What women want on television : Doreen Stephens and BBC television programmes for women, 1953-64

This article uses archive research, which brings together programme reconstruction and institutional and biographical research, to look at Stephens’ role in leading the expansion of women’s programmes, and to examine available traces of the difficult professional negotiations encountered in her attempts to broaden the range and quality of programmes that addressed women. Further, the article highlights the crucial importance of feminist archiving policies in ensuring both the preservation of women’s programmes and developing critical histories of television for women.