Being the first at anything is almost always an act of courage.
But being the first woman at something comes with a special weight.
This past weekend, I had the opportunity to visit a lovely exhibition. First Women is 100 portraits by Anita Corbin who has photographed women through ten years to create a stunning archive of women’s contributions to Britain. The work marks 100 years of women’s right to vote in England. Here are some pretty photos:
Among them was:
Professor Dame Sally Davies, the first woman to hold the role of chief medical officer for England and Carla Lane, the first woman to write sitcoms for the BBC.
There was a photo of Baroness Rosie Boycott of Whitefield who was the first woman to edit a broadsheet newspaper and Kathryn Sargent, the first woman to be a head cutter in Savile Row.
Clare Smyth was the first woman to achieve 3 Michelin star status and Professor Louise Richardson became the first woman principal of the University of St Andrews and vice-chancellor of Oxford University.
And so many more fascinating women.
Historically, women have had to wait their turn.
Women in the UK couldn’t open a bank account in their own name until as recently as 1975.
Indian women (who are Hindu, Buddhist, Jain and Sikh) became eligible to inherit their father’s property only in 2005.
It took until 1981 before a woman served as a judge in the US Supreme Court.
The odds have always been stacked against women. It’s getting better but it’s far from easy.
Oprah Winfrey is a quintessential “first woman.” Born into poverty and from a background of abuse, she is the first black female billionaire, her net worth currently at about $3 billion.
Katharine Viner became the first female editor-in-chief of The Guardian in 2015, a newspaper that is 200 years old this year. The Financial Times was founded in 1888. It got its first female editor-in-chief in Roula Khalaf in 2020. You do the math.
Fathima Beevi was the first female judge in the Supreme Court of India.
I wonder what each of them would say if asked how many times they had been told, in how many ways, that she shouldn’t aspire for where they got to in their careers.
We’ve had only three women win the Nobel Prize for physics and one of them was Marie Curie, who was also the first woman to receive the prize. She’s also the only woman to receive the Nobel twice.
I was thinking about it the other day. Waitressing is such a popular job for women in places like the UK and the US. But even today, you almost never see female waiters at restaurants in India. Sometimes you see women operating public transport but even that’s rare.
We’re still waiting on a female president of the United States or secretary-general of the UN.
There is still so much further to go.
Raising your hand in a group to ask the first question, volunteering first from among an audience, being the first in your family to graduate from college — being the first at anything is almost always an act of courage.
But being the first woman at something comes with a special weight.
Noor Inayat Khan was the first female wireless operator to be sent to France by the UK during World War II
Indira Gandhi was the first, and so far the only, female prime minister of India
Margaret Thatcher was the first female prime minister of the UK
Madeleine Albright was the first female US Secretary of State
Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic (as a pilot and passenger, on two separate occasions)
Ella Fitzgerald was the first African American woman to win a Grammy and the first woman to win multiple Grammys
Althea Gibson was the first African American to win a Grand Slam title (she first won in France in 1956 and the following year at Wimbledon and in the US)
Junko Tabei was the first woman to scale Mount Everest. And then she also became the first woman to scale the highest peaks on seven continents.
They were all first women. I’ll bet all of them were at least a little scared about what they were achieving at the time. But they jumped anyway.
As a “first woman”, you don’t just open doors for yourself, you open doors for other women too.
Younger women, older women, women of colour, women from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Women who never thought of themselves or saw people like them in positions they want to occupy.
Women who were discouraged by conservatism and patriarchy, a lack of resources or self-belief.
Women who were silenced.
Women without agency or opportunity.
Women who just couldn’t, who were told they couldn’t, didn’t or didn’t know how to.
For all these women and many more, please be a “first woman.” Even if you’re scared, please promise you’ll jump. Women must be each other’s allies, hold each other up, hold hands as we take steps forward to navigate so many unknown waters that still exist. To catch each other when someone stumbles and wade through those waters until they run clear.
Women have long been kept out of places by people in positions of power acting as gatekeepers. This isn’t about to end anytime soon. Although an uphill climb, I hope you’ll find your distinct brand of how to get past these obstacles and send out a message loud and clear: No one decides the limits of your greatness.
Earlier this year, I did some social media work for online photo exhibition, The Hope Brigade by The Wow Foundation with Google Arts and Culture. It’s another gorgeous collection of the stories and images of 100 women from across ten parts of the world, each leading change and progress in their industries and communities. Read the stories of Jasmine Norton, the chef who started and owns the first female black-owned oyster bar in Maryland or Nisia Trindade de Lima who is the first woman president of Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), one of the world’s major public health research institutions, in its 116-year history. Totally worth some browse time.
In Women Wins this Week
Labour MP, Nadia Whittome in the UK is taking time off for her mental health. The 24-year-old is taking several weeks away from work under doctor’s advice to cope with post-traumatic stress disorder. And Naomi Osaka said she would withdraw from press conferences at the French Open but has now dropped out of the competition. The 23-year-old was told by all four Grand Slam tournaments that she would be fined £10,000 for not honouring media commitments according to the terms of a contract. She posted this on Instagram.
Nearly 11,000 women are suing Google for gender pay bias. The case may start only next year. They are claiming more than $600 million in damages. If successful, it could set a major precedent in the tech industry and beyond.
I’ve discovered Proactive For Her and I love the idea of an easy-to-access digital clinic for women, where no problem seems too tiny or silly to discuss, which gives women greater control of a doctor-patient relationship and especially one that says it comes minus the drama of judgement.
Also discovered at the First Women exhibition was Older and Wider: A Survivor’s Guide to the Menopause by Jenny Eclair. I haven’t read it but if the title is anything to go by, I’d expect it to have an irreverent, lighthearted tone, which is maybe just what’s needed when the meno has paused. I like the cover too.
Did you know: there’s a word for painful menstrual cramps usually accompanied by abdominal pain and it’s called dysmenorrhea.
There’s a new podcast out hosted by Dr. Lucy Kalanithi, the widow of Dr. Paul Kalanithi, who wrote When Breath Becomes Air (which I’ve read and recommend). The first episode of Gravity is an interview with Vivek Murthy, Surgeon General of the United States, about something all of us have either thought about lots or experienced since the beginning of this pandemic — loneliness.
And a bright spot to step into the weekend with: please look at this gorgeous Vogue cover of Malala, photographed by Nick Knight, wearing Stella McCartney. You can read the interview with Sirin Kale here. If you’d like to read about the fun Vogue shoot behind the scenes, here you go. Sirin has also recently worked on this important (and very different) story with Lucy Osborne, which is so worth reading.
As we crawl towards the end of what I want to believe is the end of this pandemic, please still be careful. Wear your mask, social distance, wash your hands and avoid touching your face. Do it for yourself, do it for everyone else. And if you’re in two minds about it — get the vaccine.
Stay safe and healthy and get outdoors!
xx
AA
First woman
I totally agree with you, these women have paved a way for the future generation and are showing us that we can do anything we set our minds to. I would also like to draw your attention to another platform that I think is doing something really great and it's called The Health Capital https://www.thehealthcapital.com/ It is an online consultation platform for females facing health problems whether it's mental, hormonal or reproductive related. Their services are entirely online and what's so great about it is that it's giving women all over the world access to highly qualified doctors who are here to help them. Everything is done online, so there's no more waiting at crowded clinics and they have access to personalised counselling sessions from the privacy of their own home.