20th Century Local Heroines Celebrated
Article published: Tuesday, March 8th 2011
To coincide with today’s 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, three local cultural associations have teamed up to celebrate 20th century heroines from Salford and Manchester with a freely distributed magazine.
Maries Stopes, a pioneer in family planning, is among the women celebrated in the magazine
The collaborative project between Manchester Modernist Society, The Shrieking Violet fanzine and the Loiterers Resistance Movement was launched at Manchester Town Hall on Sunday alongside other events to celebrate International Women’s Day.
The magazine presents ten females with a link to the North West and the twin cities in particular who throughout the 20th Century excelled in modernist endeavours. The heroines include pioneering aviator Winifred Brown, architect Rachel Hough and Egyptologist Rosalie David.
Maureen Ward from Manchester Modernist Society spoke to MULE about why they felt the need to undertake the project.
“Last year I asked people on Facebook to nominate inspiring women from all over the world. When it came to local women I noticed that they were nearly all Victorian and Edwardian.
“What really struck me was that we know loads about women in Manchester in the 19th and early 20th centuries such as the suffragettes, but throughout most of the last century it seems harder to find what women were doing.
“Nearly all the people commemorated in the city for achievements in science through plaques and street names are men. While there is no dearth of famous local women in fields like art and literature but the question we wanted to ask was where were the women in traditionally non-feminine fields?”
Last month the collaborators asked people to send in their suggestions for the Top 10 Modernist Heroines. However they were slightly surprised at the lack of common knowledge on the subject.
The Shrieking Violet fanzine
“We are still puzzled as to why they are not as well known. The project is an ongoing process and we hope that people will contact us to say that we have forgotten somebody important!” says Maureen.
The collaborators intend to continue their project with a series of events. Already confirmed is a talk with a theme of International Women’s Day at Café Historique at the Manchester Museum later in the month. Additionally the artist Olivier Glasser is creating an online video inspired by the work of Manchester-born social scientist Doreen Massey.
Maureen also hopes that the project will inspire women to fill the gender gap in science and other fields.
“Women make up a small proportion of total working scientists. Architecture is another example – at degree level the gender split is about 50:50 but the profession remains very male-dominated.
“We hope that if people aren’t as quiet about women’s roles in these fields then more girls will take them on”.
Michael Pooler
The freezine ‘Manchester’s Modernist Heroes’ is available to read online by clicking here
You can add your comments on the Top 10 North West Modernist Heroines of the 10th Century here: http://www.heroines.manchestermodernistsociety.org/
There will be a talk at Café Historique at Manchester Museum on Wednesday 23 March at 5.30pm.
To find out about Olivia Glasser’s project visit her website: www.ohglasser.blogspot.com
More: Manchester
Comments
No comments found
The comments are closed.
