Audrey Hepburn - Wonderful Woman No. 30

Audrey Hepburn - 1929-1993
British Actress

Added to the album by a wonderful woman called Tara

Audrey Hepburn is a legend.
Alison, A Wonderful Woman

I quite agree with Alison's sentiments about Audrey... another fantastic suggestion from Tara.

Like Marilyn Monroe (Wonderful Woman No. 5 - http://iamawonderfulwoman.blogspot.com/2012/01/marilyn-monroe-wonderful-woman-no-5.html ), Audrey has that indescribable something, that just makes her a little more special than the rest. A sparkle, that is instantly captured in the imagination, that thing that can't be bottled or manufactured, it just... is.

The first time I remember seeing the sparkle of Audrey Hepburn was watching her as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady. I was captivated by her transformation from coarse eastender to well-spoken lady. I actually remember practising "Hurricanes hardly happen, in Hertford, Hereford and Hampshire," wanting to speak in the perfect English lilt.

Audrey later sparkled into my life again when I saw her as Holly Golightly in the iconic 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany's. I was mesmerised by her sashaying through the film in the most exquisite wardrobe, carefree, bohemian and a complete individual. I have read that this was her most challenging role, funny that the most challenging was also her most recognisable.

She appeared in many other films, was an oscar winner, a grammy winner and recieved countless other accolades in her career. She was and remains, one of the biggest style icons the world has ever known and has been an inspiration to many designers, fashion editors and women of style.

You look at Audrey Hepburn. She had that kind of elegance and yet was accessible.
Tom Cruise

As well as a wonderful film career and a legacy of timeless style, Audrey should also be considered a wonderful woman for her humanitarian work with UNICEF. Audrey had been born in Brussels (her father was English, her mother Dutch) and had spent some of her early life in Britain before moving to The Netherlands in 1939 because her parents believed that the country would remain neutral during the second World War. When the country was occupied by the Nazis, the Hepburn family found themselves trapped. After the D-Day Landings in 1944, living conditions within The Netherlands became ever more difficult, the Nazis blocked supply routes, leaving the people without food or fuel often starving or freezing to death.

Audrey survived this but the impact of living through such hardship had a profound effect on her. She is said to have often spoken of the thought of children suffering and dying, the thoughts consumed her. She became a Ambassador of UNICEF and went on numerous missions with the cause, including work in Ethiopia, Turkey, South America and Somalia.

I went into rebel country and saw mothers and their children who had walked for ten days, even three weeks, looking for food, settling onto the desert floor into makeshift camps where they may die. Horrible. That image is too much for me. The 'Third World' is a term I don't like very much, because we're all one world. I want people to know that the largest part of humanity is suffering.
Audrey Hepburn

There are a great many things that made Audrey sparkle, a great many things that made her different and wonderful.

Anne Frank - Wonderful Woman No. 29

Anne Frank - 1929-1945
German-Dutch Diarist

Added to the album by a wonderful woman called Tara

It is worth noting, that we will never really know how wonderful a woman Anne would have grown to be... she was just a girl really but a truly wonderful one at that.

It is important that we read the diary of this woman in school, that children are taught to understand the suffering one human can cause another. Reading her diary, when I was just a girl myself, had a profound effect on me and continues to influence people the world over, more than six decades after it was written.

Annelies Marie Frank was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Her family moved to Amsterdam when Anne was four years old due to the Nazis gaining power of Germany. In 1941, she lost her German citizenship because of her Jewish faith and the anti-Semitic Nazi rule. Sadly, this move did not secure the Frank family's future, as the Nazis later gained occupation of The Netherlands.

Stories of the persecution of Jews by the regime filtered into Amsterdam. In July 1942, in fear of their lives, the entire Frank family went into hiding in the attic building of Anne's father's office building. They were later joined in their secret hiding place by another Jewish family, the Van Pels and later again by a Jewish dentist. This left seven people spending every moment of every day in the cramped rooms for a little over two years.

Anne kept a constant log of the daily occurrences within the secret refuge. She wrote about the Nazi occupation and the war of course but also about her feelings, her thoughts her dreams and aspirations. She wrote about her relationship with her mother and the others in her family. She wrote about her desire to return to school and to have a career in journalism once the war was over. And touchingly, she wrote about the feelings she experienced towards Peter van Pels, the son of the family whom they shared their space. About their first kiss and about her fears that the romance was not genuine but rather due to the situation they found themselves flung together by.

All those jokes about marrying Peter if we stayed here long enough weren’t so silly after all. Not that I’m thinking of marrying him, mind you. I don’t even know what he’ll be like when he grows up. Or if we’ll even love each other enough to get married.
Anne Frank

In August 1944, the Nazis where tipped off about the attic hiding place. The building was stormed and the occupants arrested. Anne's diary was left behind, collected with some family photographs by local people.

