Founding and brief chronological history of The Women’s Press, London (1977-2003)
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 fact, the kitchen!] 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 Women’s Press came about through a meeting between Dowrick and Attallah arranged by William Miller and John Boothe, two of the original “quartet” of founders of the progressive Quartet Publishers, which had been the original home for Virago. At that meeting, Dowrick dismissed the idea of commissioning “feminist books” for Quartet Books – recently acquired within the Namara Group. 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 (editorially) of the Namara Group.
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. This was brilliant “branding” before that was a thing. 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, and other memorable media.
To succeed, and offer the best possible publishing opportunities to excellent writers, The Women’s Press had to be trusted by and of interest to the book trade in the UK particularly. Opportunities in other markets, especially Australia and New Zealand, despite their far smaller populations, were also critical.
London publishers, agents, booksellers at that time were both “self-important, cynical, cliquey – and intelligent, fun and creative”. says Janie James, a prominent publicist in that era. 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 internationally 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, Alic 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. We offer much more on this on the “Sexual Politics” page.
The Press largely chose books for excellence, but Dowrick and later Kathy Gale 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).
The 20th birthday celebrations – in 1998 and under the leadership of Mary Hemming and Kathy Gale, with Stephanie Dowrick on a prolonged visit from Australia – included reprints of some of the extraordinary writers who had been with the Press from the earliest years. Prominent among them was Janet Frame’s “An Angel at My Table” trilogy, filmed by Jane Campion and still available on streaming services. (Our Janet Frame dedicated page is forthcoming.)
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 Gilbert also worked part-time over some years in various 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.) Dowrick 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.
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.
Writing in Resurgence, May-June 1981, Léonie Caldecott noted. “The Women’s Press, in spite of an overdraft guaranteed by the Namara Group, is constantly struggling to make ends meet, due to the necessity of selling small print runs at prices they feel women can afford. The recession and high rates of interest have made this even harder. In order to deal with this problem they have started The Women’s Press Book Club, which in six months has acquired around 1500 members. …As they’re choosing from amongst many lists, as well as their own which for the number of books on it is admirably varied, they have the potential for reaching a wide cross section of women and those interested in women’s issues.”
From late 1990, Dowrick again worked closely with Attallahto 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 and what became a media beat-up, common at the time where “alternative” organisations appeared to be suffering from conflict and falling apart.
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.)
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 34 Great Sutton Street, EC1.
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, Sheila Ernst, Joan Barfoot, Toni Cade Bambara, May Sarton, Lucy Goodison, Dale Spender, Susan Griffin, Patricia Grace, and many others. (A pdf will be attached showing a report to the Board by de Lanerolle in October 1982.) 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, Ellen Kuzwayo, 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, plus classic Utopian fiction like Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland. The Press also published some hugely influential crime writers, including Val MacDermid, Gillian Slovo, and Mary Wings. Among the notable peace and social justice writers/editors of this period were Angela Davis, Rosalie Bertell, Barbara Deming, Lynne Jones, Barbara Harford, and Sarah Hopkins.
What was missing from 1984-1991 were sufficient genuinely original commissioned books with subsidiary and foreign rights potential; also books that could cross between academic and trade press readers. Handbooks of local interest only were unsustainable. A balance between political commitment AND commercial sustainability remained essential, but had obviously become difficult to maintain.
Within six months of taking up their joint MD roles, Mary Hemming and Kathy Gale had revived The Women’s Press sufficiently, both editorially and in sales, to bring it back into modest profit.
This was an extraordinary achievement after a combination of unsustainable publishing choices, limited sales, and excessive outgoings had “brought the Press to its knees”. During this period, they skilfully republished – against publishing trends – highlights from the backlist, plus excellent new books from existing Women’s Press authors including Stevie Davies, Angela Davis, Patricia Grace, Marie Cardinal, Val McDermid, Joan Barfoot. New outstanding 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 widely reviewed editions of writers as varied as bel hooks, Beatrix Campbell, Sue Woolfe, Caeia Marsh, Dionne Brand, a biography of singer Cecilia Bartoli, May Sarton’s Letters, significant, needed handbooks, as well as continuing to support Women’s Press 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.
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.
“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