane came of age during the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the violence of the Iran-Iraq war. Her unique perspective on the revolution and war gives ...

She made her name dancing in a banana skirt, some pearls, and nothing else, but it was her actions as a spy for the French Resistance during WWII that earned Josephine Baker full military honours on her death. The Harlem Renaissance, the Années folles, WWII, the Civil Rights Movement...if it was a key period of the 20th century, chances are Josephine Baker was in the middle of it. A life of incredible achievements but also some que...

A loving mother, World War I nurse and devoted wife, Saint Alexandra the Passion Bearer probably would have been a lot better off in life if she’d stayed a Princess of a minor German Duchy. She however fell in love with a young man named Nicholas and became the Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna. One of the most infamous female rulers in modern history, Alexandra has become known as a tragic and selfish figure who contributed to the down...

NOTE: This episode suffers from bad audio quality due to COVID lockdown and technical issues. It has been re-recorded and released as a bonus episode. 

What do you do with a female sailor, what do you do with a female sailor, what do you do with a female sailor, in the sixteenth century? Give her some castles, a fleet of ships, the blessing of the Queen and let her take to the seas as a fearless pirate. Join Hannah and Nicola this...

(If you are here to find the timestamp to skip over the definitions section, skip from 6.20 to 9.54.)   

Some historical figures are riddles wrapped in enigmas wrapped in a vest, with a great manicure. Roberta Cowell is one of them. Raised as a boy, Roberta Cowell was a racing car driver, nearly an accidental assassin, and a World War II fighter pilot and a race car driver again before realising she was a transgender woman. Thus be...

Some historical figures are riddles wrapped in enigmas wrapped in a vest. Roberta Cowell is one of them. Raised as a boy, Roberta Cowell was a racing car driver, nearly an accidental assassin, and a World War II fighter pilot and a race car driver again before realising she was a transgender woman. Thus began her next grand plan to have her true sex (her words) realised, and her body match her mind. 

Thanks to Erin for providing th...