Women Up Front: Creating a Picture of Women's Lives in Falkirk 1945-2005

A new publication from WEA Scotland called ‘Women Up Front’ provides a fascinating insight into the lives of women living in Falkirk over the past sixty years from 1945 to 2005, The publication is the result of a partnership between the WEA and Falkirk Council Community Services and reveals a fascinating story of the women’s lives through oral history, writing, songs and the visual arts.

The project grew out of an earlier programme of work, ‘Heart Mind and Soul’, which focused on Scottish Culture and aimed to explore learning through the arts, heritage and culture.

Oral history played a particularly important part in the project and the project team needed to record discussions and interviews to preserve the unique memories and life experiences of those involved in the project. As part of Women Up Front, the WEA delivered two courses in oral history recording skills to enable women to learn about oral history and to practice interviewing skills and recording techniques using mini-disc equipment.

A poetry competition also launched, open to all adult writers in Falkirk, addressing the theme of Women's Lives over the past sixty years. To support and encourage new writers a free poetry workshop was arranged with input from award winning poet and writer Magi Gibson.

The publication resulting from the project comprises oral history testimony, creative writing, and images highlighting key local and national milestones in women's lives. It will be distributed to local schools, community groups and libraries in order to help readers learn about local and national history through the interesting, and often moving, personal stories of women living in the Falkirk area.
 
The Women Up Front project was sponsored by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation. For further information on the this project or other WEA Scotland initiatives please contact:

Workers’ Educational Association
Riddles Court
322 Lawnmarket
Edinburgh
EH1 2PG
Tel: 0131 226 3456
Fax: 0131 220 0306
Email: hq@weascotland.org.uk
www.weascotland.org.uk