Musings from the Isle of Man

This month, after battling horizontal rain, howling winds, an interminable ferry journey and an indigestible egg and cress sandwich, the blog has landed on the Isle of Man for a short break. Mildly ironic, yes, but since there seems to be no Isle of Woman, we will just have to make do.

From the very beginning the men living here in the middle of the Irish Sea certainly conformed to male stereotypes, shaping the legends and dominating the narrative. The mythical warrior and sea-god, Mannanan Mac Lir, was apparently the first lord of the island - he wore his magic cloak, rode his magic horse and conjured up magic mists to protect the island. More ‘real’ men followed – Celts, Vikings, pirates, monks and missionaries, and there was a veritable jumble of battles between kings and lords who were mostly named Olaf or Godred. There are visible remains of the stone circles, cairns, carved crosses, churches, graves, castles, walls, harbours and fortifications that mushroomed across this small island, and later on, legacies of the Industrial Revolution – railways, mines and mills appeared. The world’s smallest production car (the Peel P50) was designed and built here by two men in 1962, the male dominated TT races regularly whizz around the island and no doubt the IoM versions of the tech bros are waiting in the wings to do their bit for the Manx people (and their cats of course - don’t forget the wonderful Manx cats!). Great male illuminati of the island include Norman Wisdom, The Beegees, Rick Wakeman and Noel Edmonds – and it also appears that many of the Mutiny on the Bounty crew, including Captain Bligh and Fletcher Christian, were of IoM heritage.

And that’s quite enough about the men of Man!

No man is an island

Now we can start peering underneath the masculine veneer to see if there might just possibly be some women of interest, importance and influence. And (no surprise), quite a lot of interesting information comes tumbling out.

Women’s Suffrage

Can you name the first place in the world where women could vote in a national election? ‘New Zealand’ you all cry confidently. But no – it was the Isle of Man in 1881. A visit in 1880 by Lydia Becker, a Manchester suffragette leader, had helped to raise awareness and reinforce the persistent questions that were being asked about franchise reform. And without too much of a fuss, Tynwald (the IoM parliament) responded by amending the constitution to enable voting rights for property owning women (it is also worth noting that the island was the first place in Western Europe to lower the voting age to 16). And in a nice twist, one of the Manx women activists at the time was one Sophia Jane Goulden (1833-1910), who was also Emmeline Pankhurst’s mother (she later moved to Manchester where she introduced the young Emmeline to Lydia Becker).

Some memorable Manx women

The ‘Pagan Lady.’ Amidst the longships, shields, Norse gods, magic horses and other manly paraphernalia, interesting discoveries have been made in excavations about powerful Viking women. The grave of the ‘Pagan Lady’ of Peel, for example, was discovered in the 1980s. She was buried in about the year 950 in a Christian cemetery, surrounded by mystical objects, household goods and a necklace of rare stones. It seems likely that she was a wealthy and powerful woman, perhaps a sorceress or a shaman.

The ‘Civil War Countess.’ Charlotte Stanley, the Countess of Derby and a staunch Royalist, was renowned for her defence of Lathom house in Lancashire during the Civil War. She was later evacuated to the Isle of Man where, after the execution of her husband she again held out against the Parliamentarians in 1651 at Castle Rushen. This was the last Royalist stronghold to surrender during the war.

World War 2. During the Second World War, thousands of internees were moved to the Island by government order – many of them Jewish refugees. Port Erin became the base for the only female internment camp in Europe – the women lived with their children in approved lodgings. Notable internees included Dora Diamant and the Olympic swimmer Hedy Bienenfeld. Initial problems were caused by mixing Jewish refugees with Nazi followers, and changes had to be made. Later, to boost morale, cultural activities were developed, with Anna Jochmann introducing a book club, first aid courses and other activities.

Extreme Racers. Since the 1960s women have competed in the Isle of Man TT road races. Beryl Swain was the first, followed by other celebrated participants like Maria Costello, Jenny Tinmouth, Sandra Barnett and Alice Smith. And this year, in May 2026, the legacy lap was led by the Women Riders World Relay (WRWR) which is a global movement with a mission to connect every woman motorcyclist in the world.

And more…. There is, of course, much, much more to explore than these few snippets of information, and in 2015, ‘History in Heels’ a project and exhibition celebrating the remarkable ‘Women who made Mann’ (sic) was created by Manx National Heritage. It’s well worth exploring their website. In the meantime, the Island has had a general election, and although results sadly seem to show that the gender split in the parliament has not shifted upwards, it’s been encouraging to see the local media headlining a significant increase in the number of women candidates this year. And it’s only four more years to the next election!

However, the blog is now back on the ferry, the sea is choppy and the mists are closing in on the island. So, it’s hats off to the women of Man, and a timely reminder that wherever you might be, there are pioneering women chipping away to improve equality for us all.

SEPTEMBER UPDATE ON THE MK FAWCETT CAMPAIGN FOR A SAFER, HEALTHIER, FAIRER MILTON KEYNES

In early September we held a planning brunch to assess our options for campaigning and making a difference in Milton Keynes. We welcomed Calliope, Local Group Lead, from The Fawcett Society. If you are interested in finding out more, email us at miltonkeynesfawcettgroup@gmail.com We will be joined by a speaker from MK' Maternity and Neonatal Voices’ at our meeting on 6th October.

