Women Who Rarely Make History

Historic Royal Palaces Podcast

Historic Royal Palaces

London, Palace, Tower, Historic, Conservation, Royal, Lecture, Learning, Kensington, Hampton, Kew, Banqueting, History, Court, Of, House, Palaces

4.6 • 635 Ratings

🗓️ 13 March 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We're all familiar with the iconic queens who have lived at the palaces, but what about the women who haven't made it into the history books? What are their stories, and what are some of the obstacles to studying women's history?

In this episode, Chief Historian Tracy Borman celebrates International Women's Day by asking four of our curators and researchers to tell us about their favourite lesser-known women from our palaces. Perhaps we can even learn something from them today...

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Please be aware this episode contains themes of sexism, racism, and violence against women that some listeners may find distressing.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome back to the Historic Royal Palaces podcast, the podcast that explores the history and stories of our six palaces.
0:12.1	I'm Chief Historian Tracy Borman.
0:14.8	Last week was International Women's Day.
0:18.1	So in this episode, we want to celebrate some of our favourite women who make up the
0:23.9	history of our sights. Of course, an incredible host of queens have graced our halls. Today, however,
0:32.3	we want to focus on the women who didn't sit on the throne. You may have heard the phrase,
0:38.3	well-behaved women rarely make history,
0:41.3	often interpreted as an encouragement for women
0:44.3	to break the rules.
0:46.3	But I think it serves to highlight the women
0:49.3	who aren't considered exceptional
0:52.3	or important enough for the chroniclers of history, usually men, to record.
0:58.0	There is so much missing in our understanding of the past because of this male bias.
1:05.0	So today, I want to explore the women you probably haven't heard of. The ones who didn't make history.
1:13.2	They're not the usual royals,
1:15.3	but their lives can tell us so much more
1:18.2	about the periods in which they lived.
1:21.0	Perhaps we can even learn something from them today.
1:25.2	So I'm going to be talking to some of my colleagues here at historic royal
1:29.4	palaces to find out who their favourite underrated women from history are.
1:35.3	Hello loyal listeners, this is hopefully our final plea to ask, nay beg, you to fill out our survey for us.
1:43.3	We're desperate to do all we can to make this podcast better for you.
	...

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