Founding and brief chronological history of The Women’s Press, London (1977-2003)

“I admire The Women’s Press, which has consistently taken risks, and been enterprising and brave.” Doris Lessing. Nobel Laureate in Literature

“The Women’s Press has grown up with us all through good times and bad. It’s time to celebrate decades of maturity and wisdom. ” Anita Roddick, founder of the “Body Shop”, human rights activist

“In a way, I came to feminism because of The Women’s Press and its distinctive, noisy, black-and-white spines. Serious issues, seriously different points of view, women’s politics, ways of approaching the world I’d never imagined.” Kate Mosse, writer and cofounder of the Orange Prize

“I remember vividly The Women’s Press when it first began, a wonderful feisty step into the shark’s nest that’s the world of publishing.” Angela Neustatter, Journalist (The Guardian, UK) and writer

“The Women’s Press ‘ironic’ logo soon became a signpost for books which tackled unconventional subjects …and alerted the publishing world to what they had been missing.” Joan Smith, writer and activist

“The Women’s Press has been hugely important in contemporary publishing because it was founded on a passion for books by women and has brought to wider public attention some remarkable writers from around the world…has made bold, imaginative choices.” Helen Dunmore, poet, novelist, Orange Prize winner

“At a time when true equality remains a chimera for many women labouring under ‘the double burden’, The Women’s Press has illuminated the possible paths for feminism. At a time of doubt it has given feminists such as myself some faith.” Oona King, (UK) politician

“Inspiring to see all those titles from The Women’s Press, and the brilliant logo and distinctive black-and-white spines.” Susan Wyndham, writer and former literary editor of The Sydney Morning Herald (2026)

“What a magnificent venture The Women’s Press was. I think I bought almost all the books it ever published, and many of them survived the regular book culls I’ve needed to make in order to have somewhere in my apartment to sleep.” Michèle Nayman, writer and journalist (2026)

“Hugely important press. And if I remember right there were heaps of really excellent feminist crime books, many by POC writers. Groundbreaking. And I love the ‘steaming ahead’ logo.” Beth Spencer, writer (2026)

“Who can forget Mary Daly’s classic, Beyond God the Father? Knocked my head off my shoulders!” Coralie Vernon, activist (2026)

“From my teens onwards (Gen Xer)…. when at the library I sought out the black and white stripes of The Women’s Press spine on the shelves by sight, same with the dark green spine of Virago Publishers. Loved them.” Natasha Mitchell, journalist and broadcaster (2026)

“I loved TWP! And still have many books. I used to call it Ironing Board Press lol. What I loved was that it wasn’t just women’s voices but fresh women’s voices. The most unforgettable book was Mulberry and Peach, a groundbreaking book about a woman’s two personas, by a Chinese author, Hualing Nieh [Engel]. The Female Man by Joanna Russ was also groundbreaking. You can’t keep a good woman down by Alice Walker, I became a diehard fan.” Lou Steer, poet and performing artist (2026)

“Some of the first books I read that I consider really innovative were published by TWP. Read them in the 80s and 90s. But I was young. Early teens to mid twenties. It really shaped my ideas around women, sexuality, and personal authority and autonomy.” Danuta E. Raine, writer, medievalist (2026)

The Women’s Press was founded in 1977 by New Zealand-born Stephanie
Dowrick, then Editorial Manager of Triad Paperbacks (owned by Cape, Chatto, The Bodley Head, with Granada Publishing), with conditional financial support from Palestinian-born Naim Attallah, then Chair of Namara Ltd and of
Quartet Books.

[From Wikipedia quoting Naim Attallah: “It was set up with a
hundred £1 shares, with me holding fifty-three percent and Stephanie the balance of forty-seven
per cent […] to begin with Stephanie was the only full-time employee and the whole
operation was started in her living-room in her house in Bow.” ]

Attallah had impetuously offered Dowrick the chance to “have her own publishing house” on the basis of recognising a fellow visionary and hard worker with first-class experience and contacts. To finance the company – always run on a shoestring, despite the elegant, polished, witty “look” of the books – Naim agreed to back
the necessary overdraft for which Dowrick as MD was solely responsible, as she
was, also, for the editorial/political direction of the Press and its continuing
viability.

