Whether you are Welsh or not, these six women deserve to be known.
The monumental Welsh women are largely forgotten to history books whose incredible achievements helped shape not only their own lives, and those of their contemporaries, but the lives of generations of women who followed and generations still to come.
We took to the streets of Cardiff and asked people to vote for the 12 candidates. There are ground-breaking sportswomen, scientists who have changed the world, women who took on the establishment and won etc.
Some are well-known, others far from it. But what all these women have in common is that they are all inspirational and they have all made a difference. Here are our top 6 candidates who received the highest number of votes.
Rose Crawshay- One of the most enlightened pioneers of women’s emancipation
Rose Crawshay spent her life fighting for women’s right to vote and reforming marriage laws.
She also focuses on helping women become independent through education.
In 1872, Rose established the Swansea Training College, the first factory in Wales, where women could train to become professional teachers.
She joined school boards, one of the first women to do so. Created a literary prize for female scholars and created 7 free libraries insisting they were open to women.
Rose setup soup kitchens and when 49 men were killed in a colliery explosion, she visited every family.
Bridget Bevan – Educational Reformer and Public Benefactor
Bridget Bevan is also known as Lady Bevan, was a Welsh educationalist and public benefactor. She was the chief supporter of Griffith Jones and his system of circulating schools.
Early 18th century when the vast majority of working-class people could neither read nor write, the Circulating Welsh Charity School system moved from village to village and fostered education for people throughout Wales.
Much of Madam Bevan’s considerable wealth poured into these free schools, and she even ended up managing the project for 18 years.
Between 1736 and 1776, half of the population of Wales attended a cycle school. This gave Wales one of the highest literacy rates in Europe.
Frances Hoggan – The first Welsh woman to receive a doctorate in medicine from university in Europe
Frances Hoggan was the first female doctor to be registered in Wales. Hoggan, who completed a six-year medical course in three years, became the second woman to receive a doctorate in medicine from the University of Zurich.
Together with her husband, she opened the first integrated medical clinic for couples in the UK.
Frances has been promoting the health of people from all walks of life and calling for publicly funded women’s health services for women patients in India.
She also uses the latest understanding of perceptions and reproduction to argue that mothers should have more rights over their children.
Megan Lloyd-George – Wales’s first female MP who was devoted to women’s rights
Megan Arvon George was the first female MP for a Welsh constituency. She also served as Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party and later became a Labour MP.
She often spoke about Welsh affairs and women’s rights when she was in the House of Commons.
During the Second World War she became a leader in women’s rights and women’s employment during the war.
In 2016 she was named one of the ’50 Greatest Men and Women of Wales of All Time’.
Sarah Jane Rees- The master mariner and pioneer, and also the first female editor of a woman’s magazine in Wales
Sarah Jane Rees, also known by her bardic name of “Cranogwen”.
Born in Llangrannog, Cardiganshire, Sarah showed a different side at an early age and insisted on accompanying her sailor father to the seaside rather than sewing and doing housework at home like the other girls.
After formal training at the Nautical School in London, he became a captain and established his own sailing school.
In addition to teaching navigation and other subjects, she became editor of the Welsh-language women’s periodical Y Frythones in 1878 to 1889, a “platform for Welsh bluestockings and proto-suffragettes.”
Millicent Mackenzie- A welcoming and enlightened policy towards female students and staff
Millicent Hughes Mackenzie is Professor of English Education at the University of South Wales and the University of Monmouthshire.
She was the first woman professor in Wales and the first to be appointed to a fully chartered university in England.
She was committed to a welcoming and enlightened policy towards women students and staff in the teaching profession.
She joined the women’s movement, co-founded the Cardiff and District Women’s Suffrage Association and was the only female candidate in Wales in the 1918 general election.