Great British women

[chirpychirpy]

I can think of many great British men, like Churchill, Brunel, Logie Baird, Charles Darwin, Shakespeare, Faraday, Cliff (!), The Beatles, Lloyd Webber, Richard Branson, etc, but very few great British women except Florence Nightingale, Maggie Thatcher and a few 60s singers. Please can you suggest some great British women.

[roger]

My mother who was left with two children aged 13 and 11 on the untimely death of my father.She got a job and raised usandpaid off the mortgage with NO help from the state. Unsung heroine.

[emmie]

roger, the same for my mother, raised three of us more or less single handed, but the question is Great British Women, in the sense of famous, noted,
it's a good point though

[emkay0145]

Off the top of my head:
Heroines:Nurse Edith Cavell,Grace Darling, Boudicca
Entertainers:Vera Lynn;Vesta Tilly;Marie Lloyd;Shirley Bassey;Jessie Matthews;
Politicians:Nancy Astor,Jenny Lee,Barbara Castle,Betty Boothroyd
Science & Medicine etc: Ada Lovelace;Elizabeth Garrett Anderson
Reformers,Missionaries etc: Elizabeth Fry,Mary Slessor,Gladys Aylward
Writers:The Bronte sisters, George Eliot, Maria Edgeworth,Jane Austen,Enid Blyton;JK Rowling
and I'm sure there are many more!

[Anngel123]

Grace Darling

[CaraK]

first error: thatcher wasnt great!

[emmie]

emkay, most already mentioned, and carak, yes she was, but there will always be dissenters.

[rowanwitch]

Gertrude Jekyll,

[Booldawg]

Ellen McArthur

[suechu]

Iris Murdoch. Anna Wintour. errrmmmm

[nannybooby]

Where would we all be without Marie Stopes and the Pankhurst Sisters. Down trodden no doubt.

[emmie]

booldawg totally agree.

[Leva]

Edith Durham, Aphra Benn, Boudicca/Boadicea,the woman who worked on DNA and the double helix with the 2 men who got the Nobel prize, Crick and Watson whose name escapes me at the moment (I wonder why?).The Bronte's and Jane Austen, Fay Weldon, Mo Mowlam, ..Try these!

[joko]

i don't think merely being famous and rich is enough to qualify someone as a 'great british woman'

being great means more than that.

[joko]

there are less notably great women over the centuries, not because women are less able to do great things but because women were largely prevented and discouraged from doing anything intellectual etc.

many things were considered 'not ladylike' and most women were either banned from getting involved by their husbands or fathers, or banned by the relative authority, such as the college dean or owner of a club or whatever it happened to be.
any that pushed were sneered at and treated as though they were abnormal and accused of such 'crimes' as being 'willful' etc
many were even forced into asylums as it was seen as an illness...
women were expected to 'keep house and raise children'

even in the 50-60s they made all those 'women: know your place!' type service announcements and books etc

nowadays there are many many truly great women from all fields.