The Press came about through a meeting between Dowrick and Attallah
when Dowrick dismissed the idea of commissioning “feminist books” for Quartet
Books – recently acquired within the Namara Group – and Attallah suggested, reflecting a potent moment in UK publishing and in the still emerging Women’s Liberation Movement,
that Dowrick may instead like to take up the challenge of creating and running a
distinct publishing house, within but totally independent of (editorially) the Namara
Group.

Intended by Dowrick overtly to reflect the goals of the Women’s Liberation
Movement, including meaningful respect and opportunity for all women of all
races, cultures, economic classes, The Women’s Press was “dedicated to publishing
incisive non-fiction over a range of key areas directly affecting women’s lives,
including sexual and race politics, physical and mental health, environmental and
peace politics, art history and aesthetics, gender, literary analysis, as well as fiction
by outstanding women writers from round the world.”

In a January 1978 announcement, Dowrick had written: “We are not only asking for the same rights
as men, we are also actively reassessing the society in which we are to play an
equal part. We are examining history to find our place there and, while demanding
power, are questioning where the distortions of power lie.’

The distinctive “iron” iconography that “branded” TWP was devised by brilliant Canadian
artist Donna Muir. The emphasis on design skill (and wit) set The Women’s Press apart and contributed immeasurably to the initial acceptance and interest from the book trade. Dowrick is the daughter of a mother who was both “an excellent writer and painter” (also a gifted teacher). The pioneering breakthrough books on art history were the pride of the Press, along with the art calendars (for which Dowrick had to find European allies in a highly competitive market), the annual Women Artists Diary, worked on also by Suzanne Perkins, the principal cover designer and for some years a Director of the Press, as well as a bourgeoning range of postcards.

In an interview with Dowrick in Publishing News (UK), 25 July 1980, Patricia Miller describes Stephanie Dowrick “…transfixing more than a hundred people…at a meeting of the Women in Publishing Group which had run up a healthy store of interest from all over the book trade.” To a charge of elitism, Miller reports Dowrick making clear that while she keeps her speaking and publishing controversial, she intends [for the writers’ success] to reach a general audience and has no interest in being a missionary.”

Of the Shoreditch office, ” in [then]less than fashionable Shoreditch High Street [!]”, Miller writes, “Up the ratty stairs is the typical airy, white room, the typical makeshift bookshelves and the typical plants. Untypical are the handsome feminist posters, postcards and calendars, all sold by the Press in addition to their books. The emphasis on design is not incidental. ‘Interfering’ in the graphics is the purest pleasure the Press has given me,”‘ says Stephanie Dowrick.”

American Sibyl Grundberg was an early director (until 1979) and part-time worker, and later co-edited the best-selling anthology, Why
Children?, with Stephanie Dowrick.

The slogan that came in 1979, “Live authors. Live Issues” – devised by Stephanie Dowrick as central to the branding – indicated the intention of The
Women’s Press to commission and/or publish books that explicitly and boldly
challenged the status quo. This was particularly emphasised during the publishing period from
1978 to 1985 when prominent authors included Lisa Alther, Marge Piercy, Alice
Walker, Michèle Roberts, Janet Frame, Kate Chopin, May Sarton, Dr Lucy
Goodison, Dr Joanna Ryan, Dr Mary Daly, Dr Michèle Barrett, Dr Helen Taylor,
Cora Kaplan, Gillian Perry, Flannery O’Connor, Toni Cade Bambara, Patrica
Grace, Colette, Monique Wittig, Paula Weideger, Leonie Caldecott, Nor Hall,
Louise Bernikow, Verena Stefan, Shulamith Firestone, Phyllis Chesler, Joan
Barfoot, Marie Cardinal, June Arnold.

