Amazing Women

The month of March brings two dates that are close to our hearts at LifeBook Memoirs: World Book Day on 2nd March and International Women’s Day on 8th March. World Book Day aims to inspire a love of reading in children and young people with great books and stories, and, in so doing, to improve their life chances. Similarly, International Women’s Day hopes to improve the lives of women across the world by, among other objectives, celebrating their achievements.

At LifeBook Memoirs, good stories matter to us, and so many of the life stories we hear come from truly amazing women. We would like to celebrate their stories and their achievements today.

Here are just a few of the things that our amazing female authors have done:

Given birth to children

Raised children

Raised children alone

Worked while raising children

Cleaned, washed, gardened, shopped, cooked … the list goes on

Escaped from Nazi-occupied Germany and USSR-occupied Poland

Survived Nazi-occupied France

Run Scout, Guide, Brownie, and Cub groups

Launched successful businesses

Managed drama schools

Headed departments

Founded nurseries

Governed schools

Led churches

Run hotels

Taught children to play

Taught children to read

Campaigned for safer roads

Campaigned against apartheid

Traveled the world alone

Gambled

Got married

Got married twice

Got married a third time

Tried marriage a fourth time

Survived crippling childhood illnesses

Cared for neglected children in Romanian orphanages

Started support centres for rape victims

Counseled AIDS sufferers

Worked on ChildLine

Worked as nurses

… doctors

… models

… lawyers

… teachers

… pop stars

… midwives

… musicians

… therapists

… housewives

… policewomen

… magistrates

… social workers

… the first women in ‘male’ professions

Narrowly avoided being blown up by doodlebugs

Overcame limited education

Taught women a trade in Zambia

Taught in schools, colleges, and universities

Completed higher degrees as mature students

Joined the army

Mended army trucks

Drove army trucks

Made cakes

Made families

Embraced life

We could go on … !

As you can see, our female authors have overcome grave difficulties just to survive and succeed. They have held significant positions in society and accomplished a great many impressive feats. Equally if not more striking, though, is the number of amazing things that women do which are not what the world generally considers to be ‘spectacular’ or even particularly important. At LifeBook Memoirs, however, we value very highly women’s stories of raising and loving children, of ‘holding the fort’ at home, and of being a woman during times of social, educational, and workplace inequity.

We particularly love to hear stories about women’s experiences back in the days when they were young. Tales abound of 1940s medical treatments, 1950s petticoats, 1960s bouffants, early automatic washing machines, lavatory arrangements in colonial Africa, the fact that only men could sign instalment plan agreements on new stoves in the 1970s …

The lives of our female authors span 100 years of enormous social change, and, for some, this has been quite poignant. Colleen Witkin, in her book, Being Oneself, describes working as a model in the 1950s and observes that, 

“I was ‘just’ a model and a pretty face. Not only did other people think I had nothing in my head, but I think I felt that about myself as well.” Many years later, with some difficult times behind her but some widening horizons for women ahead of her, she built a successful professional career for herself, and, in so doing, demonstrated that she is far from being ‘just’ a pretty face.

Colleen’s story is one of many we’ve encountered that reveal so much about how women have changed the world and how much expectations and ambitions have grown. Successful businesswoman, teacher, and current LifeBook Memoirs author LDM is, she says, writing her book for her granddaughter and great-granddaughters because she wants them to know that “The world is their oyster.” If, she says, they don’t wait around for “Prince Charming to rush in and save them or support them, then they will be happy, independent, free women!”

One day in the future, LDM’s great-granddaughters and the future relatives of every woman who has ever sat down to write her LifeBook Memoir might open up their forebears’ life stories and start reading them. Inside the covers, they will discover that the person they thought of as just a little old woman was, in fact, a vibrant, lively, clever, and resilient person with a life crammed full of all the struggles, countless small acts of love, and rich experiences that make an amazing woman. Everybody has an interesting story, LDM says, and everybody should write it down.