In a week where X-Factor winner Leona Lewis topped a poll in aid of International Women’s Day to find London’s most influential woman of the last 100 years, it’s good to see that feminist icon Mary Wollstonecraft is at least getting some overdue attention in Newington Green.
The author-activist was a lone angry female voice at the end of the 18th century. Her essay A Vindication of the Rights of Women is a foundation stone for the international women’s movement, arguing that it was only educational inequalities at the time which made women inferior to men.
Things have progressed a long way in Islington since Wollstonecraft lived here – women now have the right to vote, the right to stand for political office, and the right to birth control. But inequality is still a harsh reality for women in the borough. Latest figures show that the average estimated annual income for men in the borough is £45,935 and £30,164 for women.
And that is why the plaque for Mary Wollstonecraft on International Women’s Day is so important – not only to celebrate the achievements of local women past and present, but also to highlight areas where more work is needed to achieve true gender equality.
No no no, Wollstonecraft was just another left wing man hating lesbian like Emily Pankhurst.
Why does the media give these loonies airtime? They were no better than Nazis, demanding men (and boys) go off and die in WW1.
Give me Leona Lewis over these vile man hating harridans any day of the year.
Leona Lewis is so much better