Selina Cooper was a suffragist and the first woman to represent the Independent Labour Party when elected as a Poor Law Guardian. “Women do not want their political power to enable them to boast that they are on equal terms with the men. They want to use it for the same purpose as men …
This weeks biography of a woman in history was submitted by Claire Healey Marie Stopes – Sex Advisor Extraordinaire Marie Stopes began her career as a scientist, studying botany and geology. She excelled in academia (despite the fact that she was initially not allowed to attend lectures, and after taking, and passing the same examinations as …
This weeks Illustrated Women in History was submitted by Rachel Nesbitt. Elsie Inglis Born 16th August 1864 in India, then moved to Edinburgh with her Father. She was a medical doctor as well as a suffrage campaigner. In 1887 Inglis started her studies at the Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women, then at the University …
This weeks Illustrated Women in History was submitted by Clare Butler for the Illustrated Women in History exhibition 2017 at Swindon Central Library. Dame Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) was a woman once described as an armoured tank drawing enemy fire. She was a celebrated composer, author, musician, enthusiastic golfer, and, in her own words, a ‘militant …
This weeks Illustrated Woman in History was drawn by Lily Grace Stewart (age 6) and submitted to be a part of the next Illustrated Women in History zine and exhibition in April 2017. Mary Eliza Mahoney was the first black professional nurse in the U.S. She co-founded the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN), …
Doria Shafik was a feminist and founder of the Bint al-Nil Union who became one of the leaders of the women’s liberation movement in Egypt in the mid-1940s. Her efforts led to Egyptian women being granted the right to to vote by the Egyptian constitution. Shafik was born in 1908 in Tanta, in the Nile …
Constance Markievicz, known as Countess Markievicz was an Irish Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil politician, revolutionary nationalist, suffragette and socialist. She was both the first woman elected to the British Parliament and the only woman to serve in the first Dáil Éireann (Irish Assembly). Markievicz was born in 1868 and grew up at Lissadell, her …
Farrokhroo Parsa was an Iranian physician, educator and parliamentarian. She served as Minister of Education of Iran during the Pahlavi Dynasty and was the first female cabinet minister of an Iranian government. Parsa was born in 1922 in Qom, Iran. Her mother, Fakhr’e Afagh Parsa was the editor of the women’s magazine, Jahan’e Zan (The …
Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist, feminist and poet best known for her novel Little Women. Alcott was born in 1812 in Germantown, Pennsylvania. She grew up in Boston and Concord, Massachusetts, and from a young age she would write stories which she and her sisters would act out for friends. Her father briefly …
Aletta H. Jacobs was the first woman to officially attend a Dutch University and the first female physician in the Netherlands. She was also a women’s suffrage activist and inventor. Jacobs was born in 1854 in Sappemeer, Netherlands to Abraham Jacobs, a physician and Anna de Jongh. From an early age, Jacobs would accompany her …