Happy Women's History Month!

496? Daahling, you're 400 if you're a day! mwouh!

Life was a struggle, and I never became a household name and there's no Grief des Damest-shirts or mugs or anything

Well, what's preventing from rectifying that now?

This one that is all about moi, Marie de Gournay.

I was born in Paris in 1565 - though people tell me I don't look a day over 450. In my day posh girls were only supposed to study needlework and being ladylike enough to be marriageable, but I was having none of that, so I taught myself Latin and Greek and studied the classics and anything else I could get my hands on, thereby making myself totally unmarriageable

I moved out of the family home to live on my own in Paris - you can imagine the raised eyebrows that caused! and set about earning my living through writing - not an easy job for a woman in the 15th century - has it got any easier? oh right, JKR, yeah I guess it has - but she struggled in the beginning too, didn't she? It takes a long time to be an overnight sensation.

I was, I confess, a complete fangirl for Michel de Montaigne, and I was lucky enough to meet him, and we totally clicked intellectually and he considered me his adopted daughter. We corresponded regularly until his death. His widow Francoise invited me to edit and publish his Essais, which I was honoured to do: 'I was his daughter: I am his memorial'.
I spent over a year living with her and their daughter Léonor, my adopted family, immersed in the works of the great Montaigne which I continued to edit.

I wrote about society, ethics, morals, language, education, poetics, philosophy - but MNers will probably consider my 'greatest hits' to be my Equality Between Men and Women and Grief des Dames /Complaint of the Ladies [not 'The Ladies' Complaint', that would be a different book altogether - translation can be a minefield!]
As I said in the Grief des Dames:
'this sex has its own power taken away; with this freedom gone, the possibility of developing virtues through the use of freedom disappears. This sex is left with the sovereign and unique virtues of ignorance, servitude, and the capacity to play the fool, if this game pleases it.'
If I posted something like that (OK I admit it would have to be updated a bit) on FWR today I'd get lots of 'This' and 👏and 💜, wouldn't I?

Life was a struggle, and I never became a household name and there's no Grief des Dames t-shirts or mugs or anything - maybe I just never met the right gerbils - but I was a trailblazer for women thinkers and writers and I was well respected by a select group in my day, most importantly by my dear friend the brilliant Michel de Montaigne, and I have been rediscovered by feminist scholars and philosophers recently.
So I approach my 460th birthday with a quiet satisfaction that the totality of my work is being appreciated at last. Not exactly an overnight sensation, but hey...
Gournay, Marie Le Jars de | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (utm.edu)

Mary Kenner saw a need and provided a solution. Naturally, she made no money and got no credit.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/mb5yap/mary-beatrice-davidson-kenner-sanitary-belt

Blimey, Isobel Wylie Hutchinson was a fascinating woman and incredibly tough. She doesn't seem to have much recognition for all she did for botany and in such tough environments. I think her story would make a brilliant film.

It's me again, sorry if I'm over-posting, but I notice that Women's History Month has dwindled on this thread, and I've thought of someone else I'd like to celebrate: the woman who invented the paper bag!
well, the paper bag with a flat bottom, which became standard in the US and which people in American films carry their groceries in, one in each arm...

Margaret Knight was from a poor background, brought up by her widowed mother, and had to go and work in the textile mills in New Hampshire when she was 12.
She invented lots of things, as well as the paper bag, but because she was a woman, and because she wasn't able to get education/training past the age of 12, she didn't realise all her ambitions.
'I’m only sorry I couldn’t have had as good a chance as a boy, and have been put to my trade regularly'
Margaret E. Knight - Wikipedia

Elizabeth Egerton, Countess of Bridgewater (née Lady Elizabeth Cavendish; 1626 – 14 July 1663)
stepdaughter?? of Margaret Cavendish - I think Margaret was the second wife of the Duke of Newcastle, Elizabeth's father, sorry I'm not great at history!

She also wrote about equality for women, but her writings about her children are so moving - she had 10 pregnancies, the final one taking her life; and only four of her children survived into adulthood.

I discovered her through her beautiful beautiful poem on the death of one of those babies, her son Henry. I won't copy it in here, as it is so moving and emotional I think it could be really difficult for anyone who has had that tragedy in their own life; but here's a link to it, with a big trigger warning, if you shared her experience, and if you have tears to shed, prepare to shed them, if you just have a heart:
Poem: On My Boy Henry by Elizabeth, Lady Brackley Egerton (poetrynook.com)

She was a trans man - not a woman gaming the system to do what she was clearly good at, obviously - see this from The National Archives (!) https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/dr-james-barry/

I'm so angry at this missed opportunity to discuss why a woman might take on a male persona to study medicine decades before women were allowed to become doctors.

Maybe the name Margaret Ann Bulkley, born in Cork in 1789 doesn't ring any bells, you might know her better as Dr James Barry

The Gráinne Ní Mháille, Grace O'Malley - Irish 'pirate queen' - leader and seafarer [aka 'pirate queen''] and all-round badass in 16th century Connacht . Her nickname, Gráinne Mhaol, ['Granuaile'] probably means that she had short hair. She sailed to Greenwich to meet with Queen Elizabeth I in 1593, and the Gaelic-speaking and English-speaking women conversed fluently in Latin, and seemed to get on well, Elizabeth granting freedom for Gráine's son and protection for her into her old age.

Here is one about the world's first female aircraft engineer and designer. She overcame Polio as well:

https://twitter.com/TheAttagirls/status/1772888409066877291

She was also an artist and painted lots of women working.

The Pankhursts were not all of the same political viewpoint - Sylvia was a socialist and a pacifist who did much work in the east end of London. She also found time to have a relationship with Keir Hardy, an illegitimate child, and become friends with Haile Selassie: spartacus-educational.com/WpankhurstS.htm

There's a nice little museum in Bath too, in the house Caroline and William shared for many years.

Herschel park is surprisingly lovely.
Slough has a few parks but some are a little unsafe for lone women.

quantumbutterfly · Yesterday 22:20

Thank you, just googled. Used to live by herschel park in Slough.

Come, friendly bombs and fall on Slough
It's not fit for humans, now...

We were usually socialised to be support humans as women, nice to see her getting recognition for her work.

Thank you, just googled. Used to live by herschel park in Slough.

What relation to William Herschel?