Academics’ Wives is a British Academy / Leverhulme funded research project exploring the contribution made by wives of social investigators to the foundations of social knowledge.

The origins of this project date back over a decade. While working with the archived papers of renowned sociologists, Peter Willmott and Dennis Marsden we (Ros and Val) started to piece together the crucial role their wives: Phyllis Willmott and Pat Marsden, played in shaping post-war British sociology.

As our research progressed, we began to find more and more examples of wives’ uncredited labour shaping the history of social science.

This website brings together resources from across our research that provide insights into the part played by the wives of social researchers.

The materials you can access here include:

We’re still researching the unsung contributions of academics’ wives to social knowledge and would really appreciate comments and suggestions.

Do you have any memories of the social investigators and their wives who we’re researching?

Can tell us about other similarly influential contributions of wives to their academic husband’s social research?

Do you have any information to pass on about the existence and operation of University wives clubs in UK higher education?

Please visit the contact us page to feed your insights in to our research.