Did or does your Mum admire any strong and/or successful women?

[TheTecknician]

Mine did. She's long gone, born in 1938, and she certainly had her favourites, or at least ladies that made an impression:

Margaret Thatcher. I don't know what Mum thought of her politics but she was always amazed by her stamina and determination.
Tina Turner. For extricating herself from a brutal marriage and restarting her career from virtually nothing.
Debbie Harry. Mum was definitely a Blondie fan and it wasn't that common then for a woman to lead a successful group. We could also mention Patti Smith and Ann and Nancy Wilson.
Vivienne Westwood. Very focused businesswoman who knew what she wanted. Being with Malcolm McLaren can't always have been easy!
Gloria Hunniford. Mum always admired her style and fashion sense for an older woman. I'm sure a fashion magazine declared GH as their best-dressed woman once or twice.

Any more?

My mother adored Victoria Wood and her work and was saddened by her early death. Also enjoyed Sandi Toskvig on QI.

Politically had a lot of time for Barbara Castle and Shirley Williams.

I’ve been lax recently on pulling her up. Talking about Jane McDonald and she was saying she’d been watching old episodes Of the cruise from „when Jane was plump“ and then talking about how I was going to see king Lear, last time I went it was don warrington playing the lead (Philip in rising damp and the commissioner in death in paradise) „oh he’s large now“. So suppose at least she was making comments about a man’s weight as well as a woman’s!

My mum was born in the 30s. I won't repeat all the things, but all the negative comments here apply to her, too.

It's so sad, she never valued other women (or her daughter). They were all just competition to her (including her own daughter)

I think, as far as my own Mum was concerned, she admired the women who were at least reasonably close in age to her (apart from Margaret Thatcher, who was a fair bit older). I hope every generation has it's own admirable women as role models. Joan Collins was another she had a lot of time for.

Ha, no. My mother hates women. Especially famous or successful. Can't even watch the news without ripping the women newsreader to shreds over her hair, weight, clothes, face, accent.

It is incredibly wearying.

Edit to add: Oh yes, being thin is the only thing a woman could get right! She wouldn't like them any more, of course, they're still a woman. But at least they wouldn't be fat.

Mine was born in 1937 and is still going strong albeit with Alzheimer’s and a brain injury.
She used to say that she didn’t like female politicians. Although she was a local councillor and town mayor herself.
The weight thing though. Aargh.

No, my mother intensely dislikes female confidence. Some of my earliest memories are of her laying into famous female guests (writers, actresses, politicians, other public figures) on chat shows because they weren’t smiley and deferential. She thought no one liked a confident girl or woman. She brought me and my sisters up to be shy, smiley and compliant. The only acceptable response to any question about your preferences was a whispered ‘I don’t mind.’ I still remember her horror at my ‘bad manners’ when a family member we were visiting offered me a cup of tea and I accepted.

We all realised what crap this stuff was in our teens, but she remains shocked and slightly appalled that her three confident, non-complaint daughters are leading happy, fulfilled lives and aren’t universally loathed.

im with you all too.

I can’t recall mum praising any women at all - all about the men.

Happily my daughters would be able to answer this question very differently.

Same

Interesting how many of us have these mothers and they prize thinness over everything.

My mother was horrified when I ballooned to a (1970s) size 12 in my teens.

No, my mum is absolutely vile about other women, making spiteful comments about their looks, weight etc. She panders to the most diabolical men though.

I really wasn't expecting to find there are or were so many woman-hating women out there. I wonder now who invented misogyny and how/why these women turned out the way they have? 😞

Sorry the thread isn’t going the way you expected @TheTecknician but I’ve found it really cathartic to hear that it’s not just my mother who is like that. So a HUGE thank you!

Any time!

Yes and no, because they have to be pretty/beautiful, and thin, and well dressed, and educated , and have a certain aesthetic, and be successful in something SHE is interested in , and…. You see where I’m going with this. Very few women actually fit the bill.

I once accepted an offer of a biscuit from the vicar at a harvest festival. Late 80s. All the other children had had biscuits, but my mother was furious with me, and went on about it for days.

"You might not care about looking like a pig but I certainly do! I was SO embarrassed! I've brought you up better than that!" Etc, etc, ad infinitum.

No. It wouldn't cross her mind. She never spoke about things like this.
She did hate Thatcher though.

My mother was very feisty. Her hero was Maude in Harold & Maude.
The only real person name that comes to mind is Geraldine Ferraro.
She would have adored Michelle Obama but died long before Obama presidency.

Mine admired Barbara Castle, who achieved great things in politics despite considerable opposition. From her own party! I also told her about Wangari Maathai who she thought was impressive.

Yes. My mum is in her 70s now and has always been a fighty fucker activist, so I grew up knowing important historical and contemporanious women.

Even at sing-songs, she and my aunt would loudly, change the word "men" for "women" in songs of struggle.😄

So did mine! Despite being overweight for most of her adult life.

Yes she does admire womenz but the fact that they are women never seems to register with her. I don’t think we’ve ever had a conversation about feminism. But tbf she was the breadwinner throughout her married life and my dad has always been openly proud of her being more clever and earning more than he did, which is probably quite unusual now I think of it.

And like many of her generation, being slim trumped everything, and being overweight was a moral failing. Victoria Wood got away with it by being very funny, but no other women - including herself, and by extension me as we are the same shape - were exempt from her extreme disapproval if they gained weight.

My mum also admired Shirley Williams, and having heard her speak once I could see why. She was very popular with more left-of-centre women!

My mum admires princess Anne, the princess royal. She’s in the background of the royal family, she’s hard working and does a a lot of charity work that hardly anyone knows about. She comes across as kind and caring aswell as very approachable,

all qualities I see in my mum.

Mine born in 1959, misogynistic AF. So depressing