Newcastle has long been a city that’s given the world more than its fair share of innovators and inventors, activists and leaders, but all too often the massive part played by women has been under-represented. So with this year’s International Women’s Day almost upon us, what better time to shine a light on some of the magnificent women – contemporary and long-gone – who played their part in shaping the world.
Mary Astell
One of Astell's anonymously published works
Born in Newcastle in 1666, not a great deal is known about Mary Astell (and there are no paintings or drawings of her) but she’s remembered as a proto-feminist - her advocacy of equal educational opportunities for women being considered one of the first instances of English feminism. Her move to Chelsea saw Astell moving in the kind of circles where her ideas could flourish, although her two key works - A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, for the Advancement of Their True and Greatest Interest (1694) and A Serious Proposal, Part II (1697) – were both published anonymously. Her later years were spent quietly heading a charity school in Chelsea but her ideas and writings had already started to have a social impact before her death in 1731.
Elsie Tu
Born in Newcastle and educated in Benwell and Heaton, Elsie Tu – born Hume in 1913 – was a Christian missionary who moved to China with her husband William Elliott and became increasingly involved in Chinese society while becoming dissatisfied with the limitations of her religious order. She divorced Elliot and became a significant player in Hong Kong society in the 1950s, living and working with the poor and needy. She went on to play a major role in Hong Kong’s political life both before and after the handover to the Chinese, advocating for the poor, the oppressed, the gay community and more. After she finally retired from politics in 1998 – aged 85! – she continued to campaign and criticise until her death in 2015.
Abigail Thorn
Abigail Thorn is a very modern idea of a trailblazing woman, and a brilliant one at that. Born in Newcastle in 1993, she excelled as both a philosophy student and an actress before setting up her Philosophy Tube YouTube channel a decade ago as a response to the increase in tuition fees, determined to ‘give philosophy away for free’. Identifying as a lesbian and trans woman, Thorn has become a remarkable champion for LGBTQ+ and trans rights as well as providing informative and often witty lectures on Descartes or Eagleton. A total polymath, she divides her time between campaigning, acting, writing and fundraising and is an absolute, and very contemporary, force for good.
Alison Kay
Alison Kay was a Heaton resident (born in 1910) who was moved to set up The People’s Kitchen after being told by the police about an elderly man who was found frozen to death in Leazes Park. Despite having a difficult life herself, she gathered a group of volunteers to set up the first kitchen in 1985 in Dean Street. Taking over permanent premises in Blenheim Street and then Bath Lane, the kitchen also provides clothes, warmth and support to those who need it, and gives away 1,000 meals a week to the homeless and deprived people of Newcastle. Kay passed away in 2001 but not before she was made an Honorary Fellow of Newcastle University and won the National People’s Award (both in 1997).
Kathleen Brown
You might have noticed a plaque on Grey Street, unveiled on International Women’s Day in 2017, celebrating Kathleen Brown, but perhaps don’t know much about her. Brown was one of the most well-known suffragettes, campaigning for suffrage and female emancipation, and was imprisoned three times in London and Newcastle. The plaque commemorates her release from Holloway Prison the last time, in 1909, for throwing stones at Whitehall government building windows. On her release, she travelled back to Newcastle to be met by cheering, banner-waving crowds at Central Station.
Dr Ruth Nicholson
Ruth Nicholson was born in 1884 to a father who was a notable Newcastle cleric. She studied medicine at Durham University, graduating in 1909 – the only woman that year to do so. She served as a surgeon in France during the First World War (which earned her a Croix de Guerre and the Médaille d’Honneur des Épidémies from the French government) and on returning to England, she specialised in obstetrics and gynaecology, becoming a founder member of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (MRCOG) in 1929. She went on to have a long, pioneering career in her field, before retiring to South Devon and dying in 1963. There is a plaque in her honour in her former home at 32 Kenilworth Road, Elswick.
Anne Reid
Born in Jesmond in 1935, Anne Reid has been a perennially familiar face on our TV screens since the 1960s, starring in a vast range of sitcoms, soaps and dramas. Her most famous early role was as Valerie Tatlock in Coronation Street from 1961 till 1970 (her death in the show the result of a faulty hairdryer!). She went on to appear in everything from The Victoria Wood Show and Dinner Ladies to Dr Who and Last Tango In Halifax. She’s also managed some small film roles and a successful theatre career that began in in the early noughties. Reid is still working in theatre and TV today at the remarkable age of 87!
Jenny Lee Smith
Born in Newcastle in 1948, Jenny Lee Smith is probably the first notable British woman golfer, breaking into an especially male-dominated sport by winning the inaugural Women’s British Open in 1976 and going on to have a very successful amateur and then professional career until the mid-eighties. She played on the Ladies European Tour in 1981 and 1982 and was named North East Personality Of The Year in 1982.
Elizabeth Elstob
A portrait of Elstob with an example of her typeface
From roughly the same era as Mary Astell (born in 1683) and also regarded as a proto-feminist, Elizabeth Elstob grew up on The Quayside and her mother encouraged her to study from an early age – Elstob had mastered Latin grammar by the time she was just eight years old. Despite being orphaned while young, Elstob went on to become fluent in eight languages and was an early pioneer of Anglo Saxon studies. Her life was hard and her studies disdained – women were largely excluded from such things – but she went on to have a remarkable life as a writer, campaigner and academic before dying in 1756.
Phyllida Barlow
Phyllida Barlow's Dock
Although brought up in London, Phyllida Barlow was born in Newcastle in 1944 and studied sculpture at Chelsea Art College in the early 1960s where her ideas about sculpture were radically reshaped by George Fullard. She went on to study at The Slade and then spent forty years both as an art teacher and professor (ending up as Professor Of Fine Art at Slade before her retirement in 2009). She then concentrated on her own work, a big breakthrough coming with a show at the Baltic in 2004, and has become one of the country’s best regarded artists. She has exhibited widely and was awarded a CBE in 2015 and a DBE in 2021, both for services to the arts.
Alice Hall
Alice Hall has gained her fame as a innovative and daring entrepreneur. She founded her online fashion company Pink Boutique while juggling three jobs but expanded to a huge factory, thousands of sales per day, a 60+ workforce and a £25million per annum turnover. In 2019, Hall handed ownership of Pink Boutique to her mother Julie Blackie and now concentrates on her equally successful Rowan Homes company (she studied for an interior design diploma while also running Pink Boutique). The luxury homes company, now based in Blaydon, came into its own during lockdown and has expanded steadily, with its reputation and ‘luxury glam aesthetic’ now an international concern.
Cheryl
Born Cheryl Tweedy in 1983 and growing up in Heaton and Walker (she attended Walker Academy), Cheryl was appearing onstage and on TV from the age of seven. Her first break – and first taste of fame – came from her appearance on Popstars: The Rivals in 2002, which led to her membership of all-conquering girl group Girls Aloud, who for nine years broke records, sold out arenas and notched up a run of number one singles! As well as a brief Girls Aloud reunion in 2012, Cheryl has gone on to have a successful solo career as a singer as well as numerous TV, film, publishing and charity ventures, flying the flag for Newcastle the whole time. The latest string to her bow is theatre – she recently made her West End debut in the play 2:22 – A Ghost Story.
This is just a handful of the many remarkable women who've emerged from this city in the last four centuries but there are so many more worthy of celebration. Perhaps visit the Discovery Museum or Life Centre to find out more, and always keep an eye out for those blue plaques!
Main image: Abigail Thorn
