Women Are Amazing!

With International Women’s Day on the 8th March, and Mothering Sunday today on the 27th March, I thought this months blog should be a bit uplifting, and celebrate all that women are, and all that we bring to this world!

As well as a few ‘Women in…’ statistics below, I have also recognised ‘20 Women in History’ who we should acknowledge and be inspired by.

Whether women are young or mature, single, engaged, married, divorced or widowed, they are all incredible every single day! Straight, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender or any other way we identify ourselves, we are all worthy of love, respect and equal opportunities, in every aspect of our lives. Whether we are mums, not mums, working or out-of-work, career-minded, family-orientated, or just living our best lives on our own terms, women currently make up 50.8% of the UK population.

The aim of the global ‘International Women’s Day’ is to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women across the world. It is also a focal point in the women’s rights movement, bringing attention to issues such as gender equality and reproductive rights, as well as crimes of violence and abuse against women.

Think of all the women that touch your life - daughters, sisters, mothers, grandmothers, granddaughters, aunts, cousins, partners, friends, neighbours, mentors, therapists and work colleagues, and consider how much difference they make to you. Women are usually wonderful caregivers and powers of strength to one another in times of trouble.

We are fantastic multi-taskers, and often very nurturing and understanding - putting others needs before our own (we all need to get better at self-care!). We are usually good listeners, strong, hard-working and resilient, good communicators and empathetic. Compassionate team players and great leaders too, we are good at collaboration and adaptability. We tend to have strong intuitions and are often great at seeing the bright side of tricky situations. We are powerful and gentle at the same time.

A massive THANKYOU to all the women in my life.

Women in Caring Roles
58% of unpaid carers in the UK are women, and Carers UK has calculated that the economic value of this care is estimated to be an incredible £77 billion per year! They are also more likely to be ‘sandwich carers’ meaning they often have to care for young children and elderly parents at the same time, and many have had to reduce or give up their own jobs or careers in order to do this.
Source: www.carersuk.org.

Women in Business
We still have a fair way to go until women match men in the boardroom, but things are improving steadily. In the UK, board positions now held by women have risen to 39.1% across the FTSE 100, 36.8% for the FTSE 250 and 37.6% for the FTSE top 350 companies. That said, only one in every 3 leadership roles and around 25% of all executive committee roles are held by women, and there are very few female CEOs. Source: www.gov.uk

Women in Politics
There are currently 225 female MPs in the House of Commons. This represents 35%. There are 229 female members of the House of Lords, which represents 28%. Women have always been under-represented in politics. Only 6 ministers in the current cabinet are women, which is just 27%. Source: www.commonslibrary.parliament.uk.

So – take a moment now, to celebrate and thank all the different wonderful women in your life!

WOMEN IN HISTORY – 20 Famous Women who Changed the World I thought it would be good to look at just a few of the most amazing women in history around the world, and take a moment to think about and remember their achievements.

1. Mary Wollstonecraft – 1759-97
Mary championed education and liberation for women. Her book ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’ was published in 1792 and is seen as one of the foundational texts of modern feminism.

2. Mary Seacole – 1805-188
Mary travelled from Jamaica to Britain to offer her services in the Crimean War in her forties, and although she was turned down (most likely due to her mixed race – she had a Jamaican mother and Scottish father), she refused to give up, and she established a British Hotel where soldiers could retreat and recover. She also nursed soldiers on the battlefield.

3. Ada Lovelace – 1815-1852
Ada was an English mathematician and writer, and was the first person on record to acknowledge the capability of what computers could do – recognising that they could do far more than just basic calculation. She published the first algorithm, and as such is often regarded as the very first computer programmer.

4. Florence Nightingale – 1820-1910
Florence led the first team of military nurses during the Crimean War, and was nicknamed ‘The Lady with the Lamp’ for the night rounds that she did tending to the wounded and sick soldiers. She was instrumental in creating a permanent nursing service to the army medical services.

5. Emmeline Pankhurst – 1858-1928
Emmeline founded the Women’s Social and Political Union in 1903 to campaign for the parliamentary vote for women, organising the UK suffragette movement. A charismatic leader, she later endured 13 imprisonments. She died a few weeks before the government extended the vote to all women over 21 years old in July 1928..

6. Marie Curie – 1867-1934
Marie founded the science of radioactivity and her discoveries launched effective cures for Cancer. She was also the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and the first female professor at the University of Paris. She also helped to equip ambulances with x-ray equipment in the First World War.

7. Margaret Sanger – 1879-1966
Margaret was a feminist and women’s rights activist, as well as being a nurse, who coined the phrase ‘birth control’. She opened a woman’s health clinic decades before her biggest achievement, which was getting the FDA to approve the very first oral contraceptive in 1960.

