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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
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| Feeling blue over lack of plaques for women | Feeling blue over lack of plaques for women |
| (2 months later) | |
| Could English Heritage not overlook the glamour of a film star for the grit and guts of the Bryant and May matchgirls, who went on strike in 1888 and initiated laws to protect children and women from the horrendous effects of poisonous working conditions, long hours, employers’ indifference to health and safety, and the hostility of male trade union organisers (Blue plaques await film star, writer and spy amid appeal to nominate more women, 30 October). All this before women had the vote or any workers’ rights. They fought for their rights with little more than the knowledge that the way in which they were treated was wrong, and they won, and formed their own union. They are not just a lesson for women, but for all workers who think there is nothing they can do about a greedy employer.Carol HowardHertford | Could English Heritage not overlook the glamour of a film star for the grit and guts of the Bryant and May matchgirls, who went on strike in 1888 and initiated laws to protect children and women from the horrendous effects of poisonous working conditions, long hours, employers’ indifference to health and safety, and the hostility of male trade union organisers (Blue plaques await film star, writer and spy amid appeal to nominate more women, 30 October). All this before women had the vote or any workers’ rights. They fought for their rights with little more than the knowledge that the way in which they were treated was wrong, and they won, and formed their own union. They are not just a lesson for women, but for all workers who think there is nothing they can do about a greedy employer.Carol HowardHertford |
| • Your article on the lack of blue commemorative plaques to women can be redressed quite easily in order to gain the proverbial level playing field by setting up local borough/constituency women’s plaque societies – quicker, cheaper and more numerous – rather than waiting for English Heritage. | • Your article on the lack of blue commemorative plaques to women can be redressed quite easily in order to gain the proverbial level playing field by setting up local borough/constituency women’s plaque societies – quicker, cheaper and more numerous – rather than waiting for English Heritage. |
| There are 16 English Heritage plaques in Battersea but none commemorating women. The Battersea Society has three blue plaques commemorating women that I have helped to organise, including one to Hilda Hewlett, the first British woman to obtain her pilot’s licence in 1911 and one to Caroline Ganley, the first working-class woman with elementary education elected as an MP in 1945, unveiled by Marsha de Cordova, the Battersea MP. Another to Charlotte Despard, socialist, suffragette and Irish nationalist, will be unveiled by Polly Toynbee for the Battersea Labour party on 14 December on the centenary of the 1918 election, when she was one of 16 women standing for election.Jeanne RathboneLondon | There are 16 English Heritage plaques in Battersea but none commemorating women. The Battersea Society has three blue plaques commemorating women that I have helped to organise, including one to Hilda Hewlett, the first British woman to obtain her pilot’s licence in 1911 and one to Caroline Ganley, the first working-class woman with elementary education elected as an MP in 1945, unveiled by Marsha de Cordova, the Battersea MP. Another to Charlotte Despard, socialist, suffragette and Irish nationalist, will be unveiled by Polly Toynbee for the Battersea Labour party on 14 December on the centenary of the 1918 election, when she was one of 16 women standing for election.Jeanne RathboneLondon |
| • I was intrigued by your piece on more blue plaques for prominent women (From Muriel Spark to Angela Carter: which women should get blue plaques?, 1 November). I asked English Heritage about a plaque for Muriel Spark, but was told that there was a compulsory 20-year gap after death before consideration. Dame Muriel died in 2006, so we still have an eight-year wait. I regret your piece was wrong when saying Spark was coming into possibility. Perhaps English Heritage could relax its rules to allow this to be expedited? This would be appropriate in Spark’s centenaryEric DicksonChairman, The Muriel Spark SocietyPS The society arranged for a celebratory plaque at Edinburgh’s Makars’ Court. | • I was intrigued by your piece on more blue plaques for prominent women (From Muriel Spark to Angela Carter: which women should get blue plaques?, 1 November). I asked English Heritage about a plaque for Muriel Spark, but was told that there was a compulsory 20-year gap after death before consideration. Dame Muriel died in 2006, so we still have an eight-year wait. I regret your piece was wrong when saying Spark was coming into possibility. Perhaps English Heritage could relax its rules to allow this to be expedited? This would be appropriate in Spark’s centenaryEric DicksonChairman, The Muriel Spark SocietyPS The society arranged for a celebratory plaque at Edinburgh’s Makars’ Court. |
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| Heritage | Heritage |
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| Women in politics | Women in politics |
| Gender | Gender |
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