The following month, Anne was deported to Auschwitz. The women were separated from the men, forced to strip naked to be disinfected, their heads were shaved and tattooed with identification numbers. Still only fifteen years old, Anne found herself a slave to hard labour and spent her nights in cramped and squalid huts. For the seven months Anne spent in Auschwitz, she believed her father had been sent to the gas chamber, with the many others she knew to have died in this horrific way. In late October 1944, Anne and her sister Margot were transported to Bergen-Belsen, her mother left behind to die of starvation. It was here, in Bergen-Belsen, that Anne and Margot died during an epidemic of typhus, which killed in the region of 17,000 prisoners.

Anne's father had not been gassed in Auschwitz, as Anne had believed. He survived and after the war, returned to Amsterdam where he was given the salvage from their attic hide-out, including Anne's diary. So moved by her diary and by her repeated statements of desire to become a writer, he passed the diary to those who he believed would publish her memoirs. The diary was first published in 1950 with the title Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. It was and is internationally successful and Anne's writing critically acclaimed.

Through her candid accounts of her life, Anne has become the most famous and discussed victim of the Holocaust and reminds us that whatever our differences, we are all just people with thoughts and feelings and ambition and hope.

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.
Anne Frank

Thank you Tara for making this most wonderful addition.

Tori Amos - Wonderful Woman No. 28

Tori Amos - Born 1963
American Singer, Songwriter and Musician

Added to the album by a wonderful woman called Tara

An awesome lyricist and musician and an open and honest rape survivor.
Tara

I have to admit, though I know some of Tori's music and I remember her provocative performance of Cornflake Girl on Top of the Pops (and how it was the hot topic at school the next day), I knew little else about her until Tara added her to the album. I did not know that she was a rape survivor. Since reading about her in order to write this blog, I have learned that she is not only extremely gifted and talented but also that she is a strong, emotionally aware, creative and just woman, who is a deserved entry in this album. So a huge credit to Tara for suggesting her.

I have learned that Tori had started to learn and master playing the piano at the age of two and that by the age of five had earned a scholarship to attend a celebrated music school. While still in high school, Tori began to play gigs in bars and clubs. Her first single was released when she was still only seventeen. And at the age of twenty-one, Tori moved to Los Angeles to further her career.

It was in L.A. that Tori became the victim of a horrific and violent sexual attack. She had performed at a gig and had chatted to a guy in the audience afterwards and had been persuaded to drive him home. She was then subjected to being held at knife point, being brutally raped and repeatedly told that she would be murdered that night.

The idea was to take me to his friends and cut me up, and he kept telling me that, for hours. And if he hadn't needed more drugs I would have been just one more news report, where you see the parents grieving for their daughter. And I was singing hymns, as I say in the song, because he told me to. I sang to stay alive. Yet I survived that torture, which left me urinating all over myself and left me paralyzed for years. That's what that night was all about, mutilation, more than violation through sex.
Tori Amos

Not only did Tori survive, she survived to tell her story through music and in doing so, has helped other survivors of sexual abuse and assault to feel understood and many have said her music has assisted them in coming to terms with what they have endured. Tori co-founded RAINN, The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network which operates as a hotline for those in crisis, as well as having programmes to prevent sexual assault, help victims and to ensure that rapists are brought to justice. Tori was the spokeswoman for the campaign (a position now taken by Christina Ricci) and speaks openly about her own experiences. She has donated proceeds from album sales and concert tours to the cause, as well as dedicating her time and experience as often as possible.

Tori's career as a musician has been hugely successful, particularly in the 1990s where she had hits internationally with songs that remain popular, such as Crucify, Cornflake Girl and Professional Widow. She has produced twelve albums between 1992 and 2011 and has been nominated for a plethora of awards. As a touring artist, Tori is legendary, indeed Rolling Stone Magazine voted her the fifth best touring artist in 2003.

Tori Amos has survived so much, achieved so much and created so much, an amazing, strong and wonderful, wonderful woman.

Long Distance Clara - Wonderful Woman No. 27

Long Distance Clara from Pigeon Street (1981)
Fictional British Truck Driver

Pigeon Street was a children's television programme that focused on the lives of characters living on an everyday street, a street that also was home to a number of pigeons. Long Distance Clara was one of the residents, she was married to Hugo the Cook (who always had her dinner on the table after a hard days work) and drove around in a juggernaut.

