Forgotten Women

Women pass on our stories, but they are often forgotten in the archives and annals of history. 

We live in a world where most of the statues are to men. I used to wonder were there no great women artists or musicians. Then I discovered, yes there were many outstanding women artists! –

In my life time there have been women of genius and great accomplishments – Joni Mitchell, Toni Morrison, Margaret Atwood, Oprah Winfrey, Coco Chanel, Angela Merkel, Christine Lagard, Hilary Clinton, Angelina Jolie, and many, many more. 

There are many women, who not only supported their husbands, but added to their creativity. 

I also read of how women influenced their children – Robert Burns learned not only from his father, but from his aunt’s stories and his mother singing the traditional ballads. 

Scottish author Sara Sheridan has written a new book where all the names in Scotland are female names!

Where are the Women? (2019) Sara Sheridan

Margaret MacDonald

Elsie Inglis

 A Few Examples

Elsie Inglis: Female hero honoured in Serbia. There is no statue to her in Edinburgh, only  plaque in st Giles, she brought hygiene to war conditions and saved many lives. 

**Elsie Inglis, doctor and suffragette, who fundraised for the first Scottish Women’s Hospitals (SWH)  hospice for poor women Edinburgh in 1894. She attended Edinburgh medical school and qualified from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons Edinburgh. She trained at Elizabeth Garrett Anderson’s new hospital for women London and later at the Rotunda Dublin. She was appalled by the general standard of care and lack of specialization in the needs of female patients. 

She is best known for The Elsie Inglis maternity hospital and her war work when she set up the SWH for Foreign Service which sent medical teams to Belgium, France, Serbia, and Russia. After the British army turned her down she gained support from the French government. She was told – to go home and sit still by the UK war office! She went to Serbia and worked to improve hygiene to reduce typhus and other epidemics. She was awarded the Order of the White Eagle of Serbia

Margaret MacDonald

– (1864 -1933) Scottish artist whose design work became one of the defining features of the "Glasgow Style" during the 1890s.With her husband, renowned architect Rennie Mackintosh, she was one of the most influential members of the loose collective of the Glasgow Four. She exhibited at the 1900 Vienna Secession, where she was arguably an influence on the Secessionists Gustav Klimt and Josef Hoffman. Her husband Charles Macintosh said, Margaret is the genius, I have only the talent.’

Beverly Martyn, English singer songwriter (1947 - )

Apparently John Martyn wrote his best songs with Beverly Kutner, his wife, which she gets little credit for. Beverly had worked with Paul Simon, Nick Drake. They recorded three albums together before John was persuaded by the record label to go solo - Stormbringer, Road to Ruin and Bless the Weather. She played piano while they wrote songs together for Solid Air.  Beverly was then left on the house on the hill to raise their children. John toured and turned to alcohol. Beverly left him after ten years of marriage.    

Nelle Harper Lee (1926 – 2016), author of To Kill a Mocking bird, one of the best loved American classics. 

Sofonisba Anguissola (1550 Spain) 

Lavinia Fontana (1520 Italy) 

Artemisia Gentileschi (1615 Italy). 

Clara Peeters (1594) 

Lady Butler (1846 England) 

Berthe Morisot (1841 France) 

Karin Larsson (1859 Sweden)  

Margaret MacDonald (1864 Scotland) 

Georgia O'Keefe (1887 America) 

Elsie Inglis -  (1864 –1917) Scottish doctor and suffragette,

Muriel Spark – (1918 – 2006) Scottish author

Margaret Macdonald – (1864 -1933) Scottish artist

Mary Somerville  (1780 – 1872)

Mary Barbour(1875  – 1958)

Scottish heroes

Alexander Hamilton 

Admiral Cochrane – Named by Napoleon, "the sea wolf', he never lost a sea battle. After exclusion from the Royal Navy he assisted other country's to achieve their independence. 

John MacLean – Political hero

Alexander Hamilton – One of American founding father 

George Buchanan – Father of Democracy

Elsie Inglis -  Scottish doctor and medical reformer. 

Thomas Muir – Votes for all reformer.

Robert Burns – Kept Scots song alive

Charles Rennie MacIntosh – Architect for a simpler beauty of design

Margaret Macdonald -  Scottish artist and designer. 

The scale of contribution of physics and medicine. 

Notably James Clerk Maxwell –  important physicist. electromagnetic radiation

James Clerk Maxwell

Admiral Cochrane

George Buchanan

Lord Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald (1775 – 1860), British naval Officer of the Royal Navy, mercenary and radical politician. He was a daring and successful captain of the Napoleonic Wars, leading Napoleon to nickname him Le Loup des Mers ('The Sea Wolf'). He was successful in virtually all his naval actions. He was dismissed from the Royal Navy 1814 following a controversial conviction for fraud on the Stock Excahnge. He helped organise and lead rebel navies of Chile and Brazil during their successful wars of independence1820s. While in charge of the Chilean Navy, Cochrane also contributed to Peruvianindependencethrough Freedom Expedition of Peru. He was also asked to help the Greek Navy but was prevented by events from having much impact.

In 1832, he was pardoned by the Crown and reinstated in the Royal Navy with the rank  of Rear Admiral of the Blue. His life and exploits inspired the naval fiction of 19th- and 20th-century novelists, particularly the figures of C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower and Patrick O'Brien's protagonist Jack Aubrey. 

