Feminists From England

"Each heart knows instinctively that it is only a mate who can give full comprehension of all the potential greatness in the soul, and have tender laughter for all the childlike wonder that lingers so enchantingly even in the white-haired."

"From the body of the loved one's simple, sweetly colored flesh, which our animal instincts urge us to desire, there springs not only the wonder of a new bodily life, but also the enlargement of the horizon of human sympathy and the glow of spiritual understanding which one could never have attained alone."

"...The national narrative in Britain has been one of liberty, freedom, a freedom loving people, prosperity, peace, no conquests, no violence, no expropriation. A peaceful story from beginning to end. A transformation from barbarism to civilisation, but one that has been done in an extraordinary and English way. Which means recognising trouble when it’s coming and dealing with it before it happens, reforming in time, and therefore the slow march of progress. And that Whig story of English history is still phenomenally powerful."

"I had an excellent conventional grammar school education, where I had a wonderful history teacher. That was very important; it instilled in me from an early age how important teaching was and what a difference it can make."

"It was an incredible learning curve, realising how historians tend to only see what they’re interested in."

"For me, the point of doing history has been about how understanding the past might help us to improve people’s lives in the present. You can see that so clearly in relation to women’s rights or in relation to racial inequality."

"It is clear that in Great Britain at an early period women were commonly found among the irregular practitioners of Medicine; and it is equally clear that their male competitors greatly desired to deprive them of the right to practise."

"The third College which gives instruction and academic degrees to both sexes is situated at , in Ohio, and being founded in 1852 by a sect calling themselves emphatically "Christians," was by the named , in allusion to Acts xi. 26. The characteristic feature distinguishing this College from the others already named, is the aim of its founders to establish it on a strictly unsectarian basis."

"... On Sunday morning the College-chapel is used by the whole community of , and the students may attend there or elsewhere as they please; but in the afternoon the service is specially designed for them, and their presence is required."

"The study and practice of medicine seems to me to be divided into two tolerably distinct branches,—Preventive and Curative; and whereas the second of these will, I think, be left by all wise people to those who, by years of study of books and , have mastered some at least of its difficulties, the former should, in my opinion, form an integral part of every system of education which has any pretension to completeness."

"It is a very comfortable faith to hold that "whatever is, is best," not only in the dispensations of Providence, but in the social order of daily life; but it is a faith which is perhaps best preserved by careful avoidance of too much inquiry into facts."

"... Whatever shortcomings or errors may be recorded against , it should ever be remembered in her favour that she took the initiative before all the world in opening a college career to women, and in welcoming, on equal terms, all students, of whatever race or hue. This double glory shall surely be hers in the memories of men when much on which she now prides herself more may be forgotten."

"... If we go back to primeval times, and try to imagine the first sickness or the first injury suffered by humanity, does one instinctively feel that it must have been the man's business to seek means of healing, to try the virtues of various herbs, or to apply such rude remedies as might occur to one unused to the strange spectacle of human suffering? I think that few would maintain that such ministration would come most naturally to the man and be instinctively avoided by the woman; indeed, I fancy that the presumption would be rather in the other direction. And what is such ministration but the germ of the future profession of medicine?"

"The civilisation and social structure of our country, rightly or wrongly, take for granted that a few people shall have a lot of money and a lot of power, and great many people very little money and very little power. But the individuals, and particularly the labouring individuals, who create and compose our civilisation and society, are beginning to cease to take this state of things for granted."

"... , years before he died, was hidden from most of us in the mist of his own method."

"They kept a bird— Poor bird !—in a cage ; Till—so I have heard— Without need, without rage, Cheerfully, coldly, They let it flit, And more than boldly Murdered it. Since the law of nature Is danger and pain, The obedient creature Did not complain, But left as token to everybody The wing broken And the breast bloody."

"Gerald Gould was important in George Orwell’s life although they may never have met. As Chief Reader for the publisher Victor Gollancz in the early 1930’s Gould was involved in editing Orwell’s early books. On 17 December 1934 Orwell wrote a letter to about possible changes to '; and listed sixteen changes that Gould, and Harold Frederick Rubenstein, a solicitor, playwright, author and literary critic, had recommended. Orwell made some changes, compromised over others and stood firm on some points."

"" Instinct," as said, " is a great matter "; but it is not the whole. believes so much in domination and antagonism that he seems not to believe in men and women—the first act of faith that God requires of the artist."

"I was one of the first in this country—I rather think I was quite the first—to hail in print the genius of Mr. Joyce, when, many years ago, he put forth a quiet little volume of short stories called " ." I saw in his bleak and bitter realism a reading of life."

"Whereas so many writers who are " different " seem to be merely straining away from the conventional in their originality, Mrs. Woolf transcends it easily: she has a running lyric strain that lifts the heart. The fairies showered gifts on Mr. Forster; sympathy, wit, knowledge, charm; but an impudent fairy came at the end and made him whimsical. Lovely as his work is, it remains at one remove from life."

"This honour is not just for me, but for Wolverhampton itself—a city of resilience, creativity, and community spirit. It belongs to every individual and organisation that works tirelessly to make our city a better place."

"The Labour Party’s commitment to continued austerity and Brexit will further undermine jobs, education, and opportunities in our city. This abandonment of the working class is inexcusable."

"The Labour Party's stance on Palestine is morally wrong and ignores the suffering of the Palestinian people. I support the United Nations and the UN Human Rights Council calls for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, as well as an immediate ban on arms sales to Israel as well as sanctions."