When I was a child, I did not play with dollies and skipping ropes. I preferred trucks and footballs, I was labelled a Tom-boy and climbed trees and went fishing with my dad. Strawberry Shortcake and Barbie did nothing for me, the only doll I ever played with was a Sindy given to me by my Grandfather, she was a mechanic who wore a red overall and had a tool box, I pretended she fixed my trucks and scalextric cars. So when Clara appeared in Pigeon Street, she was exactly the role model I was looking for, I loved her.

Sarah Daniels - Wonderful Woman No. 26

Sarah Daniels - Born 1957
British Playwright & Screen Writer

Firstly, I must apologise about the picture used. I searched and searched for a photography of the dramatist herself but could not find a picture of her anywhere. Sarah Daniels is one of my favourite playwrights and really a woman who had a massive influence on the way I think, so even without a portrait of her, I could not have left her out of the album.

In high school, drama was my passion. As mentioned in my previous entry about my Great-Aunt, Barbara Jackson (Wonderful Woman No. 17: http://iamawonderfulwoman.blogspot.com/2012/01/barbara-jackson-wonderful-woman-no-17.html ), I had performed on stage from the age of five and had always wanted to be a performer. My drama teacher at high school was another wonderful woman, Annie Cubbin. I attended a school in the north of England where expectation for pupils was pretty low, in my entire school career I never heard anyone other than Ms. Cubbin use the word university, the school did not have a sixth form facility - those of us who did go on to do our A-levels had to find somewhere else to do them, I felt we were being steered towards thinking about work as secretaries and manual workers (though many of us went on to do other things), one great thing the school did have was excellent drama facility and a handful of teachers who actually cared about the lives their pupils had before them. Annie was young, vivacious and completely different to any other teacher in the school. She talked to us about travelling the world, feminism and equality. She took a group of us to a three day residential course at a university and enrolled is in a number of drama competitions, showcases at various locations and entered three of us in a girl's public speaking competition (for which I still treasure the medal I was awarded). She wanted us to understand the world outside the tiny part of it we happened to be being raised in.

In my last year at the school, she curated a show made up of scenes from a number of plays that all had strong female characters. I was given a scene from Masterpieces by Sarah Daniels, I played a social worker called Rowena who was visiting one of her clients, a prostitute called Hillary. I wasn't given the full play, just that scene, which I loved. I thought my character was strong and interesting. And my teacher spoke so passionately about it... the name of the play stuck in my head.

A few years later, I was studying performing arts and looking for pieces with a powerful message and once again, strong female characters. Masterpieces popped back into my head and I headed off to buy a copy of the script from a local book shop.

There are very few things you will read that will actually change your life but as I sat an read Masterpieces as a woman in my early twenties, I came to a few realisations about the world. About the objectification of women and how some men perceive women. It changed my attitude towards the media, the way women are pictured in magazines and it made me angry about sections of our society. For writing that play, for giving me that window into a life I knew nothing about, I am so grateful for Sarah Daniels and have been in awe of her ever since.

Masterpieces, is of course, not her only work. She has wrote several that focus on a strong female message covering violence, sexual abuse and oppression, two volumes of her plays have been published - I have not read them all but have been impressed by those that I have. Sarah has also written for television, including episodes of Eastenders, Grange Hill and Holby City.

With her late civil-partner, Claire Walton (who died in 2009), Sarah has been actively involved in promoting social justice, equal opportunities and education.

Josephine Baker - Wonderful Woman No. 25

Josephine Baker - 1906-1975
African-American-French Singer, Dancer, Spy and Political Activist

Added to the album by a wonderful man called Owain.

A fascinating, amazing woman.
Owain

I have to agree with Owain's comment about Josephine Baker, fascinating is possibly the most accurate word to describe the lady who was at the forefront of so many events that changed the world. I have considered that it might be difficult to write about the suggested additions to the album, other people's influences and inspirations, often suggested without an explanation... I have no such worries about writing about this wonderful woman, a woman whose existence should be inspirational to all.

Born in the United States, with grandparents who had been enslaved, Josephine Baker (born Freda Josephine McDonald) had a turbulent early life. At the age of eight whilst still in school, she worked for a white woman who abused her by burning her hands for putting too much soap in the laundry. It was at a time that such appalling behaviour was tolerated - white woman good, black girl bad. At the age of twelve, Josephine had left school and was living on the streets of St. Louis, dancing on street corners for money to feed herself.

The most sensational woman I ever saw.
Ernest Hemmingway

It was whilst performing her street dances that her talent was spotted and she was recruited to work in a vaudeville show. She became hugely successful in the United States, billed as "The Highest Paid Chorus Girl in Vaudeville". In 1925, Josephine performed in Paris, France for the first time, opening at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. She became an overnight star in Paris and fitted well with the new-wave of art-deco culture following the Exposition des Arts Décoratifs, she modelled the look of the day and was considered a muse for the creatives of the time, such as Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, and Christian Dior. She adopted France as her homeland, later marrying a Frenchman and becoming a French citizen.

