The Night Witches

The Night Witches were the world’s first all-female flight unit, a Soviet regiment who became feared amongst Nazi pilots during the Second World War.

Mary Shelley

Although Mary Godwin Shelley lived in the restrictive Victorian era where a women’s place was in the home, tending to husband and children, she paved an unconventional, decidedly non-Victorian path through life. She established a substantive literary career while contending with the obstacles of single parenthood and depression.

Mary Wollstonecraft

“I do not wish them [women] to have power over men; but over themselves.”

― Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)

Mary Wollstonecraft was born on April 27, 1759; the second eldest in a family of seven. Alienated by her mother’s favour for her brother and her father’s abuse, she dedicated her life to writing. She became one of Britain’s most important radicals, whose work has changed the world. The work she is renowned for is Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), which proposed for the first time, equal rights for women.

Annie Horniman

Annie Horniman was born in 1860 in Forest Hill, London, the daughter of tea merchant and founder of the Horniman Museum, Frederick John Horniman. During her childhood, visits to theatre were forbidden, but when a German governess took her to see The Merchant of Venice, she was instantly hooked. She would go on to become one of the most influential (although often forgotten) women in twentieth century British theatre.