Wednesday 04-03-2020 - 12:53

March 8^th marks International Women’s Day each year and is marked out as a day to celebrate women and the invaluable contributions that they make to society and history. To highlight the day three members of the UCSU team spoke about their choice of inspirational woman.

 

Jo Pavey

In 2015 the 40-year-old mother of 2, made an incredible come back to athletics as she went on to win Bronze in the 10,000m in Glasgow at the 2014 commonwealth games… oh did I mention that she gave birth to her youngest just 10 months prior to the games!?.

Pavey has not stopped there - after her first Olympic appearance at Sydney in 2000, she has qualified for the British team at every Games since, and now aims to earn a place in Team GB at Tokyo 2020 at the grand old age of 45.

Pavey is a true legend of the sport and to juggle such intense training, with winning bronze and being a mother is nothing less than inspiration…incredible, someone who I look up to.

Joe Morrell

Welfare & Support Officer

 

 

 

Sandi Toksvig

Born May 3^rd 1958 in Demark Sandi has gone on to be a celebrated writer, comedian, TV presenter, actor and political activist having co-founded the Women’s Equality Party. Best known in the public eye for presenting such shows as The Great British Bake Off & QI Sandi once gave a TED Talk entitled How Feminism Can Save the World and was the Chancellor of Portsmouth University. When she was eleven years old she held the hand of Neil Armstrong’s assistant in Mission Control as he stepped out onto the moon. She once cannoned down the Zambezi River in Africa in a solo trip as part of a TV documentary series and has written over twenty books, both fiction and nonfiction for both adults and children on a range of topics. Sandi lives with her wife on a houseboat and has three children, two daughters and a son. Sandi is an inspiration to me because she combines being a warm, funny and friendly person with her strong and passionate belief that all people are equal. Her bravery in coming out, which was inspired by her children and the thought that they should not have to be ashamed of having two mothers, was inspiring in the face of adversity. I think if we were all a little bit more like Sandi the world would be a better place.

Rachel O’Donovan

Marketing & Communications Coordinator

 

 

Cartimandua (reigned c43-69AD)

Cartimandua was the Queen of the Brigante tribal federation that covered most of Northern England at the time of the Roman Conquest of 43AD. The Brigante territory spread from Cheshire to Dumfries, Lincoln to Newcastle and according to the Roman writer Tacitus Cartimandua made alliances with the Romans, consolidated power and, as far as we can tell, was a very strong leader in her own right. She divorced her husband King Venutius, replaced him with her lover, a common soldier and protected the Brigante people and territories during a period of considerable turbulence. She also was unafraid to court further controversy when she captured the famed leader of native British resistance Caratacus and handed him over to the Romans in chains. Caratacus lived out his life in relative comfort, in a small palace in Sicily as an honoured prisoner of the Roman Emperor. Cartimandua, however, was eventually forced out of power by her former husband in 69AD when the Roman Legions were unable to lend the support promised by treaty. Cartimandua it is recorded ‘was evacuated’ but thereafter disappears from history.

Danny Prescott

CEO