To quote from Jacky Fleming’s book, The Trouble with Women (listed in Like for Like Reading below) “Why did we only learn about 3 women in school – What were the others doing?” Well, in Kira Cochrane’s view there are some 52 women pioneers who have changed the world, improved women’s lives and who have been acknowledged as innovators in their field. The factor that appears over and over in this collection of brief lives is a strength of purpose, a vision of a way forward and an appreciation of the obstacles that must be tackled to achieve success. The illustrated essays, all too brief, are valuable introductions to the lives of women – some now famous, some forgotten or overlooked, who have had the pioneering spark and inspire us all. ~ Sue Baker
Modern Women is a celebration of some of the- influential and inspiring women who have changed the world through their lives, work and actions. From suffragettes to scientists, activists to artists, politicians to pilots and writers to riot grrrls, the women included have all paved the way for gender equality in their own indomitable way. Find out about extraordinary women including writer and teacher Maya Angelou, computer scientist Ada Lovelace, abolitionist Harriet Tubman, film star Katharine Hepburn and pioneering musician Bjork. Their lives also enable bigger stories to be told: the suffrage movement with Sophia Duleep Singh; the civil rights struggle and Audre Lorde; advances in science made by Rosalind Franklin; the push for artistic freedom in the work of Frida Kahlo and Louise Bourgeois; and the importance of equality in all sections of society advocated by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Kira Cochrane is Opinion Editor of the Guardian, and was previously a features writer for the paper, and women's editor from 2006-2010. She is author of the novels The Naked Season and Escape Routes for Beginners, edited the anthology Women of the Revolution, and co-edited Cupcakes and Kalashnikovs, as well as writing the short book All the Rebel Women, an account of the fourth wave of feminism. She lives in London.