I swear in all my life I have never, and probably never shall see again, such a spectacular singer and performer."
Shirley Bassey, Another Wonderful Woman

By the outbreak of the second World War, Josephine was a dedicated French national and understood Hitler's stance on race, not only was she black, her French husband was also Jewish. She performed and frequented parties that were attended by German, Japanese and Italian political workers and supporters, none suspected that the star of the show they saw in a Parisian café would be reporting back to the French government any secrets she happened to have overheard. Later, when Paris was invaded by the Germans, Josephine fled Paris to her summer home in the south where she aided and homed Belgian refugees, her profession allowed her to continue to travel throughout neutral European countries and in this time, Josephine worked for the French Resistance by carrying secret documents written within her music sheets and pinned notes to her underwear. After the war, General Charles de Gaulle noted and thanked Josephine for her efforts with a number of military decorations.

You may think that after the war, Josephine had done her bit for making the world a better place and settled back into café culture performing... think again. During the 1950s, although still living in France, Josephine became actively involved in The Civil Rights Movement in the United States. When travelling to the U.S. to work, Josephine refused to perform in front of segregated audiences. She adopted twelve orphans of multiple ethnicities, she called her family The Rainbow Tribe. She publicly admonished a New York club owner for racist treatment against her, this was witnessed by actress Grace Kelly, who supported her claim and later became a great friend to Josephine. In 1963, Martion Luther King made his legendary I Have A Dream speech at The Great March on Washington, the only woman to speak at the rally was Josephine . Indeed, after the assassination of Martin Luther King, his window asked Josephine to become the leader of the campaign (though Josephine declined saying her adopted children were too young to lose their mother).

I'm not intimidated by anyone. Everyone is made with two arms, two legs, a stomach and a head. Just think about that.
Josephine Baker

And, well, that's just the edited highlights of a life that contained so many other fascinating moments.

I cannot imagine a more wonderful woman.

Betty Ford - Wonderful Woman No. 24

Betty Ford - 1918-2011
American First Lady, Political Activist, Charity Worker and Author

It was once my opinion that the wife of the President of the United States did little more than look presentable in a twin-set & pearls, smile, wave and be pictured kissing her husband on special occasions. That was before I started to read about Betty Ford.

Betty was the wife of President Gerald Ford, who led the U.S.A. from 1975 to 1977. Throughout her time as First Lady, Betty openly commented on topical issues and was widely opposed by many conservative Republicans, who did not appreciate her liberal views.

Betty and her husband believed themselves to be equal partners in their marriage. She was a feminist, who strongly supported the equality of women in society. During the 1970s, Betty was a prominent activist in the Women's Movement and was a lobbiest for the Equal Rights Amendment. She also made statements about being pro-choice on abortion, endorsed the medicinal use of cannabis, supported the campaign for equal pay and spoke candidly about her thoughts on gun control. While her views were abhorrent to some, opinion polls during Gerald's presidency were always favourable, 75% saying they supported the First Lady.

Whilst she was First Lady, Betty was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent treatment, including a mastectomy. Betty was open about her illness with the public, this raised awareness of the illness and raised the number of women diagnosed with having breast cancer, as the media's focus on her illness prompted more to check for lumps and seek medical attention for any irregularities. After her recovery, Betty continued to support cancer charities and to raise awareness of the illness.

I was the wife of the President... and brought before the public this particular experience I was going through. It made a lot of women realize that it could happen to them. I'm sure I've saved at least one person — maybe more.
Betty Ford

By the late 1970s, Betty had become addicted to alcohol and prescription drugs. In 1978, Gerald and other members of the Ford family decided to intervene, her husband Gerald telling her "You know, we love you too much to let this happen". Betty was admitted to hospital and treated for her substance addiction and dependence. Following her release from treatment, Betty established The Betty Ford Centre, which to this day operates as a not-for-profit recovery programme, offering both inpatient and outpatient services, as well as a support and education programme for those close to people with drug and alcohol addictions. It is this that really became Betty's life work, she wrote a number of books on the subject, campaigned for awareness of the cause and effect of substance misuse and left a wonderful legacy of hope for those in need.

I'm very honoured and proud to be the No. 2 in the Ford family, I'm Betty Ford's husband.
Gerald Ford

Annie Nightingale - Wonderful Woman No. 23

Annie Nightingale - Born 1942
British DJ

Radio 1 was a massive part of my formative years. I listened to it almost constantly. I remember rushing home from school to listen to my favourite show, Steve Wright in the afternoon and on a weekly basis trying to tape my favourite songs from the Top 40, without catching Mark Goodier's voice. I used to think when I grew older, I would still always listen to Radio 1, that I would keep up with what was in the charts and not be like my mother, listening to Radio 2 and Classic FM. I now do both of those things, of course, and very, very rarely switch to Radio 1 these days.

