Women’s History Month: 11 notable Bradford women

Luckily for us, Bradford is home to many female pioneers and significant figures that put their own stamp on history.

From writers, to social activists here are some notable women to come out of Bradford:  

The Brontë sisters

Emily Bronte

The Bronte sisters were born in the village of Thornton and spent some of their later years in Haworth.

If you are a fan of literature, you will undoubtedly have come across some of their literary works.

Emily Bronte wrote Wuthering Heights, Charlotte is best known for writing Jane Eyre while Anne Bronte produced Agnes Grey.

They have undoubtedly contributed a significant amount to the world of literature, but the writing was still a male-dominated field in the nineteenth-century world they lived in.

As a result, they adopted male pseudoyms of which to publish their work in order to be take seriously as writers.

Charlotte chose Currer Bell, Emily chose Ellis Bell, and Anne chose Acton Bell.
Victoria Braithwaite

Victoria is one of the more modern women to appear on this list- but she made some important contributions to science during her life.

The researcher and biologist demonstrated that fish can feel pain, which is something people didn’t understand until the early 2000s.

Her discovery led to an animal welfare revolution and a change to Home Office regulations about how we care for animals.

She also conducted research into fish intelligence, demonstrating that fish can use ‘visual landmarks’ as guides when making their way around ponds and rivers- showing that their environment shapes their cognitive abilities.

Victoria was born in Bradford and even attended Bradford Girls’ Grammar School.

Sadly, she passed away from cancer In 2019.

Baroness Barbara Castle

Barbara Castle

(Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Source: National Archives of Malawi)

Ms Castle is celebrated as one of the most significant labour party politicians of the 20th century.

She became and MP at the age of 32 and she campaigned for social justice and gender inequality.

During the 1960s and 1970s, she worked as Minister of Transport as well as ecretary of State for Employment.

She was also the only woman to hold the position of First Secretary of State.

During her career, she was a key driving force behind Equal Pay Act 1970, the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, and the Equal Opportunities Commission.

The former Bradford Grammar School pupil also introduced breathalyser tests when she was Transport Minister and also fought for pensioners’ rights.

Margaret McMillan

Did you ever enjoy free school meals while growing up? If so, you can largely thank Margaret McMillian for this.

While she wasn’t born in Bradford, she did move there with her sister in 1892.

She became a member of the school’s board in the city and helped to reform and improve the city’s education system.

They suggested that authorities should install clean bathrooms in schools, improve ventilation and also supply free school meals.

In 1906, parliament passed The Provision of Meals Act which was designed to give free school meals to all children.

The first meal, of scotch barley broth and fruit tart, was served to pupils at Green Lane Primary School in Manningham on 28 October 1907

Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths

Frances and the Fairy Ring is “perhaps the most important single photograph in existence” relating to the hoax, according to experts (Dominic Winter Auctioneers/PA)

Do you remember the Cottingley fairies scandal in the early 1917?

Bradford-born Elsie Wright, along with her cousin Frances Griffiths, took the photos in the village of Cottingley, near Bingley in Yorkshire.

They convinced the nation that the photos were real until1983 when Frances and Elsie confessed the photographs had been faked.

The notorious hoax fooled so many people- including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the Sherlock Holmes author.

The incident certainly put Cottingley on the map and also changed the way we viewed photography.

Kathleen Chambers

Although she was born in Leeds, Kathleen moved to Bradford with her husband in 1911

Ms Chambers is described as a “pioneer” politician as she became the first female Lord Mayor of Bradford in 1945.

It’s a position that she held between 1945-1946.

After her time as Lord Mayor, Chambers continued to serve as an alderman and was chair of the education committee for several years.

She was also the first chair of the NHS Bradford Executive Committee from 1947-1964.

Florence White

Florence White

Florence was a campaigner who was born in Bradford back in 1886.

She was the founder of the National Spinsters’ Pension Association after realisings the hardships associated with being an unmarried woman at the time.

At time, most spinsters were not eligible for pensions and this is something she sought to change.

She set up her campaigning in 1935, calling for pensions for unmarried women at age fifty-five- at the time it was 65 and many women died before they could claim it..

It gradually gained popularity and attracted thousands of members across the UK and spurred the number of rallies and marches protesting the current pension laws..

By 1940, the government agreed to reduce the pension age for women to sixty, which was a promising start for the movement.

 A blue plaque commemorates her at 76 Kirkgate, included in the Bradford Peace Trail.

Julia Varley

Varley was born in 1871 and made her name as an English trade unionist and a suffragette.

At the age of 15, she became the secretary of the Bradford Weavers' and Textile Workers' Union.

In 1909, she moved to Birmingham and established a branch of the National Federation of Women Workers at the Cadbury factory at Bournville.

She also went to campaign for men and women on a national level and was appointed an OBE in 1931.