Silvia Rodgers

Silvia Rodgers, Baroness Rodgers, FRSL (3 March 1928 – 8 October 2006), née Silvia Szulman, was a German-Jewish-British writer and political activist. She was married to Bill Rodgers, Baron Rodgers of Quarry Bank.

The Right Honourable

The Lady Rodgers

FRSL
Born
Silvia Szulman

(1928-03-03)3 March 1928
Died8 October 2006(2006-10-08) (aged 78)
Occupation(s)Political activist and hostess; writer; anthropologist; dentist; sculptor
Notable workRed Saint, Pink Daughter

Early life

Rodgers was born in Wedding (Berlin) to working-class Jewish parents.[1] Her parents were members of the Communist Party of Germany.[2][3] Her mother insisted that Silvia not participate in the Nazi salute at school.[3] In an afterword to her memoir, Rodgers wrote "When I was ten and still in Berlin, I had that feeling that there was nothing I could not do".[4]

The family came to Britain in 1939.[5]

Marriage and political involvement

Silvia Szulman and Bill Rodgers married in 1955.[5] The couple had three daughters: Rachel, Lucy and Juliet.[1]

Rodgers influenced her husband's political career, particularly his decision to leave the Labour Party and set up the Social Democratic Party.[1] Bill Rodgers said that most of the child-rearing fell to Silvia and that he was neglectful; she also worked as a dentist when he was first in parliament as they were not well-off.[6] She was noted as a political hostess.[1][5] Rodgers described herself as feeling like an outsider, dislocated and marginal.[1][4]

Artistic career

Rodgers was a sculptor.[5]

Research and writing

Rodgers completed a PhD in anthropology at Oxford, on the subject of the rituals of ship-launching: The symbolism of ship launching in the Royal Navy (1983).[1]

She was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.[1]

Her writings include:

  • "Women's space in a men's house: the British House of Commons" (1981), in Women and Space: Ground Rules and Social Maps, ed. Ardener, S
  • A memoir, Red Saint, Pink Daughter: a communist childhood in Berlin and London (1996), joint winner of the Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Prize for Non-Fiction (1997)[7][8][9]
  • The Politician's Wife: life with Bill Rodgers (2007)

References
  1. Seaton, Jean (9 October 2006). "Silvia Rodgers". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  2. King, Anthony (2006). "The Outsider as Political Leader: the case of Margaret Thatcher". In Berman, Larry (ed.). The Art of Political Leadership: Essays in Honor of Fred I. Greenstein. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9780742539648. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  3. Snowman, Daniel (2003). The Hitler Emigrés: The Cultural Impact on Britain of Refugees from Nazism. Random House. ISBN 9781446405918. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  4. Rodgers, Silvia (1997). "Dancing in the Margins". Red Saint, Pink Daughter.
  5. "Lady Rodgers of Quarry Bank". The Times. 10 October 2006. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  6. "RODGERS, William (b.1928)". The History of Parliament. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  7. Rodgers, Silvia (1997). "DANCING IN THE MARGINS: Disentangling Berlin, London, the Holocaust and Life as an MP's Wife". Jewish Quarterly. 44 (3): 52–56. doi:10.1080/0449010X.1997.10706147 (inactive 1 August 2023). Retrieved 20 February 2019.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of August 2023 (link)
  8. "Jewish Quarterly Literary Prize Winners 1996 – 2000 inclusive"
  9. "News in Brief:Literary prize withdrawn for writer's 'work of fiction'". The Guardian. 29 April 2000. Retrieved 27 September 2012.
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