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Regional secretary with the National Education Union
A weekend of tears, laughter – and feminism
LYNNE WALSH reports from two action-packed and emotional days at FiLiA conference in Portsmouth

IT’S astonishing the things you can learn on a brief visit to a new city.

Most of us know that Portsmouth, nicknamed Pompey, is famous for its military and maritime connections. Some among you might win a pub quiz by recognising it as the birthplace of Charles Dickens, or knowing that the city crest includes a unicorn with a fish tail.  How many realise it was also the country’s “corsetry capital”?

It seems more than 7,000 women were employed, post World War II, in making corsets. It’s hard to image any image less feminist than this restricting, painful garment designed to gratify a “male gaze.” 

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