Kirsty Peacock

Research Topic: 

‘Who performed the business of banking?’: Women Bank Clerks and the City of London, 1870-1939

Thesis:

Working within the parameters of the ‘Women and Work in the City of London’ OOC-DTP Collaborative Doctoral Award, my research explores how, when and why women began to be employed as a new kind of bank clerk in the last third of the nineteenth century. I chart how this phenomenon evolved through the First World War until the start of the Second World War in 1939, arguing that immediate business needs were the primary driver of changes in the status and opportunities of women clerks throughout this period. Relatedly, I explore how the relationship between advances in office technologies and the feminisation of clerical work manifested in the context of City of London banks and use this set of case studies to shed light on broader debates about the relationship between technology and gender.

My research also explores the socio-economic backgrounds of women undertaking work in London’s banking sector from 1870 to 1939, focusing upon the Baring Archive’s materials and using personnel data from other bank archives where available. In addition to exploring the factors impacting individual women’s experiences of clerical work in City banks, my research explores how young working women’s lives intertwined in the City, both within gender-segregated workspaces and in their interactions through external support organisations, such as the Association of Women Clerks and Secretaries (AWCS), the Homes for Working Girls in London (HWGL), and the Frances Martin College for Working Women. 

I was privileged to receive the Best PhD Poster Prize from the Association of Business Historians (ABH) in 2023 and the New Researcher Poster Prize from the Economic History Society (EHS) in 2024 for my first two chapters.

Supervisor: Dr Rowena Olegario & Professor Catherine Schenk
 

Background:

I completed my undergraduate degree in History and Politics at Trinity College, Oxford, in 2020, writing my thesis on ‘Céline Renooz and Discourses of Female Scientific Expertise and Hysteria in Late Nineteenth Century France’, which was Highly Commended in the 2020 Women’s History Network Undergraduate Prize. I subsequently attained a Master’s in Women’s Studies from Wolfson College, Oxford, in 2021, researching women’s sports in interwar Oxford women's colleges, the mathematical education of nineteenth-century girls in Britain, and the impact of the repeal of China’s one-child policy. My interests and approach are thus very interdisciplinary - a feature I have pursued further in my doctoral research. I am also serving as President of the Oxford History Graduate Network (OHGN) for the 2023-24 academic year, so please get in touch if you would like to get involved in the graduate historian community.