John Maclean (1879 – 1923) a Scottish schoolteacher, and revolutionary socialist, Red Clydeside. He was notable for his outspoken opposition to the First World War which caused his arrest under the Defence of the Realm act, and loss of his teaching post, after which he became a full-time Marxist lecturer and organiser. In April 1918 he was arrested for sedition, and his 75-minute speech from the dock became a celebrated text for Scottish left-wingers. He was sentenced to five years' penal servitude, but was released after the armistice. Maclean believed that Scottish workers were especially fitted to lead the revolution, and talked of "Celtic communism", inspired by clan spirit. In captivity, Maclean had been on hunger strike, and prolonged force-feeding had permanently affected his health. He collapsed during a speech and died of pneumonia, aged forty-four.

James Clerk Maxwell (1831 – 1879) Scottish scientist in mathematical physics, His most notable achievement was to formulate the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation. bringing together for the first time electricity, magnetism and light as different manifestations of the same phenomenon. Maxwell’s equations for electromagnetism have been called the "second great unification in physics"^[ after the first one realised by Isaac Newton. With the publication of “A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field”

in 1865, Maxwell demonstrated that electric and magnetic fields travel through space as wavesmoving at the speed of light. Maxwell proposed that light is an undulation in the same medium that is the cause of electric and magnetic phenomena. The unification of light and electrical phenomena led to the prediction of the existence of radio waves.

  

Famous Scottish Women

Elsie Inglis

Famous Scottish Women

 the many stories of Scotland’s histories there are many stories of great men

but it is nearly impossible to find stories of famous Scottish women.

It occurred to me – who were they? I went in search of them.

….for their words, actions, innovations or creativity. And there have been outstanding women in history – but no statues to commemorate their memory  of their contributions. Doctor Elsie Inglis is revered in Serbia and largely forgotten in Scotland – there is a foundation to her memory in Serbia, but only a plague in St Giles Edinburgh to her.

Even those who study university level history are not introduced to great Scots and in particular Scottish women. So much has been forgotten and air brushed out. I feel ashamed to know so little of them….

I attended the Royal college of Pediatric medicine graduations in Knightsbridge 2016. Today over 70% in medicine are women – several were pregnant. I hope the young women of today, remember the stories of the first women who fought against strong prejudice. This matters, - it matters for young girls to see the Photos of great women scientists, writers, politicians, - and know that their role in life is not solely about their looks but about how they can contribute to society. Here are only few famous Scottish pioneering women. 

*Elsie Inglis -  (1864 –1917) Scottish doctor and suffragette, who fundraised for the first Scottish Women’s Hospitals (SWH)  hospice for poor women Edinburgh in 1894. She attended Edinburgh medical school and qualified from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons Edinburgh. She trained at Elizabeth Garrett Anderson’s new hospital for women London and later at the Rotunda Dublin. She was appalled by the general standard of care and lack of specialization in the needs of female patients.

She is best known for The Elsie Inglis maternity hospital and her war work when she set up the SWH for Foreign Service which sent medical teams to Belgium, France, Serbia, and Russia. After the British army turned her down she gained support from the French government. She was told – to go home and sit still by the UK war office! She went to Serbia and worked to improve hygiene to reduce typhus and other epidemics. She was awarded the Order of the White Eagle of Serbia

*Muriel Spark – (1918 – 2006) Scottish author, known best her book The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.

Margaret Macdonald

*Margaret Macdonald – (1864 -1933) Scottish artist whose design work became one of the defining features of the "Glasgow Style" during the 1890s. With her husband, renowned architect Rennie Mackintosh, she was one of the most influential members of the loose collective of the Glasgow Four. She exhibited at the 1900 Vienna Secession, where she was arguably an influence on the Secessionists Gustav Klimt and Josef Hoffman.

*Victoria Drummond - (1894–1978) marine engineer.  She was awarded an MBE for bravery at sea during the Second World War when she single handily kept engines of the SS Bonita running while under German bombardment.

*Katharine Marjory - (1874 – 1940)  female Scottish MP,  known as ‘the Red Duchess’, in 1923 Katharine Marjory, the Duchess of Atholl, became the first ever female Scottish MP, when she was elected to the House of Commons.

Mary Barbour

*Mary Barbour (1875  – 1958) was a Scottish political activist, councilor and magistrate. She was active wit hthe red Clydeside movement in the early 20th century and known especially for her role as the main organiser of the women of Govan who took part in the rent strikes of 1915.^[2]

*Lorna Moon,  Hollywood screenwriter, - Helen Wilson Low grew up in the rural village of Strichen. Through her own endeavours, she became Lorna Moon,

*Jennie Lee - (1904 –1988), Scottish Labour politician. She played a lead role in the foundation of the Open University working directly with Harold Wilson.

Mary Somerville

*Mary Somerville  (1780 – 1872) was a Scottish science writer and polymath. She was self taught and studied mathematics and astronomy and was nominated to be jointly the first female member of the Royal Astronomical Society.  The University of Oxford’s Somerville college is named after Mary. She wrote a book On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences in 1834, which helped to encourage astronomers to search for - and eventually discover - the eighth planet, Neptune.  Mary was friends with and influenced the artist JMW Turner.

*Nan Shepherd - (1893 –1981), Scottish novelist and poet. She was an early Scottish modernist writer, who wrote novels set in small, communities. The Scottish landscapes played a major role in her novels and poetry. She is best known for her book the ‘Living Mountain’ Shepherd about her experiences walking in the Cairngorms.  She was a lecturer at the Aberdeen College.

*The Edinburgh Seven, group of pioneering female students in Scotland that became the first in Britain to be admitted onto a university degree program.

Our mainstream media mainly glorifies models, actresses and singers. When I attend Edinburgh International book festival (EIBF) each year and I see the many women there who have achieved truly great things – but receive little attention. This can change. 

Nan Sheperd

More Info Websites – The Saltire Society, Glasgow Women’s library, 

In Edinburgh there are 200 statues of men.  Two statues of Queen Victoria and two of dogs.