![]() Logo introduced in 2015 | |
![]() Current building site | |
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Established | 2015 |
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Location | London Barking, IG11 7BB United Kingdom |
Coordinates | @51.533766, 0.075335 51°32′01.6″N0°04′31.2″E / 51.533778°N 0.075333°E |
Type | Women's museum |
Founder | Co-founder: Sara Huws, Sarah Jackson [1] |
Director | Rachel Crossley |
Website | https://eastendwomensmuseum.org/ |
East End Women's Museum (EEWM) is a virtual, pop-up museum and the only dedicated women's museum in England. It was established in 2015 as a positive protest to a "Jack the Ripper Museum" in Cable Street. While the EEWM sought to open a permanent location in Barking town centre in 2023, the museum faced difficulties finalising the lease. The museum continues to have a pop-up museum that hosts temporary exhibitions—both online and in-person—as well as community workshops and educational events. [2]
The mission of the East End Women's Museum (EEWM) is to "Research, record, share and celebrate the stories of east London women past and present." [3]
East End Women's Museum (EEWM) is a small museum dedicated to the stories and voices of women of east London. Its aim is "to give representation to all women, particularly those traditionally marginalised, including women of colour, women with disabilities, lesbian and bi women, trans women, working-class women, older women, women from migrant or itinerant communities, women who are refugees or asylum-seeking, and women working in the sex industry." [3] Women are underrepresented within British historical record and female voices have often been overlooked; for example, only 14% of English Heritage's blue plaques honour women. [4] In order to provide more opportunities for female voices, its goal is to challenge gender inequality and encourage women to express their thoughts and tell their own stories.
East London, including but extending beyond the East End of London, has been a place full of intense political activism and women's equality movements. England's ‘first feminist’ , Mary Wollstonecraft, spent her early childhood at Barking. The matchgirls' strike of 1888 occurred at the Bryant & May match factory in Bow. The sewing machinists strike at Ford Dagenham in 1968 was a landmark labour-relations dispute which led to the passing of the Equal Pay Act 1970.
The suffragette movement was strong in the area. When Sylvia Pankhurst and her followers were expelled from the Women's Social and Political Union in 1912, they set up the East London Federation of Suffragettes. The last surviving suffragette, Annie Clara Huggett, lived locally and has a women's centre in Dagenham named after her. [5]
As a virtual, pop-up museum, the EEWM seeks to engage local communities through temporary exhibitions, workshops, talks and events, different research, online learning and touring around East London. Its pop-up exhibitions have been all over East London: [6]