Throughout its 20-plus years history, The Women’s Press was notable for
enabling pioneering genuinely intersectional writing, taking into account entrenched ubiquitous disadvantages of poverty and race as well as gender and sexuality. They largely chose books for excellence, but worked intensively and
collaboratively with new and experienced authors, plus similarly innovative
European publishers, including Sara (the Netherlands), Frauenoffensive
(Germany), Les Editions des Femmes (France).

Dowrick’s motivation for founding The Women’s Press – and supporting it in a variety of roles through most of its history – was political AND professional. In Tribune, 16 July 1986, Stephanie is quoted as saying,

“There is a myth that the reason The Women’s Press came into existence was that it was difficult for women to get published. In fact, this was not the case. It has always been possible for women to get published, and for women to be successful writers. But we have to look at the differences between being a writer who is a woman and a writer who is struggling with ideas that are [legitimately] feminist. We were looking at the idea of having a publishing house that would respond to the theoretical ideas that the women’s liberation movement was developing. It was also important to develop a feminist publishing house because there were women who would take strong exception to being published in a mainstream publishing house alongside books which were offensive to them, or which were marketed in ways they found offensive. Another reason for having women’s presses is that if a woman is trying to say something that reflects an experience that isn’t mainstream, and that is challenging of the sexist status quo, then she’s probably going to produce a much stronger kind of work if she works with editors who share her politics. So the existence of the feminist publishing houses, and particularly The Women’s Press, is a statement that there are other kinds of writing which have been marginalised, misunderstood, or simply had not been enabled to come into existence.”

(In Dowrick’s previous publishing role, a joint owner of Triad Paperbacks was Chatto & Windus – which incorporated The Hogarth Press – founded in 1917 by Virginia and Leonard Woolf. This association led to the publication, in 1979, of Virginia Woolf: Women and Writing by distinguished Woolf scholar, Professor Michèle Barrett.)

From 1982, following Stephanie Dowrick’s initial move to Australia, anti-apartheid
activist Ros de Lanerolle had been appointed as Managing Director, with Sarah
Lefanu in a senior role and Suzanne Perkins continuing as principal designer. Sue Geary (Gilbert) also worked part-time over some years in key roles, from 1979/80, both for The Women’s Press and The Bookclub.

As founder, Director and co-owner, Dowrick continued, until 1985 or later, to offer constant support, encouragement, and editorial and financial guidance to de Lanerolle. Copious correspondence attests to this, whether she was in the UK or Australia. (This correspondence will all be archived and available to serious researchers.) She also kept a close eye on matters concerning The Women’s Press Bookclub, set up to support The Women’s Press and ease the ever-present cashflow pressures.

From late 1990, Stephanie again worked closely with Naim to support the survival of the Press during a period of significant financial difficulty, resulting in de Lanerolle’s departure to set up her new enterprise, Open Letters, intended to reflect her continuing commitment to anti-apartheid politics, always her key focus. Tragically, Ros was already gravely ill. Five members of staff left with her. Stephanie wrote the attached letter at the time to The Guardian (UK) which had published a story based on hearsay.

In early 1991, Attallah is reputed by some commentators/academics to have
rejected an attempted buyout offer of £500,000 by de Lanerolle. This story has been repeated multiple times with no evidence
offered to support it. Nor is there any evidence that Ros’s tenure broke down because Naim – a Palestinian – suggested that she published “too many Third World authors”. Both those stories have caused significant harm to the women – and the authors – who rebuilt the Press for its final 10-12 years. Kathy Gale, joint MD from 1991-1999, is later quoted as saying, “Naim never, ever enquired about or tried to influence my editorial decisions.” (More on this in Correcting the History: forthcoming.)

