Emmeline Pankhurst
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| Image credit: Matzene, Chicago Restored by Adam Cuerden |
Probably one of Manchester's most famous women, Pankhurst was a suffragette who led in the fight for women's right to vote.
Pankhurst founded the Women's Franchise League in 1889 which campaigned to give the vote to married women. She was arrested many times throughout her campaigns and participated in hunger strikes.
Pankhurst only stopped campaigning after the outbreak of WW1, when she turned her focus to the war efforts.
If you haven't yet visited the Pankhurst statue in St. Peter's Square yet, you should definitely get down there and see it.
Marie Stopes
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| About Manchester |
Stopes was an author and was the first female academic at Manchester University.
Stopes was also a prominent campaigner for female reproductive rights and along with her husband Humphrey Roe she opened one of the UK's first birth control clinics.
Stopes' name lives on in the Marie Stopes charity which still helps women with family planning today.
Enriqueta Rylands
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| Image credit: Geograph |
The John Rylands library may have been named after the philanthropist and entrepreneur, but it was Ryland a wife Enriqueta who founded one of the city's most famous buildings.
Originally born in Havana, Cuba, Rylands was inspired by the library at Mansfield College, Oxford, and hired the same architect to design the Deansgate building. She spent hundreds of thousands of pounds populating the library with works.
You can visit her sculpture in the library today.
Kathleen Ollerenshaw
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| Image credit: Wikimedia Commons |
Mathematician Ollerenshaw was a lecturer at the University of Manchester and published 26 academic papers throughout her lifetime. The University holds a public lecture in her name each year.
She was also the president of the Institute and its Applications in the late 1970s.
Outside of mathematics, Ollerenshaw served as a Conservative Councillor for Rusholme for 26 years and was also Manchester's Lord Mayor from 1975-1976.
Eleanor Sykes.
Dr Sykes, known as Eleanor Schill before marrying husband Bill Sykes, was one of England's first female doctors and trained as a psychiatrist at the University of Manchester.
Sykes founded the Marriage Guidance Council and the Bramhill Ecumenical Association of Counselling.
Sykes supported many community groups throughout her life.
Victoria Wood
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| Image credit: Wikimedia Commons |
Wood, one of the UK's best-loved comedians, was known for her stand-up and her work on programmes such as Dinnerladies.
Wood was awarded both OBE and CBE and won several entertainment awards including multiple BAFTAs.
Prestwich-born Wood passed away in 2016 after battling with cancer.
Carol Ann Duffy
Although born in Glasgow, Duffy has lived in Manchester for the past two decades.
The Poet Laureate teaches at Manchester Metropolitan University, and was the first woman to win the title, as well as the first Scot and the first openly gay or bisexual person.
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