Kate Murphy

Dr Kate Murphy

  • Visiting Fellow
Back to top

Biography

From 2012 - 2020 I was a member of academic staff at Bournemouth University. I initially joined as a Senior Lecturer in Radio Production and went on to develop and run the new BA History degree, becoming Principal Academic in 2017. Prior to this, I worked at the BBC for 24 years, primarily as a Senior Producer on Radio 4 Woman's Hour. As well as being a radio practitioner, I have always been passionate about history, in particular women's history, and in 2005 I began studying part-time for a PhD at Goldsmiths. My thesis on women's employment in the early BBC was completed in 2011. My monograph 'Behind the Wireless: A History of Early Women at the BBC' was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2016 and a co- authored book with Michael Carney, 'Hilda Matheson: a Life of Secrets and Broadcasts', was published by Handheld Press in 2023. Since 2007, I have written and spoken widely about the history of women in the BBC.

Research

I continue to research a range of issues connected with women and the BBC. This has included an appraisal of Doris Arnold, who became the first female 'DJ' on the BBC in 1938; the work of Isa Benzie and Janet Quigley in the BBC Foreign Department in the early-mid 1930s; new insights into women in the pre-Second World War BBC television service and a long-view on the editorial processes of Woman's Hour. Current research includes new perspectives on Hilda Matheson and her work with and for women and the reclamation of Margery Wace, in particular her key role in Empire Talks during the Second World War .

Journal Articles

Books

Chapters

  • Murphy, K., Murphy, C., 2023. Studying Radio: Researching Women in Radio Production in the Early BBC. In: Chignell, H., McDonald, K., eds. The Bloomsbury Handbook of Radio. Bloomsbury Publishing USA.
  • Murphy, K., 2022. BBC Woman's Hour. Routledge Companion to Radio Studies. Routledge.
  • Murphy, K., 2014. From Women's Hour to Other Women's Lives: BBC Talks for Women and the Women who Made Them, 1923-1939. In: Andrews, M., McNamara, S., eds. Women and the Media. Feminism and Femininity in Britain, 1900 to the Present. London: Routledge, 31-46.

