Wonderful Women linky up

This is my first linky up or meme type thing so I hope it works and that lots of people join in and support it.

Yesterday was International Women's Day. Today is Wednesday. Women are Wonderful so I am starting a meme or whatever the right word is about wonderful women.

Here are the guidelines.

1. I ask bloggers to write a blog post between now and midnight on Friday about a wonderful woman. It can be someone famous, infamous, their mum/sister/grandma/daughter, their friend, their colleague, a charity campaigner, a carer, whoever so long as they are female and wonderful. Write as many or as few words as you like. Include pictures or just use words.

2. I ask bloggers to link up to this meme (see below)

3. Ideally, bloggers will visit other posts involved in this meme thus discovering old favourites but also new blogs.

4. Hoping my 192 followers and other readers discover new blogs too.


I want to mention Annie Lennox this week as a woman who has taken time out to really focus on women's issues across the world. Her promotion on the media this week including dealing with some unsympathetic male interviewers reminded me how important it is for us to keep engaged with women's issues even when very caught up in our own little dramas.

I also want to mention my late Mum. She was born in 1926 and lived in abject poverty also facing anti-Irish discrimination.
She qualified for grammar school but was not allowed to go as the family could not afford to send her there.
She left school at 12 and worked in mills as a weaver where she was bullied in the workplace.
She was attacked on the street by a man.
She once pushed a girl who said her mother was pregnant. (She was!)
She taught herself an impressive vocabulary and had a strong interest in many topics particularly history and Judaism.
She changed "careers" and worked as a cook in schools and hospitals.
She wanted to work in a stately home but marriage prevented that.
She married and made a commitment to Dad for 59 years until her death in 2009.
She brought two boys into the world and taught them to aspire leading them into international travel and careers in fashion and theatre.
At the age of 42, she fostered and then adopted me. She loved me like most mums as best she could.
She did cleaning so I could have the extras like piano lessons (which I hated)
She underwent a serious operation leaving her with an ugly scar.
She once did a song and dance act at the local Town Hall.
She was very supportive of church and school activities whether cleaning the brasses, running stalls, baking scones or organising funeral teas.
She taught me to read and instilled a love of literature and history. She encouraged me in my learning and was key to me getting into Cambridge University. Not bad for the girl who left school at 12.
She travelled the world with Dad and was delighted to visit the Holy Land.
She was a professional caravan owner.
She made time for family and friends and often over-stretched herself.
She was a brilliant charity shopper and bargain hunter at fleamarkets and car boot sales. She particularly loved lamps and chairs.
She loved shopping and if she went to buy one skirt, she was quite likely to return home with three.
She hated not having her financial freedom and thought she might have made a very good politician.
She always supported good causes even when terminally ill with cancer.
She was moody, feisty, had a ribald sense of humour and if you met her, you would not forget her
Was she perfect? Absolutely not. Like the rest of us, she was a real woman and a wonderful one at that.

Please join in and let's celebrate womanhood in all its diversity.

Please promote my very first meme (or whatever the correct word is) on blogger networks, mummy networks, women's networks, twitter and Facebook.