Today is International Women’s Day, a global day to celebrate the achievements of women and promote gender equality.
To commemorate this fine occasion and celebrate our commitment to offering you the very best of British – yes, we sell only 100% British-made mattresses – today we’re talking about some of the coolest female Brits ever to have lived.
Famed photographer and well-to-do resident of the Isle of Wight, Julia started her career relatively late in life but was one of the first people to treat photography as an art form. Many of her works were derided at the time, but she was, in fact, refining a new style of portraiture that would go on to influence many modern photographers and be exhibited in galleries across the globe.
Mary was a British-Jamaican businesswoman and nurse who set up the British Hotel, a place for sick and convalescing servicemen during the Crimean War. She is celebrated for successfully combatting racial prejudice in her own time and was voted the greatest black Briton in 2004.
Ada is regarded as the world’s first computer programmer and is believed to have written the first algorithm to be computed by a machine.
“That brain of mine is something more than merely mortal; as time will show.”
Dorothy was a journalist. At the outbreak of World War I, she volunteered to report on the war, but her attempts to reach the front line were thwarted, so she posed as a man and set out for the Somme by bicycle. Dorothy published a book about her time as an officer in 1919 and is now thought to be one of the only women who fought in the trenches.
We hope that learning about these inspirational women will encourage you to learn more about the women who made our world what it is today. You can find out lots more about International Women’s Day and ways to get involved at https://www.internationalwomensday.com.