27 Sept, 14.00 - Jane Robinson on Trailblazer: the extraordinary life and work of Barbara Leith Smith Bodichon
Victorian painter Barbara Bodichon was responsible for the development of feminism in Britain. She campaigned for equal opportunity in the workplace, the law, the polling booth, at home, and in the world beyond the kitchen or the drawing-room; she co-founded the first university college for women in Britain (Girton) and the first women’s suffrage society. She was also that rare bird, a successful professional female artist. Cheerful, loving and beloved, she’s a very modern heroine.
Jane Robinson is an acclaimed social historian, focusing on women pioneers. Her 13 books include the best-selling Bluestockings, the story of the first women to access higher education in Britain, and major biographies of nurse Mary Seacole, social reformer and artist Barbara Bodichon, and the inspirational humanitarian Josephine Butler. She is a Fellow of both the Royal Historical and Royal Geographical Societies, a Hawthornden Fellow, a writing mentor, and a Senior Associate of Somerville College, Oxford.