By KLTV Newsdesk –

Dr Lyndsey Jenkins to deliver the 2025 Luddite Memorial Lecture on the family, faith and feminism that shaped the Kenney sisters’ activism

The Annual Luddite Memorial Lecture returns for its eleventh year with a powerful exploration of the personal and political lives of working-class women in the late nineteenth century.

Presented by the Huddersfield Local History Society and the University of Huddersfield, the 2025 lecture will take place on Monday, 28 April, at 7:30 p.m. in the Bronte Lecture Theatre at the University.

This year’s lecture, titled ‘Studying Together, and Striving Together’: Family, Faith and Feminism in Late Nineteenth Century Working-Class Women’s Politics, will be delivered by Dr Lyndsey Jenkins, Associate Professor and Tutorial Fellow in History at Mansfield College, Oxford.

A leading historian of women, politics and activism, Dr Jenkins is the author of Sisters and Sisterhood: The Kenney Family, Class and Suffrage 1890–1965, and her acclaimed biography of Lady Constance Lytton was named a Sunday Times Biography of the Year.

From the Hearth to the Hustings

Focusing on the lives of the Kenney sisters, Dr Jenkins will explore how their upbringing in a politically engaged, intellectually curious household helped ignite their passion for gender equality and suffrage activism.

Rejecting the traditional portrayal of the Kenneys as politicised by factory life alone, she offers a fresh perspective on how domestic environments can foster radical political consciousness.

“The books they read, the ideas they discussed, the activities they enjoyed and the faith they shared helped to shape their political analysis and affiliation,” Dr Jenkins explains.

“The Kenneys’ family life shows that auto-didactism and the ‘religion of socialism’ could provide a path into feminist politics and thus shed new light on the political dynamics of childhood and the home”.

A New Take on a Familiar Story

While the Kenney sisters’ encounter with Christabel Pankhurst in 1905 marked a key turning point, Dr Jenkins highlights the deeper, long-standing influences that shaped their beliefs — from Robert Blatchford and Keir Hardie to Walt Whitman and Gilbert and Sullivan.

“Instead, I argue that their experiences at home, where reading, debate, faith, politics were central to their daily lives, shaped their values and identities,” she adds.

Local Roots, National Impact

Cyril Pearce, Chair of Huddersfield Local History Society, emphasised the importance of recognising the role of women in radical political movements, particularly those from the region.

“This year’s lecture is a necessary reminder of the importance of women in that debate and of the importance of local women in the struggle for the vote.

“The Kenney sisters were from Saddleworth when it was in the West Riding and part of the Colne Valley constituency.

“They were active in the Valley’s radical politics and, in their support for Victor Grayson’s dramatic 1907 election victory, inescapable contributors to Huddersfield and the Colne Valley’s radical traditions and to the world of Jill Liddington’s Rebel Girls”.

A Celebrated Partnership

The evening will be introduced by Professor Tim Thornton, the University of Huddersfield’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor and a historian himself.

“The University of Huddersfield is delighted again to be supporting the Annual Luddite Memorial Lecture, as part of our successful partnership with the Huddersfield and District Local History Society,” said Professor Thornton.

“Once again, we’re very pleased to be welcoming to Huddersfield a distinguished speaker, in Dr Lyndsey Jenkins, and yet a further important perspective on radicalism in Huddersfield and its hinterland, exploring the role of women in late nineteenth and early twentieth century popular politics”.