Annie Nightingale was the first female presenter on the station, she began broadcasting her first show on New Years Day 1970. Since the death of John Peel, Annie is now the longest serving presenter at the station. She has presented a variety of shows including the genres of progressive rock, punk, breaks and most foundly remembered by me is her Chill Out Zone, where she played a variety of laid-back 'dance' (for want of a better word) music.

I am a female DJ myself, I present a show on local radio, I would say Annie is definitely an inspiration in this respect. There are plenty of other girls on the radio these days and playing in the clubs, even so, Annie paved the way for us. She has a fantastic broadcasting style but most importantly, she has the knowledge about what she is playing and can convey this without sounding too much like a music encyclopaedia preaching at the listener through the airwaves. What's more, it is clear that she loves the music she plays and that is what I want, not just someone gabbing away in between a playlist of songs they care nothing about.

I think the relationship between a DJ and audience should be intensely personal and connected. Like sex really.
Annie Nightingale

The only way to end this entry is with one of Annie's favourite songs;

Valentina Tereshkova - Wonderful Woman No. 22

Valentina Tereshkova - Born 1937
Russian Astronaut (Cosmonaut)

When I was young, I used to sit on my window ledge at night looking out into the black of the night. Sometimes, I would feel frightened and overwhelmed by the vastness of what was out there, the unending space and that myself and, indeed, the Earth we live on are just tiny, insignificant pieces of the universe, a grain of sand on an enormous beach.

On June 16th 1963, Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to be launched into space. She was not a trained Cosmonaut, Valentina became an honorary member of the USSR's Air Force on the condition that she join the Comosnaut programme. This was because the Russians had decided to test the effects space travel would have on the female body.

Valentina was selected for the role as she was an accomplished parachutist and skydiver. She was twenty-six years old at the time, fit, healthy and mentally determined.

She spent almost three days in space and orbited the Earth forty-eight times. During this time, Valentina kept a detailed log and took photographs, later these were used in identifying aerosol layers within our atmosphere.

Once you've been in space, you appreciate how small and fragile the Earth is.
Valentina Tereshkova

Valentina was a woman who did something I can only dream of. A true pioneer, an inspiration and a wonderful woman who boldly went where no woman had gone before.

Victoria Wood - Wonderful Woman No. 21

Victoria Wood - Born 1953
British Comedienne, Screenwriter, Actress, Singer, Songwriter & Director

I have loved Victoria Wood for as long as I can remember.

When I was young, my family and I used to stay in the same apartment every year on family holidays, the apartment had a VHS and an extremely limited video collection. One of those videos was Victoria Wood. I must have seen that same video more than a hundred times, it never failed to make me laugh.

Victoria was born in Prestwich, Manchester not too far from where I grew up myself. She first found fame on the TV Talent show New Faces.

Since the early 1980s, Victoria has wrote comedy shows and appeared on British screens in various guises. Her sketches and sitcoms are whimsical windows into every day life, she is a brilliant spectator of social interactions, British culture and makes the mundane entertaining and laughable.

She appears in many of her work in a less than glamorous character, seemingly unafraid of how she looks or sounds. There is one sketch that I remember particularly well, she plays a young girl planning to swim the English Channel. The spoof documentary is filled with pathos, her parents appear but seem uninterested and unimpressed by their daughter's ambitions and the day she sets out to swim only the documentary's film crew are there to see her off. Indeed, she goes missing at sea but nobody seems to notice that this is a worry. Victoria plays the part so seriously, even though the situation is filled with comedy. She allows her buxom figure to be filmed in a rather unflattering one-piece swimsuit and covers her head with a ridiculous swimming cap. Indeed, she looks ridiculous. And it is that she is strong enough to allow herself to look ridiculous for the sketch to work that I admire about her. She is fearless, determined, as well as wonderfully talented.

My mother has always been a particular fan of Acorn Antiques, the spoof soap-opera with over-the-top acting and wobbly sets. It really is quite brilliant.

Also, special mentions to her fantastic work as a stand-up and for writing some amazingly hilarious songs.

Victoria Wood is too alive and too productive to be talked of merely as an historic event, but it would a mistake to leave that aspect out, because modern television would be a lesser thing if she had not first broken down so many barriers.
Clive James

Last year, I watched Victoria act her socks off in a non-comedic role as a young Eric Morecame's mother in the BBC Play, Eric & Ernie (which she also co-produced).

