Agnes Archer Evans

from the Leicester Lit and Phil Society web page.

This plaque is at 6, St Martins, where Agnes Archer Evans lived for some time after her marriage.

Born in 1851,  Agnes Archer Kilgour became headmistress of the Belmont House School on New Walk in Leicester in 1882. As well as being a founder member of the Women's Suffrage Society, she was active in the School Board and helped establish kindergartens.

She was also involved in the Leicester branch of the National Union of Women Workers, and became president of the Health Society, aiming to reduce infant mortality in the town, by educating mothers. 

She died in 1924.

Thanks to Ned Newitt's The Who's Who of Radical Leicester for the above information.

She was also the first woman president of Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society . She was born in Tasmania, and was the first of thirteen children born to Susan Anne Archer and Dr John Stewart Kilgour, a Scottish physician working on the island.  The family returned to Britain in about 1860.

Agnes married William Evans in 1895.

Fanny Fullagar

Since we were in tourist mode on Wednesday,  I snapped a couple of Leicester's blue plaques and decided to find a out a bit about the people honoured in this way.

This plaque is on the wall of the former Registry Office in Pocklingtons Walk. It celebrates Fanny Fullagar.

For my information I am indebted to this article in the Western Park Gazette online and to a short article in The Who's Who of Radical Leicester compiled by Ned Newitt.

There is a photograph of her in the Western Park Gazette article.

Fanny Fullagar was a doctor's daughter, born in 1847 in Leicester, and she made a huge contribution to  society, in a very Victorian way.  

She campaigned for better training for midwives, and helped create the Bond Street Maternity Hospital.

She stood for election for Poor Law Guardian in the All Saints/Newton Ward in 1889 and was elected every year until 1904, when she lost by one vote. 

She was a member of the local Women's Suffrage Society, a founder member of Leicester NSPCC, and also worked for St John Ambulance and the RSPCA.
She never married though she was reputed to be engaged for seven years.

She died in 1918 - the year when women over 30 got the right to vote in the UK.

International Women's Day

Waterproof coat
tied round waist
cautious idiot

(spring-like warmth - I couldn't trust it)

the bridge joins
boroughs
and women today

(http://www.joinmeonthebridge.org)

8.3.12 I watched the rather small march across Brooklyn Bridge today.

Rosie Swale-Pope

Rosie has run around the world, including Russia, Canada, and the US and should arrive home in Tenby, Wales in late August. On June 18th, she landed in Scrabster, Scotland, to start the final stretch.

She started the run in 2003, when she was 57, to raise money and awareness about prostate cancer, after her husband's death from the disease. She has long been an adventurer, and has many sailing achievements to her credit.

I don't often do hero-worship but I think she is a remarkable role-model to all women, and to older ones in particular. I shall think of her next time I have doubts about trying something new or scary.

International Women's Day? Is it?

I can find very little about this in the news online.

AOL has its usual front page of celeb bad boob jobs, fit celebs with gorgeous bodies, weather 'babes'. Two other mentions of women or girls - Margaret Thatcher's 'hospitalization', and a murder victim. Oh well, I guess it's a bad day.

The Guardian has three films about key issues that affect women in the developing world Why International Women's Day matters.

The Independent has an article about intellectual women ending with the words 'Women beware women.' I only found this by searching for an article about women in the opinion section.

The Telegraph has an interesting article about male and female sexuality in France.

Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places, but IWD is not hitting me in the face.

International Women's Day

My attempt to explain and publicise this Day.

• We women have it all ways. All jobs are open to us. No-one judges us on our looks any more. We have sex with anyone, male or female, who attracts us. We have nurseries, nannies or au pairs to look after our children. We have supportive partners who share housework, cooking and childcare.
  Isn’t this true? So, why do we need a special Day? Surely this battle has been won.
  
  This year's theme is ‘Shaping Progress’ and events all over the world are being held today and throughout March. These events celebrate the centuries of struggle for equality and justice, and the real achievements of women. They also encourage women to continue to fight any remaining obstacles. And many do remain.
  
  Some shocking facts.
  
  According to The Independent, last year Thursday March 8th 2007, in the world as a whole:
  
  Women produce half the world's food, but own less than 2 per cent of the land.
  
  Of the more than 1 billion people living in extreme poverty, 70% are women
  
  Half of all murdered women are killed by their current or former husbands or partners
  
  Two thirds of the world's 800 million illiterate adults are women.
  
  2 million girls aged from 5 to 15 join the commercial sex market every year.
  
  Violence against women causes more deaths and disabilities amongst women aged from 15 to 44 than cancer, malaria, traffic accidents or war.
  
  From the Guardian (6.3.08)
  In Britain women fill only 14.5% of non-executive board positions. One in four of the FTSE 100 boards has no women at all. The number of women holding executive directorships in FTSE 100 companies fell last year to the lowest level for nine years.
  
  And of course, most women still work in the notoriously underpaid fields of health, caring, catering, shop-work and education.
  
  I’m not a feminist but…
  Feminism has become a dirty word. Many women arguing a feminist case, will begin by saying, ‘I’m not a feminist, but…’ Most feminists don’t hate men, but simply want men and women to have equal opportunities and equal responsibilities. Feminism is about women (and men) going beyond the traditional limitations of their gender.
  
  Men and women are not the same.
  There are differences between the sexes, but these differences are not so great as the differences between individuals. Gender differences are often exaggerated by the way we dress boys and girls, and treat them differently . Children are encouraged to conform to the stereotypical view of a girl or a boy. This is constantly reinforced by scientific articles about gender differences, and children’s needs, backed up by often misleading headlines.
  Why can we not raise children to act as human beings first, who happen to be male or female?

Beauvoir's centenary

Simone de Beauvoir, one of my role models as a young woman, was born in January 1908 and died in 1986.

A contradictory figure in some ways - wanting equality for women, independence in work and private life, and yet always under Sartre's shadow, although she argued that she was not. Would she have been considered even more outrageous now, as she and J-P S exploited their roles as university and sixth form teachers to indulge in sexual relationships with students?

Is this any more important in the long-term than Racine's ill-treatment of his wife?