International Women's Day 2026

by Mr Rakesh Pathak- Head of History and EDI Lead

Over the last week, the Felsted community has been marking International Women’s Day in a number of different ways.  In Senior tutorials, pupils have been engaging with the idea of female role models, some of them from within the Felsted community; and they have also completed a picture quiz, designed around the theme of female trailblazers. Some are household names but some have arguably been neglected or consigned to the margins; and deserve to be much better known by us all. Through the lens of these women's lives, we hope to get Felstedians thinking about the barriers that women have had to overcome and often still face; and the way in which they have nevertheless succeeded in shaping political, literary, musical, sporting and scientific developments over the centuries. I have put the full list at the end of this article as it may help to stimulate some interesting conversations at home!
 

 

The EDI Committee has also organised a lunchtime event in the LRH foyer where pupils and staff were asked to write a post-it note about the women that have most inspired them and place it on a female silhouette of their choice in order to create a piece of ‘pop up’ art. By the end of lunchtime, over one hundred pupils and staff had taken part in this initiative. Many thanks indeed to the following members of the EDI Committee who, as ever, provided the ideas, enthusiasm and energy to make this event a real success: Tess B, James C, Amelia R, Amrit T, Maia T and Toby W.

A selection of some of the most interesting and thought provoking comments about a range of different female role models are shown below:

Which women have most inspired you?

‘My Mum- who has supported and encouraged not just me, but countless others in her life!’

‘Mrs Pipe- my History teacher at School…’

‘Ada Lovelace for pioneering work in early Computer Science…’

‘Malala-a symbol of courage and resilience…’

‘Michelle Obama- inspires me to be brave, thoughtful and kind.’

‘A woman who inspires me is Rosalind Franklin. I think the work she did for the structure of DNA was revolutionary and she deserves lots of credit for her amazing courage, bravery and pursuit of new knowledge.’

‘A woman that has inspired me is Anna Shcherbakova who is the Olympic champion of the 2022 Winter Olympics. She has inspired me as she has had quite a few setbacks but still came back and continued competing, not giving up on her goals…Anna has inspired me to believe in myself and never give up on my dreams even if there are obstacles in the way which may put me back a bit.’

‘The woman who inspires me most is Queen Cleopatra, as she kept Egypt from being absorbed into the Roman Empire for 21 years through her own cleverness, was an intellectual who knew nine languages and published medical papers, and truly cared for the people she ruled, learning the Egyptian Language (which her predecessors had not even attempted to do) and opening the Royal granaries during a famine.’

Twenty female trail-blazers - tutorial quiz
1) Eleanor of Aquitaine- one of the most powerful and influential figures in western Europe during the 1100s, she was famously portrayed by Katharine Hepburn in The Lion in Winter.
2) Mary I- the eldest daughter of Henry VIII was Queen of England between 1553 and 1558. Traditionally, she has been portrayed negatively as ‘Bloody Mary’ but in recent years, historians have been more positive, stressing her strengths as a leader.
3) Aphra Behn- a 17th century playwright and poet, she was one of the first English women to earn a living by writing- a true trail-blazer!
4) Caroline Herschel- she was born in Germany but came to live in England in 1758. In 1787, she became the first paid female astronomer in England and she discovered 8 comets altogether. She had to have her scientific papers read out by male members of the Royal Society because it did not admit a female fellow until 1945!
5) Emily Bronte- an English writer from a famous literary family, she is best known for one of the most powerful and enduring novels in the English language- Wuthering Heights.
6) Mary Seacole- she established the British Hotel to care for British soldiers during the Crimean War. Her autobiography, The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands, became a bestseller.
7) Sophia Duleep Singh- the daughter of an exiled Indian prince, she became a suffragette- campaigning for women’s right to vote. Some women in Britain were finally granted the right to vote in 1918.
8) Marie Curie- one of the most famous scientists of all time, she won two Nobel prizes for her pioneering work in radioactivity; and discovery of polonium and radium.
9) Fanny Blankers-Koen- a pioneering female athlete from the Netherlands who won four gold medals at the 1948 Olympics in London. Her Olympic victories are credited with helping to challenge sexist stereotypes around women in sport.
10) Barbara Castle- a Labour MP and Cabinet minister, she was a trailblazing MP from 1945-1979.
11) Mary Jackson- she was a NASA mathematician and aerospace engineer. She authored or co-authored 12 technical papers. Her story is told in the Hollywood film, Hidden Figures.
12) Simone de Beauvoir- one of the first writers to tackle sexism, her book, The Second Sex ( 1949 ), paved the way for the modern feminist movement.
13) Jayaben Desai- she was working at the Grunwick Film Processing Laboratories in 1974; and resigned after being forced to work overtime and in protest at the way in which her fellow female workers were treated. Many could not go to the toilet without asking permission. Desai organised a strike to protest the poor working conditions.
14) Malala Yousafzai- Malala Yousafzai was shot and severely wounded in her home town in Pakistan, after she had spoken out about the plans of terrorist groups to stop girls attending school. Along with her family, she was granted asylum in Britain. Malala and her father founded the Malala Fund in 2013 to champion the cause of girls’ education. In 2014, she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace, for her campaigning for the rights of all children to an education. 
15) Oprah Winfrey- one of the most famous interviewers and TV personalities in the world, the Oprah Winfrey Show ran for 25 years. She has also done a huge amount of charity work, donating millions of dollars of her own money. 
16) Jacinda Ardern- she was prime minister of New Zealand between 2017 and 2023. When she gave birth to her daughter in 2018, she became only the second elected head of government to give birth whilst in office. 
17) Jessica Ennis-Hill- Jessica Ennis-Hill won a gold medal in the heptathlon at the London Olympic Games in 2012 and as a result, became one of the most recognisable sporting figures in Britain. 
18) Tabitha Stoecker- a Team GB gold medalist in the recently concluded Winter Olympics. She discovered her talent for the skeleton after seeing an advert on Instagram. 
19) Jennifer Hermoso- one of Spain’s victorious players at the 2023 World Cup. During the medal presentation the president of the Spanish football federation, Luis Rubiales, kissed Hermoso on the lips without her consent, causing a global outcry.
20) Kamala Harris- she was the first female vice president of the USA and the unsuccessful challenger to Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election.