Conferences

  • Murphy, K., Murphy, C., 2025. The BBC, Women and Perceptions of Value in the Interwar Years. In: Doing Women’s Film and Television History 18/06/2025 University of Lincoln.
  • Murphy, K., 2022. Oral Histories of BBC Women. In: The BBC at 100 Symposium 15/09/2022 Bradford University and online.
  • Murphy, K., 2022. Keynote: 'Women's voices on the BBC: The Authority to Speak?'. In: Women's History Network Annual Conference : Addressing the Nation 02/09/2022 online.
  • Murphy, K., 2021. Keynote: Pioneering women at the BBC: feminist media histories and the institutional archive. In: Doing Women's Film and Television History Conference 10/07/2021 Online.
  • Murphy, K., 2021. 'Pioneering Women of the BBC’ – issues of gender in the curation of an institutional oral history website. In: Oral History and the Media - annual conference of Oral History Society 09/07/2021 online.
  • Murphy, K., 2021. Women and the Early BBC Television Service. In: 100 Years of Women at the BBC - Critical Studies in Television Workshop 07/05/2021 Edgehill University and online.
  • Murphy, K., 2020. Women and the BBC. In: Censorship and Blind Spots: the BBC's Silences (1922-1995) 20/01/2020 Poitiers University + Zoom.
  • Murphy, K., 2019. “Analytical chemist, naval architect, chauffeuse … professional women and BBC women’s programmes 1923-1968”. In: Women's History Network 06/09/2019 London School of Economics.
  • Murphy, K., 2018. BBC Woman’s Hour – from Producer to Teacher. In: Console-ing Passions 11/07/2018 Bournemouth University.
  • Murphy, K., 2018. Varsity Girls? Women's Networks at the BBC in the Interwar Years. In: Singularity and Solidarity: Networks of Women at the LSE, 1895 - 1945 16/03/2018 London School of Economics.
  • Murphy, K., 2017. From domestic service in Canada to tiger shooting in India: the BBC and international talks for women, 1923-1939. In: Women's History Network Annual Conference 01/09/2017 University of Birmingham.
  • Murphy, K., 2017. Talking as a 'typical housewife': Mrs Edna Thorpe and the BBC, 1935-1951. In: Social History Conference 04/04/2017 University College London.
  • Murphy, K., 2017. “On the same footing as men"? Recruitment, mobility and pay at the BBC, 1923-32. In: Women's Work during the First World War and Interwar Years: Workshop and Study Day 27/01/2017 Sheffield Hallam University.
  • Murphy, K., 2016. ‘She is known in every European capital’: Isa Benzie and the Foreign Department of the BBC, 1927-38. In: The Radio Conference, 2016 05/07/2016 University of Utrecht.
  • Murphy, K., 2016. ‘Literary’ Women: Behind the Scenes at the BBC, 1923-1939. In: Literature and the BBC, 1922 to 1955 15/06/2016 University of Edinburgh.
  • Murphy, K., 2016. ‘Outside the common round of household drudgery’? Modernity and Women’s Talks in the Interwar Years. In: RADIO MODERNISMS Features, Cultures and the BBC 19/05/2016 British Library.
  • Murphy, K., 2016. ‘New and important careers …’ How women excelled at the BBC, 1923-1939. In: Gendered Labour and Media 19/02/2016 Centre for Media History, Macquarie University, Sydney.
  • Murphy, K., 2014. “An undoubted success”: Women, Work and the BBC in the Second World War. In: Women's History Network Annual Conference 05/09/2014 University of Worcester.
  • Murphy, K., 2014. ‘The voice of the ordinary average listener? Mrs Edna Thorpe and BBC Talks in the Inter-war Years’. In: MeCCSA 08/01/2014 University of Bournemouth.
  • Murphy, K., 2013. "Woman’s Hour: telling history, being history, making history…". In: Whose History is it Anyway?: Public History in Perspective 05/09/2013 University of Central Lancashire,Preston.
  • Murphy, K., 2013. “Vigorous and various contributions”: Women’s Voices on the BBC, 1923-1939. In: The Radio Conference: A Transnational Forum 09/07/2013 University of Bedfordshire.
  • Murphy, K., 2013. "Private v public: Revealing the BBC life of Hilda Matheson". In: Centre for Media History Conference on Ethical Dimension of Media History: European Perspectives 09/05/2013 University of Bournemouth.
  • Murphy, K., 2012. "From The Week in Westminster to What we Pay Rates For: the BBC, Citizenship and Women’s Talks, 1923-1939". In: Women's History Network 21st Annual Conference: Women State and Nation: Creating Gendered Identities 07/09/2012 University of Glamorgan.
  • Murphy, K., 2011. “…the strain of combining married life with office work.” What the BBC Marriage Bar tells us about married women’s lives in the inter-war years. In: Women's History Network 20th Annual Conference: Looking Back, Looking Forward 09/09/2011 Women's Library, London.
  • Murphy, K., 2009. "Miss Somerville and Miss Sprott: Separate but Equal? Women in the Early BBC". In: Women's History Network 18th Annual Conference: Women, Gender and Political Spaces: Historical Perspectives 11/09/2009 St Hilda's College, University of Oxford.
  • Murphy, K., 2007. "Bursting out of the Archive: Women in the BBC 1922-1945". In: Business Archives Council Annual Conference: Initiatives and Innovation: Business Archives Today and Tomorrow 13/11/2007 Barclays HQ, Canary Wharf.
  • Murphy, K., 2007. "The BBC Marriage Bar: Contradictions within a New Industry". In: Women and Employment in 20th Century Britain 26/03/2007 The British Postal Museum and Archive.

