Inspiring women I've never heard of

I hadn't heard of her, she sounds a wonderful person. But I knew about the leprosy hospitals in Pakistan.
Younger son ended up there as a student and later got a teaching job there. He married an english girl and she went out there and worked in one of those hospitals. They weren't there long, sounds like a very difficult place to live.
One of my heroines is Simone Veil
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_Veil
What a life she had, after surviving Auschwitz.

I've learned about a few people on these but sadly my brain cells are such that I cannot recall a single one of them at this moment.

Here are more women you my not have heard of: www.amazon.co.uk/Woman-Rode-Shark-Women-Adventurers/dp/074958114X/ref=asc_df_074958114X/?hvlocphy=1007361&linkCode=df0&hvptwo&psc=1&psc=1&hvnetw=g&hvadid=208279258722&hvpone&hvlocint&th=1&hvpos=1o1&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl&hvqmt&tag=gransnetforum-21&hvtargid=pla-683204400395&hvrand=12499909037027580959 written by our niece!!

I am sure I would discover unknowns if I bought this year"s Body S**p beauty advent calendar. Strange idea though - pull out a lip gloss and discover an inspirational woman - whatever next! By the way, sorry to hint at the C word in September

Back in early 1980s I decided to do some adult education sessions and one was A level Literature. One book was 'Testament of Youth' by Vera Brittain. I'd never heard of her but her life experiences inspired me.

Vera Mary Brittain was an English Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse, writer, feminist, and pacifist. Her best-selling 1933 memoir Testament of Youth recounted her experiences during the First World War and the beginning of her journey towards pacifism.

I've always been inspired by the courage of Violette Szabo, an agent in the second world war who died for her country and never came home to her family. They made a film of her life 'Carve her name with pride'. I visited the German hospital in Jersey many years ago and there were photo's of her on the wall. She bore a strong resemblance to Ingrid Bergman and I read they wanted her to play Violette in the film but she turned it down. Violette was a posthumous recipient of the George Cross.

Artemisia Gentileschi
It's only in recent times that women artists have been 'discovered' and Artemesia was one of them, so for me she represents the hundreds of women artists throughout the centuries whose biographies have been suppressed but will hopefully 'emerge' in due course. To say her personal life was difficult is an understatement. She was raped as a teenager and to verify her claims , she was tortured. While her rapist was banished this judgment was never carried out. Artemesia pushed through and made a living as a painter.

Agree with Szabo, actually watched the film again) a couple of weeks ago. I'm always ferreting about in our 4 local libraries for interesting biographies/life stories. My reading is extremely eclectic!

Vera Britten is/was the mother of the well known Parliamentarian, Shirley Williams.

Ada Lovelace, Lord Byron's daughter, an amazing woman, her work on Babbage's Counting Machine was so important the Alan Turin used it in his work on the Enigma machine. She basically 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!

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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 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 -

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.

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

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

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

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.)

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