About the Project

When the UK’s first national lockdown hit in March 2020, many of the Sheffield Feminist Archive volunteers found our lives changed in totally new and unexpected ways (didn’t we all?). Some of us became parents, others cared for loved ones, changed jobs, or made huge personal changes – and all of us navigated this strange feeling of living through history. Archives, libraries and museums everywhere remained firmly closed, meaning our own collection at Sheffield City Archives was inaccessible – so, instead of looking back to the archives, we began to look around us and wonder how women across Sheffield were (and are) experiencing the pandemic. Women in Lockdown began as a way of documenting and sharing local women’s stories, and we hope this digital archive provides a lasting record of Sheffield women’s lives in this world-historical moment.

Maybe you saw one of our blue pandemic postboxes in your local community space – check out some of the postcards we received. Or perhaps you really got to know your neighbours during lockdown – why not meet the locals elsewhere? If you’ve got a lockdown story you’d like to tell us, you can share it here.

‘Why just women?‘ The last couple of years have been strange and challenging for almost everyone – we’re not trying to undermine that. But women have been disproportionately hit with the more negative impacts of the pandemic, from increased caring duties, to frontline work in key industries, through to dangerous or vulnerable personal situations. As a feminist community archive, we exist to record the lives and experiences of all self-defining women in Sheffield – so, that’s why this project focuses on women in lockdown. If you’d like to chat further about the project, please contact us.