No sooner do I decide what I'm doing next with the website than another idea pops up.

I found myself having to write a short piece about Soroptimist International (and what a fab organisation it is) so I decided to put it on the website, except that there wasn't a suitable tab for it.  As a result, I've added a "Groups" tab and will have to add that to my to do list.

The piece that I wrote wasn't about the history so I'll add more about that later.

Many of the positive changes for women, and society as a whole, have come about as a result of women forming groups and fighting collectively for social change. Some of the groups, particularly the ones with a single purpose (like suffrage) have gone now but others began and some now have a long and prestigious history - the Soroptimists are one and the Fawcett Society another.

I think it's very difficult for women's groups nowadays (certainly in the UK).  The funding isn't there and many people would tell you that there isn't the need.  Of course there's still a need, and there will be until women stop being marginalised and start actually being equal.  Equal opportunities is a great idea but not of much use without the infrastructure in place and without a change in attitudes (by employers, by Government, by men and by women).

In 2000, I attended a Women's conference in Liverpool, attended by representatives from women's centres across the country.  I wonder how many still exist?  Certainly, the one I worked for, which was then one of the biggest and most successful, barely survives now and offers services to only a very few women.

So, I am happy to support the work of women's organisations.  I'm happy to see that some thrive and am disappointed to see so many go to the wall due to lack of funding and lack of interest. 

My priority as HistoryWoman is still women's history but I'll try to add occasional pieces about the history of Women's Groups and Organisations as I go along.  In the meantime, I hope people will enjoy the page on Soroptimist International and will consider supporting Women's Organisations in future.

Just a little update.

When I started this website a little over 2 years ago (after 2½ years of researching into Helen Barton), I really just wanted to raise the profile of women in history and provide female role models in all sorts of fields (other than the celebrity culture that seems so prevalent these days)

I started my Birthdays list by looking for a notable woman for every day of the year and it started as just a list.  Next I added links to websites that gave more information - seemed daft not to share the brilliant stories I was finding.  Then I found it impossible to stick to just one woman for each day so, if someone interesting came up I'd add her too.  Then I counted them and decided it wouldn't be too much more work to get to 500.  Now I'm aiming for 1000.  It'll take a while but I love finding out about all these amazing women. 

The other page I'm working on started as an item for Black History Month.  Again, a work in progress.  Each woman will have a mini-profile and a photo so it's a little more in depth than the Birthdays list.  It's quite fun to do and, I think, looks good on the page.  Then I was uncomfortable with what constitutes "black" - what about Chinese women, Japanese etc? - so I've changed it to "women of colour" and hope this suits better.

Updating the Birthdays and Women of Colour pages will take me a while so I hope everyone will bear with me.  

Once I've got all that done, I'm thinking that I'll add some tabs to group the women by "job", e.g. sports, science, reformers and so on.



I'm pleased to say that after over 2 years on the website and 4½ years researching, it's still giving me a big kick to find and share all these great women.  Hope you enjoy browsing through it.

Catherine Beecher was a teacher and campaigner for equal educational rights for women.

At only 23, Beecher opened her own school - the Hartford Female Seminary - and wrote some of her own textbooks for the school.

The fourth of seven children, Mary Ritter was born into a Quaker family and grew up in Indiana.  She studied at DePauw University and became a teacher.

Helen Miller Gould Shepard was an heiress and philanthropist, contributing both financially and through practical work.

Shephard contributed to the US during the Spanish/American War and towards Military hospital supplies.  She donated the building for the New York University Library and made donations to colleges, the YMCA, YWCA and other organisations.  She sat on the board of the YWCA, the Russell Sage Foundation and (with Emma Baker Kennedy) was one of the first female vice presidents of the American Bible Society.  She was worked for the Women's National War Relief Association.

Click here for more

Interesting that I couldn't find much online to fill in the details of Shepard's work, and that she's described as a "Socialite" rather than a reformer - another woman set to fade out of history perhaps?  If anyone has any information about Helen Shephard I hope you'll get in touch.

Marianna Martines was born in Vienna, living for a time in the same buildings as Joseph Haydn.

Marines was mentored by librettist Pietro Metastasio, and was well educated for a woman of her time.  She wrote a number of secular cantatas and two oratorios to texts written by Metastasio.

Much of Martines's work is still available and a particularly good piece can be listened to here.

For more on Mariana Martines, click here.

Isabel Chapin Barrows was born in Vermont to Scottish immigrant parents and became the first woman to be employed by the US State Department.

My daughter sent me this link to a fabulous profile of Nellie Bly written on Tumblr.  Wish I knew how to write with this level of energy and enthusiasm.  Click here for a cracking read.

