Our book club read for February was The History of the World in 21 Women by Jenni Murray. She made her selection from a diverse pool of cultures and time periods. She both introduced me to women I had never heard of (Pharaoh Hatshepsut, Dowager Empress Cixi and Wangari Maathai) 
and enlightened me on a number of things about women whose stories I thought I knew (Catherine the Great, Coco Chanel and Cathy Freeman).
She challenged me to respect the achievements of women whose missions I disagreed with, based on the astonishing impact they managed to make in the time period in which they lived (Isabella of Castille and Golda Meir). I 
loved the way I found myself inspired to go and look at the work of the artists (Artemisia Gentileschi and Frida Kahlo) and the books of the writers (Margaret Atwood and Toni Morrison) she brought to life.
Caroline highlighted Clara Schumann as the woman she most identified with, both of them musicians who had married other musicians. Ursula’s 
favourite was Artemisia Gentileschi, whose harrowing testimony in the trial of her rapist was only given airtime because he went back on his promise to marry her.
We discussed these bigger themes of the imbalance of how women and men have been seen and valued through history in different cultures. We shared admiration for the incredible men who had bucked the trends of their times to educate their daughters and support their wives (more on this below). And we also discussed some interesting questions around the validity of all the historic evidence. History is, after all, written by the victors!
My degree is in international politics and international history, and one of the key skills it was hoped we would graduate with was the ability to spot propaganda. Building on my history A Level which focussed on the Tudor period in Britain and Europe, and my GCSE in modern history, this validity of evidence presented as fact is an area of fascination for me. It’s possibly also why Anna Politkovskaya was my favourite.
In Hatshepsut’s story we were told of the two obelisks built to house the 
hieroglyphic depiction of her glorious reign, and that one was destroyed by the new pharaoh and the other hidden by high walls until the Egyptologists went exploring many hundreds of years later. In the same way that I watch programmes about dinosaurs and wonder what proportion of the “facts” are actually guestimations, I cannot help but wonder how we can be so confident of the details in these stories from so long ago?
I then posed a killer question to the group. If you had to choose twenty one women, who would you put on your list?
We each came up with twelve or thirteen quite quickly and then we shared. Our list included historic figures Boudicca, Cleopatra, Mulan (don’t tell me she’s a fictional character, I won’t hear of it!), Elizabeth I, Queen Victoria, Jane Austen, Harriet Tubman, Eleanor Roosevelt, 
Amelia Earhart, Audrey Hepburn, Rosa Parks, Maya Angelou, Germaine Greer, Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres, Michelle Obama, Madonna, Serena Williams, Greta Thunberg and Taylor Swift. That’s twenty and I knew there was someone really important that I was forgetting. 
And yes, if it was allowed, I’d probably swap Madonna for Buffy Summers…
And then my boyfriend suggested we watch “On the Basis of Sex” on Friday night. I did have an initial “you want me watch what?!” cross the front of my mind, and if you know me in real life, you know I have very little in the way of poker face! “It’s the story of Ruth Bader 
Ginsberg-” he begins and then I remember in an instant why I love him so much. He’s found the perfect movie for me to be absorbed by. I wholeheartedly recommend it. She is an incredible human being, a phenomenal woman and somebody I look up to unreservedly. She also had the most supportive and ahead of his time husband imaginable. I will say no more because I don’t want to spoil the story, but wow yes she is definitely on my list.
Who would make it on yours?
Xx
PS my scanner isn’t talking to me at the moment, so please excuse the terrible photos of wonderful illustrations. The book they come from is the beautiful Good Night Stories For Rebel Girls and each one should have a picture credit in the illustration for the artist. I love how vivid they are and how different the styles are from artist to artist. It’s a brilliant book for bite sized snapshots of game changing rebel women and is perfect for prompting discussions with young minds.
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