Herstory Revisited

Yesterday marked #HolocaustMemorialDay. For those who don’t know, I am a qualified Holocaust Education Ambassador, and as an 17 year old was given the chance to visit Auschwitz to learn about the horrors of the Holocaust first-hand. That experience changed my outlook on life forever and strongly encouraged me to dedicate my life to fighting intolerance and teaching history in all its forms. Since then, I’ve had the privilege of hearing four holocaust survivors speak, three of whom were women. Each was humbling, heart-breaking, inspiring, and life-affirming, and as the last generation to survive the horrors of the Holocaust it is so important that us future generations learn from them and carry on their legacy of remembrance. This week, I had the honour of hearing the story of Eva Clarke, and her mother Anka, and the incredible story of how they survived the Holocaust. It is this story I wanted to share today, as I think it is truly a testament to the strength of a mother’s love and t...

Today is famously dedicated to the great Scots Poet Rabbie Burns (the Scottish in my necessitates that I mention that). However, today is also the birthday of a HEROINE of literature: Virginia Woolf (1882-1941). Woolf was a hugely influential writer, best known for her novels and her critical essays. Even her letters make for beautiful reading. “I thought how unpleasant it is to be locked out; and I thought how it is worse, perhaps, to be locked in.” TW: Suicide, Sexual Assault, Child Abuse, Anti-Semitism, Racist Language Born Adeline Virginia Stephen, she was the child of Leslie Stephen (himself an eminent author) and his wife Julia Jackson. Julia was known as a great beauty, with a reputation for self-sacrifice, and an influential social circle. Both her parents had been married and widowed before meeting, so she had four half-siblings and 3 full siblings. The four later children formed a clique against their elder half-siblings, however within this group there were also rivalr...

Another local heroine was born #OTDin 1878! Eunice Guthrie Murray  (1878 – 1960) was a  Scottish  suffrage campaigner and author. She was the only Scottish woman in the first election open to women in 1918. Murray was born on 21 st January in  Cardross  to American-born abolitionist parents  David Murray  and  Frances Porter Stoddard . Her father was a leading lawyer and both her parents were avid supporters of the women's movement. Murray was educated at  St Leonards School , and then undertook voluntary work with the League of Pity. In 1908, she joined the  Women's Freedom League , and was soon appointed its secretary for the whole of Scotland. She became its leading figure in  Glasgow , and was president of its Scottish Council in 1913. She opposed the undemocratic nature of the  Women's Social and Political Union  and so did not become involved with it.  However, in 1913 she was arrested for addressing a cr...

  "It seems I was born different. At least, I always thought I was."   Gladys Alberta Bentley (August 12, 1907 – January 18, 1960) was an American blues singer, pianist, and entertainer during the Harlem Renaissance.   Bentley was born August 12, 1907 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter of George L. Bentley, an American, and his wife, Mary Mote, a Trinidadian. She was the eldest of four children, and the family were low-income. However, she later described her upbringing as difficult owing to her difficult relationship with her mother. Gladys always felt unwanted and rejected because her mother desperately wanted her to have been born a boy: "When they told my mother she had given birth to a girl, she refused to touch me. She wouldn't even nurse me and my grandmother had to raise me for 6 months on a bottle before they could persuade my mother to take care of her own baby." She believed that growing up feeling rejected shaped her behaviour ; she nev...