Recognising career women in 1950s Britain

Published on
Wednesday 18 May 2016
Category
Art & Humanities
College & Community
Books

Cooke tells the stories of an architect, pilot, barrister, cookery writer and an archaeologist, amongst many other pioneering professional women. Her aim in writing the book was to demonstrate there was more to that period than “just aprons and lipsticked smiles”.

This event is one of several hosted by the Oxford Centre of Life-Writing at Wolfson College this term. Cooke will be discussing the process of researching and writing the book and things she learnt along the way.

After graduating from Oxford Cooke has worked as a journalist with the The Sunday Times, The Observer and The Guardian, where she currently reviews graphic novels for "Graphic novel of the month". 

"Rachel Cooke, mostly renowned for her penetrating interviews, here looks back at a time when women's lives were undergoing amazing changes and completely demolishes any notion that the 50s were a just a dull and domestic time for women." - Katharine Whitehorn, The Guardian, 3 Nov 2013

"Hers is an exuberant, glass-chinking book about 10 women a couple of generations later who with phenomenal energy and determination built the brilliant careers they wanted." - Alexandra Harris, The Guardian, 17 Oct 2013