Researching the history of television for women in Britain, 1947-1989

This report details the aims, methodology and selected findings of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)-funded project A History of Television for Women in Britain, 1947-1989, running between 2010 and 2013 at the University of Warwick and De Montfort University. Here, we consider the difficulties of conducting historical television research and the ways in which we have tried to use a method which is attentive to production research, textual analysis and audience work in a dialogic relationship. We discuss the work of Doreen Stephens, the BBC's first Editor, Women's Programmes, the discovery of the daytime women's arts programme Wednesday Magazine and the ways in which the women who have participated in our study have described the significance of television for women in their lives. Finally, we discuss the ways in which the project has attempted to engage with constituencies outside the academy.