“Piloting Turbinia during the Royal Naval Review at Spithead was almost too exciting. She was 10 knots fasters than any other craft.” Christopher Leyland

MAGNIFICENT WOMEN PODCASTS

Magnificent Women podcast cover art - Episode 1 featuring a picture of Henrietta Heald
After the Great War: Trailblazers in Industry and Politics

Part of the groundbreaking Women Change Makers project, this series of Magnificent Women podcasts is presented by Henrietta Heald and produced by Clare Newton to mark Women's History Month and International Women's Day 2025. The first episode sets the scene with an introduction to Trailblazers in Industry and Politics after the First World War. Later episodes explore the amazing and inspirational stories of Rachel Parsons, Viscountess Rhondda, Laura Annie Willson, Margaret Partridge and Dame Caroline Haslett. Get in touch here.

Sources consulted for the Magnificent Women podcasts include:

Rosalind Messenger, The Doors of Opportunity, A Biography of Dame Caroline Haslett, Femina Books, London, 1967.

Viscountess Rhondda, This Was My World, Macmillan, London, 1933.

Angela V. John, Turning the Tide, A Life of Lady Rhondda, Parthian, Cardigan, 2013.

Jill Liddington, Rebel Girls, Their Fight For the Vote, Virago, London, 2006.

Margot Asquith (ed.), Myself When Young by Famous Women of Today, Frederick Muller, London, 1938.

Vera Brittain, Women’s Work in Modern England, Noel Douglas, London, 1928.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edition.

Matthew Freudenberg, Negative Gravity, a life of Beatrice Shilling, Charlton Publications, Taunton, 2003.

Past editions of Woman Engineer, the journal of the Women’s Engineering Society, are available here.

All editions of Electrical Age, the journal of the Electrical Association for Women, are available here.

The Electric Dreams festival of womanpower was launched in 2024 with events, talks and exhibitions around the UK, and its activities continue in 2025. Electric Dreams grew out of the Magnificent Women project created by Dawn Bonfield and Graeme Gooday’s work on Electrifying Women.

The members of Electric Dreams team are: Sue Bailey, Nina Baker, Daniel Belteki, Dawn Bonfield, Katie Carpenter, Helen Close, Asha Gage, Graeme Gooday, Henrietta Heald, Anne Locker, Eleanor Peters and Jan Peters.

The purpose of Electric Dreams is not only to celebrate the past but also to open everyone’s eyes to the countless stimulating opportunities offered by a career in engineering, especially with the advent of AI and the race to meet targets for Net Zero.