Shopgirls: Life Behind the Counter

Join the team who created the BBC television series Shopgirls to hear the true story of the incredible women behind the counters of Britain’s most famous – and not so famous – stores.

Historian Pamela Cox and television producer and writer Annabel Hobley reveal the enterprising and courageous accounts of some of the unsung army of shopgirls at the heart of Britain’s retail revolution, from the Victorian age through to the present day.

The history of women in retail encompasses young apprentices, Selfridges staff who needed to fight for their good name, suffragettes, impoverished interwar chain store assistants, the first generation of female graduate trainees, 1940s working mums, the art school entrepreneurs who kick-started the boutique movement of the swinging ’60s and the impressive individuals who championed the rights of these women thoughout.

As this lively talk reveals, the story of British shopgirls – and their spirited camaraderie – is one woven deep into the fabric of our history and changes the way we understand our society. You will never shop in the same way again.