There are, of course, many other shows I could write about with equal admiration and enthusiasm. I could list awards she has won and critical acclaim she has received. It was never my intention to write biographies, just to say what makes these women wonderful in my eyes... with Victoria Wood, everything I have know her to do makes her wonderful to me.

Carrie Bradshaw - Wonderful Woman No. 20

Carrie Bradshaw played by Sarah Jessica Parker in the TV Series Sex and the City
Fictional American Writer

The main reason for my inclusion of Carrie Bradshaw as a Wonderful Woman is the enviable way this woman is kept in $400 shoes by writing about who she has or has not been sleeping with at the time. Where does a girl sign up for this job? Count me in.

What do I know about men? All I have is a bunch of failed relationships..
Carrie Bradshaw

My hero!
Alison, A Wonderful Woman

I must confess, watching Sex and the City and following the lives of the four main characters; Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha, was always something of a cathartic experience for me. I think many women can identify with at least one of these women and the scenarios they faced during the show. That's what made it popular, it was like it just got us, single, modern women.

The show was made between 1998 and 2004, there were two feature films (I only saw the first, didn't make much of it so haven't bothered with the second). It was a talking point with my girl friends, something we loved watching together while drinking cocktails, something we laughed at, cried at and in places winced with embarrassment at. It didn't change our lives and when it was over, it was just over but for a time, Carrie... in fact all four of the girls were pretty darn wonderful to us.

Emmeline Pankhurst - Wonderful Woman No. 19

Emmeline Pankhurst - 1858-1928
British Political Activist & Leader of the British Suffragette Movement

Isn't worrying that we live in a society where it is likely that girls and young women will have a greater knowledge of The Kardishans than of The Pankhursts?

There are a great many things to say about Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christobel, Sylvia and Adela. They were women with a firm goal in mind, fearless in how they would achieve it and never faltering in their determination - these facts alone make them wonderful women to me.

Emmeline Pankhurst was born in urban Moss Sides, Manchester to politically active parents. She was educated in Paris. She was a socialist, a feminist and a humanist, she spent time working as a Poor Law Guardian in Manchester Workhouses, overwhelmed with sadness and anger at the conditions it's inhabitants lived in. She married a barrister (Richard Pankhurst), who was known for his support of women's right to vote. It was he who encouraged her to become involved with the Women's Franchise League, which advocated suffrage for women. After his death, Emmeline set up an all women organisation, the Women's Social and Political Union.

Headed by Emmeline, the Women's Social and Political Union became the front line militant organisation campaigning for Votes for Women. The organisation used the slogan Deeds Not Words, it saw activists carrying out acts of violence, throwing rocks at windows - including that of the Prime Minister, a catalogue of arson attacks, criminal damage and numerous marches demanding that women be given the right to have a say in who governed their country.

She shaped an idea of women for our time; she shook society into a new pattern from which there could be no going back.
Time Magazine

This action saw many members of the Women's Social and Political Union, including Emmeline herself, in prison. Still their dedication to the cause was unyielding, hunger strikes were a common tactic used in prison. Still the British Government refused to allow a woman the right to chose their leader.

Justice and judgment lie often a world apart.
Emmeline Pankhurst

During the First World War, Emmeline felt that the threat from Germany was so great that she called a truce with the government. She even spoke and campaigned to encourage men to join the forces and for women to rally with the war effort. In post-war Britain, the action of The Suffragettes and the work of women during the war could not be ignored.

In 1918, The Representation of the People Act allowed women over the age of 30 the right to vote. This still did not make women equal to men, they had the right to vote from the age of 21, full electoral equality did not come into place until 1928. Even so, the work of Emmeline, her daughters and all other suffragettes was recognised, they achieved their goal and made Britain a fairer, more equal place for women.

As someone who until the age of twelve only knew a female Prime Minister in the United Kingdom, the way life was for women in Britain before the successes of Emmeline and the other suffragettes is unfathomable.



Unthinkably, there are still countries in the world today that fail to allow half of the human race a say in who governs them. In 2011, it was finally announced that women of Saudi Arabia will be given the right to vote (though in a country where women require the permission of a male relative to see a doctor, it remains to be seen if this will be a fair vote), activists there have been campaigning for 20 years on women's right to drive, guardianship and voting issues. Also notably, in The Lebanon though some women can vote, proof of education is required for women but not for men.

All women who have suffered and strived to make the world a fairer place for other women deserve to be included as wonderful women, Emmeline Pankhurst is here as a representation of them all.