8. Helen Keller – 1880-1968
Helen was the first deaf-blind person to write a book, and have a Batchelor of Arts degree. She published 14 books during her lifetime, and campaigned for people with disabilities and women’s rights. In 1931 she made Braille the world standard writing system for blind people.

8. Helen Keller – 1880-1968
Helen was the first deaf-blind person to write a book, and have a Batchelor of Arts degree. She published 14 books during her lifetime, and campaigned for people with disabilities and women’s rights. In 1931 she made Braille the world standard writing system for blind people.

9. Amelia Earhart – 1897-1937
Amelia took up aviation at the age of 24 in 1921. She broke the women’s altitude record the next year rising to 14,000 feet. She was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1932, and disappeared in 1937.

10. Mother Teresa – 1910-1997
Mother Teresa travelled to India in 1929 to dedicate her life to helping the poor, and she set up the ‘Missionaries of Charity’. This group has thousands of people in almost 90 countries now, helping people living in poverty. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, and was named as a Saint in 2016.

11. Rosa Parks – 1913-2005
Rosa Parks is best known for being the lady who refused to give up her seat on a bus for a white person. She quite rightly challenged the race segregation that existed in the US and she sparked the Civil Rights movement.

12. Rosalind Franklin – 1920-1958
Rosalind‘s work was crucial in discovering the structure of DNA (the molecule that contains the genetic code for all plants and animals) – a very important movement in the history of medical science. Her work helped other scientists to understand how genetic information is passed from parents to children, and she also helped us to learn more about other structures such as coal, graphite and viruses.

13. Betty Friedan – 1921-2006
Betty was an American writer and activist who penned ‘The Feminine Mystique’ in 1963, which is often credited for sparking the second wave of feminism that began in the 60s and 70s. She spent her life working to establish women’s equality. She established the ‘National Women’s Political Caucus’ as well as organising the ‘Women’s Strike for Equality’ in 1970.

14. Maya Angelou – 1928-2014
Maya is one of the most influential women in American history. She had a difficult childhood and experienced racial prejudices all her life. A poet, she used her famous works to show how strength of character can help overcome racism and trauma.

15. Anne Frank - 1929-1945
Anne was just a teenager when she wrote her famous diary, which is to date one of the most honest and powerful accounts of World War Two. She hid with her family in a secret annex until they were discovered and sent to concentration camps in 1944. Only her father survived. Her diary has been translated into almost 70 languages.

16. Audrey Hepburn – 1929-1993
Audrey was not only one of the world’s best known actresses, she also became a UNICEF Ambassador where she travelled to various countries to help children in need, having herself been amongst those who received food as a child after World War Two. She worked in some of the poorest communities of Africa, South America and Asia and in 1992 she received the ‘Presidential Medal of Freedom’ in recognition of her work.

17. Ruth Bader Ginsburg – 1933-2020
Ruth was an attorney, judge and associate justice of the Supreme Court, and her commitment to the principle of equal justice under the law, transformed the legal landscape in the US, particularly for women. She worked hard for financial equality, and supported equality in education, LGBTQ+ rights, civil rights for immigrants, and rights for the disabled.

18. Gloria Steinem – 1934-present
Gloria is an American journalist and social political activist who became nationally recognised as a leader and spokeswoman for the American feminist movement in the late 1960s and 1970s. In 1971, she co-founded the ‘National Women’s Political Caucus’ and the ‘Women’s Action Alliance’, to support a network of female activists and to advance their causes and legislation. In 2005, she also co-founded the ‘Women’s Media Centre’ to make women visible and powerful in the media.

19. Malala Yousafzai – 1997-present
Malala’s father was a teacher, and ran an all girls school in her village. She publicly spoke out against the Taliban when they took over her hometown and banned all girls going to school. In 2012, at the age of just 15, she spoke out on women’s rights to education, and a gunman shot her in the head on her school bus. She survived, and became the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 whe she was just 17.

20. Greta Thunberg – 2003-present
Greta is a Swedish environmental activist who is known for challenging world leaders to take immediate action for climate change mitigation. With other students, she organised a school climate strike movement under the name of ‘Fridays for Future’ and she addressed the 2018 ‘United Nations Climate Change Conference’, as well as attending the 2019 ‘UN Climate Action Summit’. She received an honorary ‘Fellowship of the Scottish Geographical Society’, and that year also received the ‘International Children’s Peace Prize’ and was the youngest ‘Time Person of the Year’. She won the ‘Gulbenkian Prize’ for Humanity in 2020, and has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, 2020 and 2021.

So – look how amazing we are! Look after the ladies in your life, and remember to look after your precious self too, and appreciate everything that makes you a wonderful woman!

If you would like to discuss any ways in which my treatments or products might be able to help you please do not hesitate to contact me on: 07710 173354 or email me at: lisa@soulspace.biz. I would really love to hear from you.

With all my love and hugs. See you next month!

Lisa
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