We had a stall at the CPWO conference at the OU and learned a lot about the variety and depth of research into Online Safety.

A workshop on the national VAWG strategy and MK is planned for early December (probably the 1st) as part of the UN 16 days of action against VAWG.

Research and Analysis: A full analysis of the local elections and the makeup of MKCC can be found on our website from early October.

Four members met with Callum Anderson MP, now PPS to the Equalities Minister at the end of September.

We are working with Healthwatch MK to develop a comprehensive survey of women’s health in MK. We attended the last Health & Wellbeing Board meeting to learn more about the Neighbourhood approach to delivering primary care and the new data system being introduced

In September we attended:

SEPTEMBER UPDATE ON THE MK FAWCETT CAMPAIGN FOR A SAFER, HEALTHIER, FAIRER MILTON KEYNES

  • In early September we held a planning brunch to assess our options for campaigning and making a difference in Milton Keynes. We welcomed Calliope, Local Group Lead, from The Fawcett Society. If you are interested in finding out more, email us at miltonkeynesfawcettgroup@gmail.com We will be joined by a speaker from MK' Maternity and Neonatal Voices’ at our meeting on 6th October.
  • We had a stall at the CPWO conference at the OU and learned a lot about the variety and depth of research into Online Safety.
  • A workshop on the national VAWG strategy and MK is planned for early December (probably the 1st) as part of the UN 16 days of action against VAWG.
  • Research and Analysis: A full analysis of the local elections and the makeup of MKCC can be found on our website from early October.
  • Four members met with Callum Anderson MP, now PPS to the Equalities Minister at the end of September.
  • We are working with Healthwatch MK to develop a comprehensive survey of women’s health in MK. We attended the last Health & Wellbeing Board meeting to learn more about the Neighbourhood approach to delivering primary care and the new data system being introduced.

In September we attended:

  1. Full Council with a speech about the need to embed women’s safety in planning for the Universal Studios theme park
  2. the Health Housing and Adults Scrutiny committee to comment on the lack of reference to women in the draft Homeless strategy and
  3. the Community and Partnerships Committee to contribute a question relating to local crime statistics report and the lack of evidence that the VAWG strategy has been noted.

MKF has a presence on LinkedIn as well as being on BlueSky and Instagram. Please follow us on these platforms as well as at fawcettmk.org.uk

@fawcett_mk @fawcett_mk @fawcettsociety #SaferHealthierFairerMK

 

Popular posts from this blog

Some Rain Must Fall

Image
  February has not been a lot of fun so far, has it? Certainly not as far as the weather is concerned, offering us a salad of mud, sodden ground, floods and a miserable pervading damp. But, given the state of the world at the moment, it’s probably more enjoyable to meditate on rain and write about rain than it is to grapple with iniquities of humanity. So, let’s indulge in a few ponderings on women and inclement weather. The Mud March February 2026 might be a bit damp, but February 1907 (and specifically February 9, 1907) was particularly memorable for the women who took part in the infamous ‘Mud March’ from Hyde Park to Exeter Hall in the Strand. It was organised by Millicent Fawcett and the Suffragist movement, with 3,000 women joining to demonstrate their support for a bill on women’s suffrage due to be presented in the House of Commons. Kate Frye , who had joined the suffragists in 1906, described the weather in her diary: ‘…was my utter disgust – and disappointment- to hear t...
Read more

Trusting the Evidence

Image
DELIVERING JUSTICE DCI Vera Stanhope, wearing her battered hat and sturdy wellies, follows her cases with grim determination. She uses her sharp wits, intuition and empathy to solve each crime. But there always comes a point where she needs the hard evidence and demands answers from the team around her – from the pathology lab and from the long-suffering Jac, Joe and Kenny. They don the blue gloves, search the crime scenes, make the phone calls and spend hours poring over camera footage – finding the information that Vera needs to secure a prosecution. Countless television crime series have made us familiar with the paraphernalia of forensic science, down to the goriest details. We all know and understand the importance of evidence, don’t we? The blue gloves, the white suits, the shoe covers, the endless scrolling through data – we see these every day on screen. Television may offer us an increasing number of women scientists and investigators, but it is in the real world that women ar...
Read more

Off The Shelf

Image
OFF THE SHELF! Their lordships the Earl of Sandwich, the Duke of Wellington and Lord Cardigan, together with Laszlo Biro, are among many others whose names are embedded in the English language because of something they wore, cooked or invented in some way. For example, in the mid-nineteenth century, the women’s rights advocate Amelia Bloomer wrote favourably about wearing a loose trouser outfit. The idea caught on and ‘bloomers’ quickly became quite the thing for women who wanted less restrictive clothing. Such eponyms are interesting, often quite benign and celebratory of the innovators and inventors. However, no such kudos attended the Reverend James Bowdler, who, in 1807 published ‘The Family Shakespeare’. He believed that the plays could not be read ‘safely’ to women and children unless they were highly edited, cutting out any nasty bits. He changed the text of Hamlet so that the suicide of Ophelia became an unfortunate accident and removed all trace of Doll Tearsheet the prostitut...
Read more