Betty Boo - Wonderful Woman No. 18

Betty Boo - Born 1970
British Singer, Songwriter and Pop-Rap Artist

I remember the Christmas of 1990 extremely well. I was 12 years old and on holiday in Lanzarote with my family. We spent Christmas in the sun every year, this had many advantages but a disadvantage was that my siblings and I received only a few presents on the day (light ones that wouldn't have inflicted the cost of excess baggage on my parents). That year, I received a yellow Sony Walkman (which I thought was amazing) with two cassettes; One was Madonna's Immaculate Collection (which I loved) and the other was Betty Boo's Boomania.

She's quite lovely.
Owain, A Wonderful Man

Boomania was actually a great album for a twelve year old girl to listen to. The lyrics were empowering and were never overtly sexual. It was no seminal hip-hop album by any means but maybe a good introduction to certain sounds. I particularly liked the song Hey DJ (I can't dance to the music you're playing) and, you know, thinking back, it may have been a little ahead of it's time - when you consider the recent commercial successes of the likes of Jessie J and Cher Lloyd. The album also used samples of Martha Reeves and The Vandellas, The Velvelettes and Sly and The Family Stone.

I learned the words to every song on that album and I played the cassette until it would play no more... for the time that it did Betty Boo and my Sony Walkman were both pretty wonderful.

Barbara Jackson - Wonderful Woman No. 17

Barbara Jackson - 1936-2008
British Actress and Singer

Born in industrial Salford in the north of England, Barbara started performing in local amateur dramatics groups from an early age. She always longed for life as a professional entertainer and to travel. At the age of 21, after having been working as a machinist for a local mill, Barbara's talent on stage was finally spotted. She became a professional singer and actress and enjoyed a forty year career in show business.

Barbara travelled across the country in various shows. She also spent some time working in the U.S.A. in an Old Time Music Hall production. She made countless appearances on British television, including walking the cobbles of Coronation Street (which was not unlike the Salford streets of where she had grown-up). She also appeared at the London Palladium on more the one occasion, this was something she was immensely proud of.

Barbara Jackson was also my Great-Aunt.

She was a woman I always looked up to and admired. I, too, performed on stage from an early age, I was in the chorus line of my first pantomime at the age of five. I always wanted to be on stage, for that to be my career and I lapped up hearing stories of Aunty's adventures. I studied performing arts, much to the joy of Aunty (who had no children of her own), she lived in the Midlands at the time and I would often write to her and tell her what I had been learning about and what pieces I had performed. In my early twenties, I too fulfilled my ambition of becoming a professional actress. I spent some time touring the UK. Aunty kind of mentored me through my auditions and we spoke on the phone every Sunday, she would sip gin and tonic while I would tell her about the theatres and the cast and my performance. Sometimes, she would send little cards with notes of encouragement. She had retired some time before, I think she loved hearing about my life in show business and felt pleased to be able to give me some tutorship and encouragement, I also felt she was very proud of me.

She became very ill in the mid-2000s. She had always been such a glamorous woman and to see her frail and infirm, and losing her faculties was incredibly distressing.

At her funeral in 2008, we, her family and friends gave her a fitting tribute by singing There's No Business Like Show Business, I think she would have loved that.

Barbara Jackson, Aunty, was a wonderful woman and one I spent so much of my life in awe of and inspired by... and I miss her very much.

Debbie Harry - Wonderful Woman No. 16

Debbie Harry - Born 1945
American Singer, Songwriter and Actress


I am one of a generation that cannot remember life before Blondie.

The sounds of the new wave band, Blondie, fronted by Debbie Harry really shaped my formative years. Heart of Glass is really the song that I remember being played constantly by various members of my family as a child. Somewhere there is grainy cine-camera footage of me singing and dancing to One Way or Another, where I can be no more than six years old. Over the years, my parents and I have suffered intense musical differences, Blondie has always been a group that we have agreed on the greatness of.

The group formed in 1976, before I was even born. Two years later, I came screaming into the world and they released their album Parallel Lines, which included the global hit, Heart of Glass. By the time I was learning to walk and talk, Eat the Beat was released and achieved platinum disc success. When my little sister was born, Autoamerican was released, featuring the singles Call Me, Rapture, and Follow Me. During my time at primary school, Debbie enjoyed a successful solo career. And while I was at high school, Blondie introduced me to the concept of remixes with the album Remixed Remade Remodeled (as a club goer, a club promoter and a DJ, remixes have been fairly important since). As I reached adulthood, Blondie reformed and recorded a couple of singles, No Exit and Maria.

This has been the music that formed the soundtrack to much of my life.

The influences of punk, reggae, hip hop and, in particular, disco sit well with my tastes in music to this day. I can as happily enjoy any of the Blondie albums now as I could in earlier years.

I have also been a huge fan of Debbie's style and image. I have had the white blonde hair on a number of occasions, as well as trying to emulate the nonchalant expression. She is beautiful and stylish but the image is more about the attitude than anything else and I love that about her.