In late 1979, the Press had moved from Dowrick’s house in Bow to a rented studio/
office at 124 Shoreditch High Street, E1. Later, under de Lanerolle, the Press moved again to

From 1982/3 Ros de Lanerolle had
continued as MD, initially collaborating cheerfully with Stephanie Dowrick, and over the following years successfully contracting new books with already-established Women’s Press writers, including Alice Walker, Mary Daly, Janet Frame, Joan Barfoot, Toni Cade Bambara, May Sarton, and many others. Also continuing the strong record of The Women’s Press in publishing frequently marginalised writers, notably Tsitsi
Dangarembga, Padma Parera, Nawal el-Sa’adawi, Shizuko Gõ, Leena Dhingra, Joan Riley and Jean Buffong. At the same time, Sarah Lefanu established a
feminist science fiction list, including authors like Joanna Russ, Lisa Tuttle, Suzy
McKee Charnas, to add to earlier published blockbusters like Marge Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time. The Press also published some notable crime writers, including Val MacDermid and Mary
Wings. What was missing from 1983-1990 were sufficient genuinely original commissioned books with subsidary and foreign rights potential; also books that could cross between academic and trade press readers. A balance between political commitment AND commercial sustainability remained essential, but had obviously become difficult to maintain.

In the post-Thatcher, arguably post-WLM period of late 1990, with sales
revenue sharply declining and an overdraft building that was no longer
sustainable, London-based Attallah in Dowrick’s absence in Australia had appointed Mary Hemming as deputy
managing director to take charge of sales.

Following the period of intense financial insecurity, and the departure of Ros de Lanerolle and other staff, Attallah appointed
himself the firm’s interim managing director for a matter of weeks and, recalling
Dowrick from Australia, they together appointed Kathy Gale, formerly
of Pan Macmillan, as Managing Director, jointly with Mary Hemming.

In 1991, Australian-based
Stephanie Dowrick took up her role as an active Chairperson of The Women’s Press Ltd, working closely and productively with both Kathy and Mary. She resumed her attention to sales in Australia and New Zealand, and was able to persuade Allen & Unwin – where she had worked part-time as Fiction Publisher – to take over Australian distribution of books from The Women’s Press.

Within six months of taking up their joint MD roles, Mary and Kathy had revived The Women’s Press sufficiently, both editorially and in sales, to bring it back into modest profit, an extraordinary achievement when a combination of narrow editorial choices, limited sales, and excessive outgoings had “brought the Press to its knees”. During this period oustanding successes included three of Stephanie Dowrick’s own books that were simultaneously published in the US by W.W.Norton, later by Penguin (USA). They also published bel hooks, a biography of singer Cecilia Bartoli, and significant, needed handbooks, as well as continuing to support Women’s Press top and most beloved authors, giving extra support also to the Livewires list for teenaged girls.

The Women’s Press
innovations had included a long-standing commitment to visual arts with the
annual publication of The Women Artists Diary, featuring contemporary painting
and drawing by women artists.

Founded in 1980, The Women’s Press Book Club
contributed a great deal to the visibility and success of a wide range of women-centred books, while adding to the financial stability during the strongest periods of Women’s Press publishing.

As a member of the Namara Group, distribution (plus accounting) was handled throughout by
Quartet Books.

Following the resignation of Kathy Gale in 1999, and Mary Hemming soon after, Elspeth Lindner was appointed MD. However, the need for a specialist publishing house had changed. Stephanie Dowrick was less involved. The publishing industry itself was changing fast.

The Women’s Press ceased independent publishing in 2002/3,
having published upwards of 5-600 titles.

Stephanie Dowrick won the first award made by the UK group “Women in
Publishing” in 1979/1980. Ros de Lanerolle won their Pandora Award in 1992.
Ros de Lanerolle died in 1993. Naim Attallah died in 2021.

Founder Dr Stephanie
Dowrick, who had several of her own later books successfully published by The
Women’s Press, can be contacted via her US publishers, St Martin’s Press, or her
Australian publishers, Allen & Unwin. Kathy Gale can be contacted via her business website where she continues to support writers of promise and quality.

This archival website is central to a reclaiming and clarifying of what was achieved by so many dedicated writers and their publishers – always working against the clock, with strictly limited “assets” but precious, brave, and unlimited vision.