Woman-Washing & What I’ve Learned from Building an Archive

A heads-up as we approach International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month because woman-washing WILL be on your bingo cards. I promise ye.

Hello and happy Thursday to you,

I'm feeling really pleased with myself, dear reader, because I've finally coined a term to describe a frustrating pattern I've noticed in history: woman-washing.

So, let me introduce you to the concept of “woman-washing,” what it’s about and how we fix it.

Woman-washing is the name I’m giving to the constant recycling of the same women from history. Now, who gets recycled may vary depending on where you live in the world, but here in Britain, you know what I’m talking about … the endless repeating of Henry VIII and ‘his wives,’ the ‘girl-bossing’ of Queen Elizabeth I, Florence Nightingale, etc, etc.

Let me make something clear: I’m not suggesting some women don’t deserve space in the historical narrative, nor am I arguing that there’s something ‘bad’ or ‘wrong’ about remembering these women. Because there isn’t.

However …

I’m calling it woman-washing because it’s got those uninspiring, nothing-to-do-on-a-rainy-Saturday-afternoon, hanging out in the launderette vibes. Like your week-old bedding, you take a woman, throw her in the machine, et voilà, she comes out all sparkly clean and presentable in the wash. Need another one? Sure, have a wife! Rinse and repeat.

Women’s history is still in its infancy. We are still working out how to move from the ‘add women and stir’ approach to something more holistic. And it will take time and a shed load of experimentation to get there.

It is genuinely wonderful to see more and more efforts to grow this discipline. In the last couple of years, I’ve seen more books, more podcasts, more articles, more women’s history social media accounts. It’s a beautiful thing, and I’m here for it. Except when we’re woman-washing. When we’re recycling the same (and heavily sanitised) women over and over, without any context, then we’ve got a big problem.

Take, Elizabeth I, as an example. She is a significant figure in British history for many reasons. But let’s remind ourselves that while she might be an icon to some (and that’s totally okay, by the way, she did do some great things and endured many hardships), she also played a pivotal role in the development of the British trade in enslavement. In 1564, she gave a ship to the enslaver, John Hawkins, which he used to capture more than 600 African men and women. She also profit-shared in that venture and many others.

When we separate the woman from the context or when we take a very artificial, one-sided view of her life, we woman-wash. We take away the opportunity for historical accuracy, for true education and for meaningful connection with the past.

We also get (unintentionally) lazy.

About 18 months ago, I started getting serious about cataloguing women’s history. I call it my archive. It’s impossible to include in this archive every woman I’ve ever encountered in history, but that’s fine because that isn’t my intention. I’m building a space for the forgotten and the marginal. You can’t rinse and repeat women you’ve never heard of (I hope 😂).

I also made this archive because it’s clear that people often don’t do better because they don’t know any better. I’ve worked with so many clients who want to include more historical women in their content, but they can’t name more than 10. If you only know 10 women and four of them are queens from the 16^th century, how are you supposed to share well-rounded and historically accurate version of any time and place. The short answer is that you don’t.

It might not seem like a huge problem right now, but in the longer term? Children and young people grow up thinking women didn’t contribute anything of note and were nothing than baby machines, so they don’t look for women when they get older. The cycle of woman-washing keeps on spinning. And future generations internalise the idea of the default male. And before you can name Henry VIII’s six wives, you’re in the 47% of British people who argue that women’s equality has gone too far.

Welcome to woman-washing: the endless cycle that does us all a disservice.

So, how do we fix it?

First, we do the work. Sleeves up, into the archives and find women who were forgotten. Then we SHARE. Dissemination is the theme for 2025 and beyond.

Secondly, we prioritise different types of women as we remember that ‘women’ are not a homogeneous group. Woman-washing tends to focus on women who are the most visible and widely accessible. Typically, that looks like royal, white women, but they represent a minority of ‘women’ as a whole. Reconstructing women’s experiences requires full acknowledgement of the challenges that brings. I’ve started teaching you about some of the earliest known women in British history, and I’m going to be talking to you more about the power dynamics that exist(ed).

Let me briefly share two women with you that I’ve recently added to the archive. The first is Violet Gibson (1876-1956). Born in Ireland, Gibson is remembered as the woman who shot Benito Mussolini in the face during a parade in Rome in April 1926. Although her intention was murder, she only slightly wounded Mussolini’s nose and was arrested. She was deported to Britain where she spent the next 30 years in psychiatric hospitals. As an Irish pro-Union woman, we can only imagine how she was treated by the British medical establishment. Moreover, while we may have forgotten about Violet, we should not forget that this attack created a wave of sympathy for Mussolini that helped him to consolidate his control over Italy.

I’ve also added Mary Collier (1688-1762), who, in 1739, wrote a poem called The Woman’s Labour, while working as a washerwoman. Her poem was a response to another poem that belittled women’s work and argued that women were lazier than men. This beautiful piece of proto-feminist literature can be read here.

Before I go, please also support the anti-woman-washing movement by supporting my work. The fact that you’re reading this post shows that you already are, and I’m grateful to you. Share this post with someone. Talk to someone about woman-washing. In March, I am DELIGHTED to be working with Icena, a social enterprise, on their Women’s History Month social media content and to be speaking about teaching women in history at the Teachers Talk Radio conference in Manchester. Hit reply to this email if you want to work together.

Until next time,

Kaye x