When I was younger, I wasted ten years wanting to be Debbie Harry
Kirsty Young, Another Wonderful Woman

In addition to her many musical success Debbie has enjoyed an acting career, including appearing in more than 30 film roles and many television appearances. Most memorable, for me, was her appearance as the calculating mother in the 1988 version of Hairspray, she was fabulously over the top, comical and entertaining.

Debbie is also a dedicated charity worker, in particular, raising funds for HIV and AIDS awareness.

Debbie continues to be a woman I feel influenced by and to me she is truly, truly wonderful.

Jessica Mitford - Wonderful Woman No. 15

Jessica Mitford - 1917-1996
British-American Author, Journalist, Singer and Political Activist

Added to the album by a wonderful woman called Claire.

After publishing the initial photographs of the album to my Facebook page, my friend Claire commented that she would like to add some suggestions of wonderful women herself. This was a fantastic idea and opened up the album to other people, at the current count there are 173 pictures in the album, mostly of women suggested by friends and friends of friends. Claire's initiative to make her own suggestions has really turned this into a project for me, which I am thoroughly pleased about.

The one draw-back of the album being full of other people's suggestions, is that I find myself writing a blog based on their female influences rather than my own. I can only hope that, in some way, I manage to write something relevant to how the women suggested have effected the lives of those who suggested them.

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Jessica Mitford was born into an aristocratic family and was raised in country houses of rural Britain. Although well read, Jessica and the other infamous Mitford sisters had no formal education, as their mother did not believe young ladies should be schooled. The family were well-known British supporters of Hitler and her sister, Diana, married the country's most renowned fascist, Oswald Mosley. Jessica, though, rejected the idea of fascism and, indeed, her upper-class, privileged place in society, she became a supporter of communism (she has been referred to as the Red Sheep of the family).

After eloping to Spain at the age of nineteen, Jessica and her husband Esmond Romilly (the nephew of Winston Churchill) spent a short time living in London before immigrating to the U.S.A in 1939 (she later became an American citizen). When the second World War started, Esmond enrolled in the Canadian Air Force, he was declared missing in action after an air raid over Germany in 1941. During the war, Jessica worked and in 1943, she met her second husband, Robert Treuhaft (an America Civil Rights Lawyer).

In the years after the war, Jessica spent time working in California (where she had now settled) for a civil rights group. She and Robert were involved in many civil rights campaigns, including the infamous campaign to stop Willie McGee receiving the death penalty (his story later the inspiration for Harper Lee's To Kill A Mocking Bird).

For sometime, Jessica and Robert were active members of the American Communist Party, they left the party in 1958, having become disillusioned with the notion of communism after its development in the Soviet Union. Jessica's political attitudes remained firmly on the left, she wrote many essays on socialism and society.

Jessica's first book, was published in 1960, a memoir of life growing up in her aristocratic English home. In much of her work, Jessica was scathing of the class-system in the United Kingdom and, indeed, of her own family's values.

Jessica spent some time in the 1960s and 70s working as an investigative journalist. This saw her caught up in the civil unrest of the time, witnessing first hand a rally headed by Martin Luther King and subsequently being barricaded inside a church as the Ku-Klux-Klan attacked.

In addition to all of the above, Jessica also had a brief career as a singer under the pseudonym Decca and the Dectones, recording two albums and appearing at a number of live events.

All in all, a formidable woman! A great suggestion from Claire, I hope I have managed to fit in all the reasons Claire considers her wonderful.

My most influential writer, without a doubt, is Jessica Mitford. When my great-aunt gave me Hons and Rebels when I was 14, she instantly became my heroine... I love the way she never outgrew some of her adolescent traits, remaining true to her politics – she was a self-taught socialist – throughout her life. I think I've read everything she wrote. I even called my daughter [Jessica] after her.
J.K. Rowling, Another Wonderful Woman

Louise Brooks - Wonderful Woman No. 14

Louise Brooks - 1906-1985
American Actress and Dancer

For a long time, I have had something of an obsession with the 1920s and in particular flapper girls. Louise Brooks is the personification of the flapper for me and that is why she is featured as one of my wonderful women. It is rather more about the imagery she creates and my love of the roaring 20s fashion, style and attitude, than about her personally.

I hope that is an acceptable reason for her inclusion.

Louise had a wonderful career and an interesting personal life but I cannot claim to be an expert on her, so please, if you wish to find out a little more about her, have a gander of her Wikipedia page (it really does make an interesting read): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Brooks

Most beautiful dumb girls think they are smart and get away with it, because other people, on the whole, aren't much smarter.
Louise Brooks