"We [Wolverhampton] have been a city for 19 years and they need to catch up. Are they that out of touch that they did not bother to look it up?"

"The ideological driven philosophy of the Conservatives that 'if we do not legally have to do it - don't do it at all' is the opposite of what any fair, equal and just society should be."

"What is certain is that disability, the wheelchair, is often much more fascinating than the dullness of the ordinary, i.e., the 'normal'."

"The Labour Party has strayed from the core values I once shared with the Party. My political beliefs prevent me from compromising my principles for a party that appears to have none. The democratic fabric of the Labour Party has been compromised under your leadership, Keir Starmer, becoming increasingly autocratic that marginalises diverse voices, especially those of women, people of colour, Muslims, and Jews. This betrayal of democratic ideals, along with the party's major shift towards antisemitism and islamophobia, is unacceptable."

"Feminism is, by its very nature, about the validation of difference and Otherness - the female as 'the first step on the road along abnormality'. All I am doing is arguing that we go down that road a little further and pick up a few more allies and friends; if for no other reason than the fact that half of the disabled community are our sisters."

"In these days when men are making us spend all our substance and strength on winning the liberty they out to be giving us with both hands – I have no heart to subsidise men’s things at all…except just to hold my seat on the Town Council."

"As women are still deprived from direct power to shape the destiny of this country, we must demand that our fellow men do their utmost to preserve peace and prevent the destruction of our communities. You are the only people who can prevent this crime from taking place. We are in contact with our sisters in Europe and America and we all believe that nothing can be gained from violence. We must appeal instead to reason and humanity."

"I send you the notice of the women’s victory here – in a municipal lodging House. It is so nice, so complete, so good & simple that it ought to be a success and an example to other places- and it is such a pleasure to me to have it called by my name even though I don’t deserve it and Mrs Clark & the women guardians Cttee ought somehow to have been joined in."

"Dear Mrs Macdonald,"

"They say men can never understand the pain of childbirth. Well, they can if you hit them in the testicles with a cricket bat for 14 hours."

"We've made Freedom of Information requests going back to 2009 about men's fatal violence against women. From this we've identified that 62% of women killed by men are killed by a partner or ex-partner, and that at least a third of these women were in the process of leaving, or had left him; that teenage girls, as well as women in their 80s or 90s, can be killed by men who were supposed to love them; that 92% of women who are killed by men are killed by someone they know. One in 12 is a woman who is killed by her son."

"All women are controlled by men's violence. Whether or not they are the ones on the receiving end, it affects every one of us."

"Young, professional, conventionally attractive, white women who are killed by strangers get the most attention but we must stop perpetuating this hierarchy of victims."

"The figure of eight per cent of women killed by men in the UK being killed by a stranger is consistent with the average since our records began in 2009. So ask me whether anything has changed since Sarah's murder, and my answer is no."

"It's not that we're necessarily desperate to get into your club. It's more that we learned the hard way to be suspicious of men who want to keep us out."

"The opening scene of Breathtaking, in which fictional consultant Abbey Henderson discovers that a mask meant to protect her from a deadly virus doesn’t fit because it was shaped for male jaws, meanwhile almost uncannily echoes the evidence given by senior civil servant Helen MacNamara to the Covid inquiry last year about how hard it was to get the problems women were experiencing with PPE taken seriously in Whitehall."

"[A]ll the wrong people are in the spotlight. We have spent too long demanding that famous faces justify what they earn, rather than asking their anonymous managers to justify what they pay. It's not enough for salaries to be transparent if the assumptions underpinning them are shrouded in mystery. For if nobody will tell you the rules of the game, then it's impossible to know if somebody somewhere is cheating."

"When men wonder why women won't just let them have their cosy little clubs in peace, one answer is that we fear the mentality those cosy little clubs can sometimes produce."

"Female friendships are built on knowing about the minutiae, and just like news, they require your presence."

"So I didn't say anything, and for years continued to have a perfectly professional and often productive (in story terms) working relationship with Sex Kitten Man. And he rose into cabinet, where eventually his career imploded over an entirely unrelated error of judgment. Well, I say unrelated; a man who once did something slightly stupid went on to do something much more stupid."

"[P]opulists offering easy answers hate nothing more than the long, boring, mercilessly exposing business of trying to put them into practice. If the biggest risk to Reform is being shut out of power, then the second biggest might be winning it."

"But the reason I'm not naming Sex Kitten Man either is that making this about any one particular idiot risks letting all the other idiots off the hook. For the point is it could have been any idiot."

"[Her] comedy depends on the cognitive dissonance between her appearance (primary school teacher in spectacles) and the filth she speaks."

"[Asked "End of weekend dread?"] Monday is our Saturday, so no dread. Having different days off to the majority of people is great in so many ways. And working Saturdays means you never have to go to a wedding."

"[Q:] What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? [A:] I'm always a bit late, but I don't mind that, because it means that whoever I'm meeting is already there. [Q:] What is the trait you most deplore in others? [A:] I hate it when people are later than me."

"I got divorced. I've got friends who got divorced and they did not do stand up – good to know it's not obligatory, but I think you have to do something. Some people drink and some people sleep around, and I was like, "I'm going to tell some strangers how sad I am. But in a funny way"."

"[Asked if she was bullied at school] I was never punched. I think verbal abuse is potentially worse than being punched in the arm. I got called names every day. I got called Norma-No-Mates and Speccy-Four-Eyes."