Inspiring women I've never heard of

Maggie-Aderin Pocock

In her own words she is “black, female, dyslexic”

Following is introduction for a lecture she gave

“Physicist, engineer and TV presenter, Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock MBE, presents her remarkable story, journeying from a disadvantaged background and overcoming her dyslexia to gain a PhD in mechanical engineering, to becoming one of the most recognisable faces in space science.

As a leading British space scientist, Maggie makes frequent TV appearances, especially as presenter of The Sky At Night on BBC4. She has been BAFTA nominated for her space shows for children on CBeebies, and is a member of the World Economic Forum”

I ‘now how difficult it was for her, I did a Physics degree at London University in the early 70s. Very few women and so many male students and staff thought we should be “doing something else

Eva Rutland, the aunt of one of my long-time friends wrote a wonderful book, based on her own life: 'No Crystal Stair' the title is from a poem by Langston Hughes.

She has has received almost no acclamation and yet two other women with books of the same title have become celebrities.

Eva's book is here:
www.fantasticfiction.com/r/eva-rutland/no-crystal-stair.htm

Eva also wrote: 'When we were colored - a Mother's Story.'

www.amazon.com/When-We-Were-Colored-Mothers/dp/1934178004?tag=gransnetforum-21

JackyB Yes, Hedy Lamarr! I started my post trying to remember the person whose surprising and inspiring life story outside of Hollywood I'd recently read about.

M0nica - she certainly deserves to be commended. It's amazing how some people can have such determination and ability to work towards their future. I'm sure I would have been unable to cope with everything that life threw at her.

Google has made a point of commemorating women who have made incredible achievements - most laudable.

I was aware of Ada Lovelace and Mary Seacole, and would add Hedy Lamarr and Caroline Herschel to the list.

Here is an article showing that Hedy Lamarr was not just a pretty face.

I saw this story online this morning. Now this is a young woman of achievement www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-49485250

It seems odd to me that at my age I'm only just finding out about the achievements of so many women, like those listed below, who were intentionally left in the shadows of husbands, peers, etc.

~~WWII Codebreaker Elizebeth Friedman who was her husband's equal, though he received almost all of the credit

~~NASA scientists Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson whose stories are told in Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race

~~The women who wanted to have access to reporter positions and sued Newsweek over gender discrimination

My grandmother gave me a book of women's biographies called Women of Courage when I was 10 and I remember reading about Margaret Mead, Amelia Earhart, Susan B. Anthony, etc. and feeling so impressed and inspired by all they'd done and, yet, I still went on to be a teacher.

And then there's Rosalind Franklin whose work led to the discovery of DNA.
It was suggested by Watson & Crick that she should be listed on the Nobel Prize they shared with Williams, but there was no provision for awarding it posthumously and Rosamund had died at 37 of ovarian cancer.

Sarah Moore Grimké, very much ahead of her time. Certainly Mary Seacole and Elsie Locke.

GrandMattie. Could the SOE agent you're thinking of be Noor Inayat Khan?
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noor_Inayat_Khan

Very interesting thread, it's been marvellous reading these posts.

www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/philanthropist-multimillionaire-dame-stephanie-shirley-giving/

Virginia Hall. She was an Allied spy in France during WW2. At one time she was just about the only spy they had there, and later she was the Gestapo’s most wanted spy in France. She was incredibly brave, and so good at her job she was never caught (despite having the extra challenge of a wooden leg). She led the Resistance in the département she was in, and they liberated it before the Allies liberated Paris.
A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of WWII's Most Dangerous Spy, Virginia Hall www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0349010188/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_xP-DDbTN2WZ2Z?tag=gransnetforum-21

(5 stars on Amazon.)

Ah yes, Steve Shirley. I knew a couple of women who worked for F International, her female only company in the 1980’s.

I got an email from Gransnet asking me to complete a survey on inspiring women - I couldn't think of a single one!!

May I suggest this book for sharing with DGCs.
A favourite of ours.

Mary Seacole (1805 -1881), a black Jamaican-born nurse who was the daughter of a Scottish soldier. She had nursing experience, particularity with tropical diseases and she nursed in the Crimean War. Mary was turned down by the War Office and by Florence Nightingale's nursing team, when she applied to join them, most likely because of her colour. However she travelled to the Crimea at her own expense, and obtained special passes in order to care for the wounded and dying on both sides. Mary's contribution to nursing has been compared to that of Florence Nightingale.

The Radium Girls- They were a group of women poisoned at work and brought their cases to court which had historical impact for the labor movement, health physics and science- What their bodies were subjected to as a result of radium exposure was nightmarish -

Babbage invented the computer. Ada Lovelace did the maths. The first ever programmer.

In the same field of endeavour Dame Stephanie 'Steve' Shirley, who came over as a child refugee from Germany on the Kindertransport and founded a software company that employed only women at a time when women in computing were not taken seriously, She found she needed to call herself 'Steve', when contacting people on business so that they thought she was a man! www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/4s0xGFrTYm9GMPD1KD4Tg9S/dame-stephanie-steve-shirley

The Violette Szabo museum is just round the corner from us - it was started by her aunt who lives in the cottage, where Violette spent many summers, and stayed between missions.

This is the poem that was used as a code during the 2nd WW and which is closely associated with her.

The life that I have
Is all that I have
And the life that I have
Is yours.
The love that I have
Of the life that I have
Is yours and yours and yours.
A sleep I shall have
A rest I shall have
Yet death will be but a pause.
For the peace of my years
In the long green grass
Will be yours and yours and yours.

Mary Barbour from Glasgow. Organiser of the Rent Strikes in 1915, active in many other roles as well.

WOODMOUSE49 Vera Brittain was also the mother of Baroness Shirley Williams.

There were very many heroines in SOE who haven’t been lionised. One was the Iranian princess, whose name escapes me. Not least was my cousin, Lise de Baissac, who was the first SOE person to be parachuted into France. She died aged 99 a few years ago. A most interesting woman.

Vera Britten is one of my top favourite people.
I have read her book I think 3 times and loved the film with an actress whose name i have forgotten but is also very good in it.
To me she really makes vivid that terrible time and I cried for the loss of life.

One of my hero's was my midwife who was also a nurse in the Spanish Civil War. OK she's not famous but she represents to me the women that went out there to help.

Martha Gellhorn also went to Spain at that time. She was a writer/journalist and later a well known travel writer. She lived the life she wanted to live and cared about other people. I admire her.

I hadn't heard of Ada Lovelace but thought someone called Babbage invented the first computer.

Lyudmila Pavlichenko...one of the finest military snipers of all time, from WW2.
I also find the story of the 'Night Witches' fascinating, again from Russia. These female pilots flew in old planes on bombing mission's.
Tremendously brave!