Internet Publications

Scholarly Editions

  • Ewan, E., Pipes, R., Rendall, J., Reynolds, S., 2018. Entry on Mary Somerville in New Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women. Edinburgh University Press.

PhD Students

  • Kathryn Terkanian, 2018. Wartime, Women and the BBC: : how wartime restrictions and recruitment woes reshaped the corporation, 1939-45

Profile of Teaching PG

  • MA Radio Production: Advanced Radio Production
  • MA Radio Production: Regulation and Compliance

Profile of Teaching UG

  • BA (Hons) History: Level 4 - Media, Communications and Society in Britain, Part One, 1500-1900
  • BA (Hons) History: Level 4 - Being an Historian, Part One: Concepts and Methods
  • BA (Hons) History: Level 4 - History in the Public World
  • BA (Hons) Radio: Level 6 - Developing Concepts for Radio
  • BA (Hons) Radio: Level 5 - Advanced Radio Production
  • BA (Hons) History: Level 5: Women and Equal Rights 1850-2000
  • BA (Hons) History: Level 6: Women's Hour: Being History, Making History, Telling History
  • BA (Hons) History: Level 6: Dissertation Supervision
  • BA (Hons) Radio: Professional Studies

Invited Lectures

  • A Marriage Bar of ‘Convenience’: The BBC, University of Westminster, 02 Dec 2025 more
  • History, Heritage and Archives: Listening-in: Wo, Birmingham City University, 01 Mar 2023 more
  • Behind the Wireless - Early Women at the BBC, Cookham, 12 May 2022 more
  • Auntie’s Big Birthday: 100 years of the BBC, Cookham, 12 May 2022 more
  • Interwar Radio Programmes for Women, London School of Economics, 25 Mar 2021 more
  • Hilda Matheson: Literary Talks on the BBC, University of York, 11 Jun 2020 more
  • Pioneering women at the BBC:feminist media history, Maynooth University, 21 May 2020 more
  • All in it together: women in the early BBC, Tolpuddle Radical History School, 18 Jul 2019 more
  • Varsity Girls? Women's Networks at the BBC, London School of Economics, 16 Mar 2018 more
  • Behind the Wireless, Lytchett Minster School, poole, 07 Feb 2017 more
  • On the Same Footing as Men?, Sheffield Hallam University, 27 Jan 2017 more
  • "How Girls Make Good in Radio" Surprising Stories, Macquarie University, Sydney, 16 Feb 2016 more
  • ‘Woman's Hour: Telling History, Being History, University of Sussex, Centre for Life History, 22 May 2014 more
  • Significance of women's archives, London School of Economics, 12 Mar 2013 more

