I’ve met my fair share of wonder women since moving to Manchester four years ago.
They are from all over: Wales, Canada, Chorley, but they all have two things in common – they are strong, resilient women who work hard at the things they are passionate about, and they call this city home.
Throughout Greater Manchester there is evidence of a long history of women fighting for causes they believe in, from the suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst to Moss Side gang violence activist Dr Erinma Bell.
I was lucky enough to explore some of this history alongside guide Suzanne Hindle on the Our Manchester Women City Centre Trail.
The walk was arranged by the People’s History Museum as part of Wonder Women Festival, which marks the countdown to 2018, 100 years since women first won the partial right to vote.
WONDER WOMEN: Check out the festival until March 12
In two hours we were given a potted history of the city’s famous daughters, from Beetham Tower architect Rachel Haugh to Martha Brotherton, the author of the world’s first vegetarian cookbook.
We visited the John Rylands Library to learn about the impressive neo-Gothic building’s founder, Enriqueta Rylands, who was also the first woman to be given the freedom of the City of Manchester.
Afterwards, we visited the town hall to have a look at the bust of Dr Bell, the first sculpture of a woman displayed in the building.
The impressive statue is made from melted down shotguns, and celebrates the founder of grass-roots charity Carisma, with the goal of wiping out gang and gun violence in Moss Side and Longsight.
The map above shows some of the locations we visited on the tour, and impressions these women have made on the city.
Wonder women festival aims to celebrate the city that was the birthplace of the suffragette movement, and activism still going on here today.
The festival continues until March 12, click here for events. Map provided by The E Word
