When my daughters were growing up, I used to scour the newspapers to point out to them the political, economic, artistic and sporting achievements of women wide and far. Every now and then, just to get a sense of balance, I would also highlight where women had hit the headlines for the wrong reasons.
For the last month or so, women have been hitting the headlines for all of the right reasons. The so-called ‘gentler sex’ have really shown the men how to do things properly! Congratulations to the England women’s football team – the Lionesses – on winning the European Championships. That’s one better than their brothers, last year’s beaten finalists. As the tabloid press cheesily put it, with just a hint of irony, ‘56 years of hurt is now history’. It would, of course, be churlish not to mention, the Jamaica women outdoing the Jamaica men in the medals table in the Commonwealth Games – again! Well done, guys. Plus, silver for Jamaica in women’s netball and women’s judo, for the first time ever. A Jamaican woman won golds in the coveted sprint double as well.
It could well be that the front-runner in the race to become the UK’s next Prime Minister is a woman. What a battle! Oh, that reminds me, the British Army has just appointed a woman as its second-in-command for the first time in history. I do of course mean recent history, thus not forgetting Boadicea (Boudicca), Queen of Celtic Britons, who raised an army that ran rings around the Romans; Æthelflæd, who helped lead the fight against the Vikings; and Queen Elizabeth I (1533 to 1603), who defeated the Spanish Armada, and maintained unity, in a previously divided country. What was that you were saying about the ‘gentler sex’! Remember Maggie and the Falklands War?
The current President of the Law Society, I. Stephanie Boyce, is a woman, in fact the first Black woman to have been appointed to the position. The first Black female to be appointed Queens Counsel (QC) was Patricia Scotland (now Baroness Scotland). Incidentally, at 35 she was the youngest women ever to be appointed to that exalted rank. That record has stood since 1991.
This year has just seen the appointment of the sixth Black female QC, Nneka Akudolu. The current Attorney General, the Rt Hon Suella Braverman QC MP, is a woman, of Indian extraction. The Attorney General is the chief legal adviser to the Crown.
So, it’s official. Women can lead us to triumph and glory in war, politics, sport and the law, no matter what the odds. No wonder Shakespeare, in Julius Caesar, put in the mouth of a worried, anxious and confused Portia, the words “I have a man’s mind, but a woman’s might.” Well said, Sis!
Contact Bastian Lloyd Morris on 01908 546580 or click here.