Conference Presentations

  • Doing Women's Film and Television History: 7, The BBC, Women and Perceptions of Value in the Interwar Years, 18 Jun 2025, University of Lincoln
  • The BBC at 100 Symposium, Oral Histories of BBC Women, 15 Sep 2022, Bradford University and online
  • Women's History Network Annual Conference, Keynote: 'Women's voices on the BBC: The Authority to Speak?', 02 Sep 2022, online
  • Doing Women's Film and Television History Conference, Keynote: Pioneering women at the BBC: feminist media histories and the institutional archive, 10 Jul 2021, Maynooth University and online
  • Oral History and the Media, 'Pioneering Women of the BBC’ – issues of gender in the curation of an institutional oral history website, 09 Jul 2021, Bournemouth University and online
  • 100 Years of Women at the BBC - Critical Studies in Television Workshop, Women and the Early BBC Television Service, 07 May 2021, Edge Hill University and online
  • Censorship and Blind Spots: the BBC's Silences (1922-1995), Women and the Early BBC, 20 Jan 2021, University of Poitiers and online
  • Women's History Network : Professional Women, Analytical chemist, naval architect, chauffeuse … professional women and BBC women’s programmes, 1923-1968, 06 Sep 2019, London School of Economics
  • Breaking the Mould, 'All in it Together': women in the early BBC, 18 Jul 2019, Tolpuddle
  • Console-ing Passions, BBC Woman's Hour - From Producer to Teacher, 11 Jul 2018, Bournemouth University
  • Singularity and Solidarity: networks of women at LSE, 1895-1945, Varsity Girls? Women's Networks at the BBC in the Interwar Years, 16 Mar 2018, London School of Economics
  • Women's History Network Annual Conference, From domestic service in Canada to tiger shooting in India: the BBC and international talks for women, 1923-1939, 01 Sep 2017, University of Birmingham
  • Cross-currents: Gender and Transnational Broadcasting Workshop, Relay Women: Isa Benzie, Janet Quigley and the BBC's Foreign Department, 1930-38, 06 Jul 2017, Bournemouth University
  • Social History Conference, Talking as a 'typical housewife': Mrs Edna Thorpe and the BBC, 1935-51, 04 Apr 2017, University College London
  • Women's Work during the First World War and Interwar Years: Study Day and Workshop, “On the same footing as men"? Recruitment, mobility and pay at the BBC, 1923-32, 27 Jan 2017, Sheffield Hallam University
  • The Radio Conference, 2016, ‘She is known in every European capital’: Isa Benzie and the Foreign Department of the BBC, 1927-38, 05 Jul 2016, University of Utrecht, the Netherlands
  • Literature and the BBC, ‘Literary’ Women: Behind the Scenes at the BBC, 1923-1939, 15 Jun 2016, University of Edinburgh
  • Radio Modernisms: Features, Cultures and the BBC, ‘Outside the common round of household drudgery’? Modernity and Women’s Talks in the Interwar Years, 19 May 2016, British Library
  • Gendered Labour and Media, ‘New and important careers …’ How women excelled at the BBC, 1923-1939, 16 Feb 2016, Macquarie University, Sydney Australia
  • Women's History Network Annual Conference, “An undoubted success”: Women, Work and the BBC in the Second World War, 04 Sep 2015, University of Kent
  • MeCCSA, ‘The voice of the ordinary average listener? Mrs Edna Thorpe and BBC Talks in the Inter-war Years’, 08 Jan 2014, Bournemouth University
  • Whose History is it Anyway? Public History in Perspective, Woman’s Hour: telling history, being history, making history…, 05 Sep 2013, UCLAN
  • The Radio Conference, 2013, Vigorous and various contributions”: Women’s Voices on the BBC, 1923-1939’, 09 Jul 2013, University of Bedford
  • Centre for Media History Conference, Private v public: Revealing the BBC life of Hilda Matheson, 10 May 2013, Bournemouth University
  • Women's History Network Conference, From The Week in Westminster to What we Pay Rates For: the BBC, Citizenship and Women’s Talks, 1923-1939, 07 Sep 2012, Univeristy of Cardiff
  • Women's History Network Annual Conference, the strain of combining married life with office work.” What the BBC Marriage Bar tells us about married women’s lives in the inter-war years, 09 Sep 2011, The Women's Library, London

Consultancy Activities

  • Research consultant, Assisted in research for BBC Radio 4 drama series. Jill Waters at The Waters Company

Qualifications

  • PhD in History (University of London, 2011)

Honours

  • Graduate Certificate in Leadership and Management (Bournemouth University, 2017)
  • HEA Fellowship (Higher Education Authority, 2016)
  • PhD "On an Equal Footing with Men?" Women and Work at the BBC, 1923-1939 http://eprints.gold.ac.uk/6536/1/HIS_thesis_Murphy_2011.pdf (Universityof London, 2011)

Memberships

Networks

  • Centre for Media History, WREN: Women's Radio in Europe Network, Sound Women, Women in Film and Television Network, Southern Broadcasting History Group, Friends of the Women's Library, Fawcett Society,

External Media and Press

Broadcast Interview

The data on this page was last updated at 22:00 on February 13, 2026.