Throughout history the achievements of women have been overlooked and under-represented, and this is no less true in the UK. March is Women’s History month, when we look back and celebrate the contributions of women and how they helped develop our nation. 

Until relatively recently women did not enjoy the same rights under the law as men; for example, they only gained the vote in 1918. Even then, they only had the right to vote if they owned a house. Women didn’t gain real equality, in voting terms, until 1928.  

 

It was groups such as the suffragettes, using both peaceful and more extreme forms of protest, with the aim of causing as much societal disorder as possible, that eventually helped force the then government to give women the vote. Their struggle wasn’t without sacrifice. Emily Davison, a key figure of the suffragette movement was killed during one protest, after throwing herself In front of the king’s horse during a race.  

For the vast majority of recorded history, women’s voices have been ignored and their contributions hidden, or perhaps worse still, the credit for them has been stolen by others, invariably men. Women’s history month focuses on the achievements of those in the past who were passed by at the time and celebrates the significance of what these women did, for both equality between the sexes and for their societal contributions. 

Here are some of the Women that helped to shape the UK and the world as we know it: 

Florence Nightingale 

Although known in popular mythology as “The Lady with the Lamp”, it is unclear whether her achievements in the Crimean War were exaggerated by the media at the time. This doesn’t really matter, however, as Florence Nightingale was, by any measure, one of the most remarkable people of her time, male or female, and is agreed to be the founder of modern nursing.   

 After rejecting the expected role for a woman of her status to become a wife and mother. Nightingale worked hard to educate herself in the art and science of nursing. During the Crimean War she served as a manager and trainer of nurses , organising care for wounded soldiers at Constantinople. Giving nursing a favourable reputation and becoming an icon of Victorian culture, she later established her nursing school at St Thomas’ Hospital in London, the first secular nursing school in the world. Her achievements in the profession are such that in some countries the ‘Nightingale Pledge’ is taken by new nurses, and the Florence Nightingale Medal is the highest international distinction a nurse can achieve.

What is much less well-known about her is that Nursing is only one part of a remarkable career. She was a social reformer whose reforms included improving healthcare for all sections of British society, and someone who expanded the acceptable forms of female participation in the workforce. A pioneer in statistics she developed a form of the pie chart now known as the polar area diagram. In addition to all of this Nightingale was a prolific writer, publishing a large number of books and tracts, many concerned with spreading of medical knowledge and written in simple English.

Mary Seacole  

Mary Seacole is the other famous nurse of the Crimean war. After hearing about the poor treatment of soldiers in Crimea, she offered herself to assist with nursing the wounded, and applied to the War Office to be included among the nursing contingent, but was refused. She later attributed this refusal to prejudice, but she travelled to Crimea independently anyway and set up her “British Hotel” behind the lines. She described the hotel as “a mess-table and comfortable quarters for sick and convalescent officers”.

Displaying “compassion, skills and bravery while nursing soldiers during the Crimean War” and relying on her skill and experience as a healer and a doctress from Jamaica, many have argued that she was the first nurse-practitioner. Returning to Britain after the war, she got into increasing financial trouble and was declared bankrupt. The British press highlighted her plight and a Fund was set up to help her and there was even a festival held in her honour. After her death, she was largely forgotten for almost a century, but was posthumously awarded the Jamaican Order of Merit in 1991 and in 2004 was voted the greatest black Briton, with a statue of her being erected at St Thomas’s hospital, London in 2016.  

Marie Curie 

Mare Curie was a Polish Born Chemist who had moved to Paris for a chance to study at university. She worked closely with uranium, a new and highly radioactive substance but, during her studies, noticed that some parts of the uranium were more radioactive than others, and realised that the readings couldn’t be that of the uranium alone. Despite being doubted by her peers, she continued researching and discovered a new element, polonium. She went on to find yet another element – radium.  

Marie Curie’s discoveries paved the way for much modern medicine and the treatment of cancer through radiotherapy, as it is used today.  

Ada Lovelace 

Many consider Lovelace to be the first computer programmer, long before what we would now call computer even existed. After working with Charles Babbage, who proposed an Analytical Engine (a programmable, general-purpose computer) she recognised that the machine might have applications beyond pure calculation, and published the first algorithm (programme) intended to be carried out by such a machine.

The Analytical Engine was never finished, so her work couldn’t be put to the test during her life-time, but her contributions to Mathematics and Computing cannot be underestimated and she’s now remembered through the programming language dubbed “Ada”. A hundred years ahead of her time, Ada was remarkable also because the vision she had of computers going beyond mere mathematics. She asked questions about the Analytical Engine itself and how individuals and society relate to technology.

Amelia Earhart 

Amelia Earhart was an American-born pilot who defied gender roles to pursue her passion in aviation. She set many milestones during her life, such as being the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic (second person ever) as well as the being the first person to fly from Hawaii to the mainland USA.  She received a ‘Distinguished Flying Cross’ for her trans-Atlantic flight. After placing third in the All Women’s Air Derby, she helped found the Ninety-Nines, an international organisation to help women into aviation, which is still around today and helps women from 44 different countries.   

Attempting to navigate the globe she was only 7000 miles away from completing her goal when she and her navigator Fred Noonan disappeared after losing contact with the US Coast Guard.  Investigations and significant public interest in their disappearance still continue over 80 years later.

These women and many more like them around the globe have helped push boundaries and change the world for the better. We can celebrate how far we have come in terms of equality and look back on those that paved the way.