This is what I put on Facebook: “As a rule of thumb, I consider any woman who's dead as history and therefore could be added to my HistoryWoman website. Then again, I also try to make sure they're good positive role models who have made a contribution to society. A woman who actively worked to dismantle society and destroy communities will not be included.”

 I got a couple of interesting responses suggesting that I should include Margaret Thatcher because she’s a historical figure. Although I think my post explains why I won’t, I thought I’d elaborate here.

As background, I use facebook as a personal space. By and large, my FB friends are people that I know and I will tend not to accept people as friends that I don’t know or that I know have political views that will upset me.  I have every right to this and it means that I can enjoy FB as a social space.

Twitter is slightly different.  I’m on there as @HistoryWoman1 and I try (often unsuccessfully) to concentrate on matters relevant to HistoryWoman and the website.   I do describe myself as “Pacifist, Feminist, Socialist. Annoyed by political shenanigans” so (I hope) it’s reasonably clear what I stand for. I follow a few personal friends, some comedians, quite a few history sites and others that I find interesting. I’d like to follow more but there wouldn’t be time to pay enough attention to them.

If you’re familiar with the HistoryWoman website, you’ll see that I’ve got a long list of birthdays allocated to women who’ve either made a difference or achieved in a man’s world.  There are over 400 women listed and it’ll take years to do them all justice. There are obviously thousands that I haven’t added.  

Who I’ve left out and why:
1. Women who are alive – you’re not “history” till you’re gone!
2. I don’t have many women that achieved in the entertainment industry – there are obviously loads of these.  When I decided to start the website, I was very aware that the role models available to girls are the likes of Lady GaGa, Rhianna, Anne Hathaway etc. This is kind of okay but (in my view) I’d like to see girls aspiring to become reformers, lawyers, professors etc.  Women in entertainment have plenty of coverage elsewhere.
3. Royalty and “First Ladies” – I know that many of these have done lots of charity work etc., but arguably this is PR for their spouses or families, or to fill time that otherwise hangs heavily with no “real” role to fulfil.  On the other hand, I’d happily include someone like Eunice Kennedy Shriver (founder of the Special Olympics) because I really like what she achieved and the impact it has had.
4. Women whose impact (in my opinion) was more bad than good- I want to showcase women who were pioneers and women who worked for the common good. There are lots of interesting stories of “wicked women” out there and I choose not to showcase them.  
 
And there’s the rub.  It’s all subjective.  
 
But:  All of history is subjective.  Most writing is subjective.  The History Woman website is subjective - it’s not an encyclopaedia and it doesn’t pretend to be. I can’t be apologetic about that.

My starting point, back in 2009, was my great great granny, Helen Barton, whose story had been lost (even in the family).  I’ve gradually uncovered her history, largely thanks to finding her book on the internet and thanks to the Australian newspaper archives on http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/  (thanks again Trove!!).  Helen Barton’s story is briefly told in the Women’s Stories section of this website but here’s a summary.

Helen Barton was born into a large family of silk-weavers, had only a primary education, became a domestic servant and married an engineer at 20.  Thanks to a patented design,
John Barton made enough money to be living on “private means”by his late 30s.  Sadly, he died at 42 leaving Helen Barton a widow with 6 children at 38.  She became a restaurateur, joined the school board, entered local politics, and worked tirelessly towards improving
the lot of the poor (through her role as parish councillor and through temperance work).  She was involved in reducing infant mortality and setting up employment schemes. She founded a Friendly Society for female domestic servants and was involved in the early
national insurance scheme. She travelled the world campaigning and was known as the “Queen of Scottish Orators”.  Is it any wonder that I wanted her to have her place in
history?

While researching Helen Barton, I was constantly finding other forgotten stories and thus started the idea of having a website dedicated to women.

All of which brings me to the answer to the original question – why I won’t be including Margaret Thatcher.  Please bear in mind what I’ve said about her above“a woman who actively worked to dismantle society and destroy communities”.  Yes, it’s subjective.  Yes, it’s my opinion, but it’s an opinion held by millions and it’s a perfectly valid opinion that can be backed up with evidence if I had to (which I don’t as I’m entitled to my opinion)

 1. She doesn't deserve it – there are so many women that I could add and I have to decide what my priorities are.  Margaret Thatcher is not on my list of priorities.
 2. …

Actually, there’s only that one reason.  

I am prioritising (as I’ve said elsewhere) reformers not deformers and pioneers not people who would send us backwards.  Margaret Thatcher will be talked about extensively over the next few weeks and she will get all the coverage she needs historically and journalistically elsewhere. I won’t be adding to her story other than this blog entry.  She doesn’t need me and I don’t (and never did) need her.