Rebellious Daughters of History #24 by Judy Cox ‘We are Lions’’: Jayaben Desai (1933 – 2010) Jayaben Desai was born in 1933 in Gujarat, India. She later migrated to Britain, where she took up low-paid work, first as a sewing machinist, then processing film in the Grunwick factory. There was no union allowed at Grunwick, […]
Articles with tag “Gender & Sexuality”
Ella May Wiggins and Mary Heaton
Rebellious Daughters of History #23 by Judy Cox Labour Movement Martyrs and their Stories: Ella May Wiggins (1900 – 1929) and Mary Heaton (1874-1966) Ella May was born Sevierville, Tennessee, in 1900 and by 1926 she had settled in an African-American neighbourhood in Gaston County. Her neighbours looked after her nine children as she worked […]
Mary ‘Mother’ Jones and Inessa Armand
Rebellious Daughters of History #22 by Judy Cox The most dangerous woman in America: Mary ‘Mother’ Jones (1837-1933) Mary Harris was born in 1837 in County Cork, Ireland. Her father Robert fled to Canada after taking part in a revolt against the landowners. Mary became a schoolteacher but was barred from most schools because she […]
Mary Shelley
Rebellious Daughters of History #21 by Judy Cox Mary Shelley (1797-1851) Mary Shelley was the daughter of the radical philosopher William Godwin and the famous feminists, Mary Wollstonecraft who died days after Mary’s birth. Mary grew up with five semi-related siblings in an unconventional but intellectually electric household. At the age of 16, Mary eloped […]
Rose Pastor Stokes and Rani Lakshmibai
Rebellious Daughters of History #20 by Judy Cox From Celebrity Cinderella to Communist: Rose Pastor Stokes (1879-1933) Rose Pastor Stokes was born into poverty, ‘I slipped into the world while my mother was on her knees, scrubbing the floor’, she later recalled. Born Rose Harriet Wieslander in Poland, 1879, and moved to England with her […]