On Monday, I appeared on Radio 4's Woman's Hour to discuss a listener's question: is closing libraries a misogynistic act?

My answer was no.

Misogyny implies a deliberate intention to disadvantage women. Most library closures or service reductions are driven by financial and operational pressures, not hostility towards women. Local authorities are also expected to consider the impact of proposed changes on different groups through Equality Impact Assessments, and this is something that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport would expect to see when significant service changes are proposed.

However, even when closures are not driven by discriminatory intent, their impact may not be experienced equally.

Public libraries are one of the few services for which citizens have a statutory entitlement. Under the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964, local authorities have a duty to provide a "comprehensive and efficient" library service. That duty builds on a tradition stretching back to the first Public Libraries Act of 1850.

The evidence suggests that women have a particularly strong relationship with libraries. Women are 36% more likely than men to use a physical library, more likely to use digital library services, and make up around 75% of the library workforce. When library services are reduced, women are therefore more likely to feel the effects.

A relationship 176 years in the making

The connection between women and libraries is not a recent one. It runs through the history of the public library movement itself.

Since the first Public Libraries Act of 1850, libraries have been among the public institutions that have helped expand women's participation in public life.

By 1914, around 36% of British public libraries had made special provision for women readers. Some established dedicated ladies' reading rooms, with comfortable furnishings and a more welcoming atmosphere away from what one account described as the "loafers and loungers" who often occupied the main reading rooms.

These rooms contained magazines and journals selected for women readers. Some covered domestic subjects such as household management, needlework and fashion. Fashion magazines proved particularly popular, with librarians complaining that illustrations were frequently cut out and taken home. But libraries also provided access to far more radical ideas than we might assume. Through donated journals and periodicals, women could encounter publications covering women's suffrage, cycling, vegetarianism and wider social reform movements.

Libraries provided more than access to books and newspapers. They also created spaces where women could participate more fully in public life.

Librarianship was one of the first professions to offer opportunities to women. By the late nineteenth century women were not only working in libraries but, in some cases, leading them. At the People's Palace in Mile End, Constance Black served as Head Librarian and worked alongside two female deputy librarians. In 1889 she published New Career for Women: Librarians, promoting librarianship as a professional career for women.

Libraries supporting women through life's transitions

More than a century later, libraries continue to support women through different stages of life.

While libraries are universal services, many of the pressures women experience are not distributed equally. Women are more likely to shoulder caring responsibilities, more likely to experience isolation in early motherhood, and often juggle childcare, study, work and career development simultaneously. In later life, women are more likely to live alone and to experience loneliness following bereavement.

Library services across the country have developed programmes that reflect these needs.

In Suffolk, libraries run English language programmes for newly arrived women, menopause support initiatives and SEND support groups used predominantly by mothers of children with additional needs. Elsewhere, carers' cafés, wellbeing programmes and women-only groups provide opportunities for learning, confidence-building and social connection.

Libraries also support women's economic independence. Through the British Library's Business & IP Centre network, libraries provide free business advice, mentoring, market intelligence and networking opportunities. Research found that 72% of those who went on to start a business after receiving support were women, while 66% of existing businesses supported through the network were female-owned.

Libraries are not always recognised as part of the infrastructure that supports women's economic participation, but for many entrepreneurs they provide an accessible route into business ownership, skills and confidence.

The value of these services is often easiest to see through individual experiences.

Parents describe library rhyme times as a "lifeline", helping them overcome isolation during early parenthood, meet other families and build local support networks.

In Hampshire, one woman caring for her husband with dementia found companionship and respite through library groups, building friendships that later supported her through bereavement. In Staffordshire, library coffee mornings helped older women who had lost their husbands form lasting friendships, eventually travelling together on holidays they would never have contemplated alone.

Stories like these highlight the wider contribution libraries make through the confidence, relationships and opportunities they help create.

Their impact extends far beyond traditional measures such as book loans or visitor numbers.

A major Libraries Connected study estimated that library services in England generate at least £3.4 billion of social value annually through their contribution to digital inclusion, health and wellbeing, and children's literacy. The researchers concluded that libraries may generate social benefits worth at least six times their annual operating costs.

Many of the benefits identified are closely connected to issues that disproportionately affect women, including literacy, family wellbeing, digital confidence, social connection, health and employability. Libraries provide access to information, but they also help people build confidence, resilience and opportunity.

Some of the most powerful examples come from women facing difficult circumstances.

In Guernsey, the library works with the police to provide Safe2Talk, offering confidential support to women and girls who have experienced sexual harassment or abuse. The library was chosen because it is seen as a trusted community space where people may feel more comfortable seeking help than at a police station. Nine women attended the first session, underlining the demand for this type of support. The initiative has since inspired similar work elsewhere, including Redbridge.

The same library also keeps a mobile phone hidden inside a withdrawn library book for people experiencing domestic abuse. Someone can discreetly ask for the book, access support services and seek help without drawing attention to themselves.

It also reflects the role libraries now play as trusted civic spaces where people can find information, support and human connection.

Women, reading and representation

Libraries continue to think carefully about women's experience not just of public space, but of reading itself.

Recent discussion has highlighted that many bestselling crime novels centre on violence against women. In response, Coventry Libraries has been developing alternative crime fiction recommendations that retain all the appeal of the genre while broadening the range of stories and perspectives available to readers.

There is an interesting connection with those Victorian ladies' reading rooms. Then, libraries were working to widen access to publications and ideas. Today, they continue to think about representation, choice and whose stories are available on our shelves.

The relationship between women and libraries has deep roots. It has shaped the public library movement for more than a century and continues to influence services today.