Bøker av Isabelle Seddon

Here Isabelle Seddon reveals the astonishing contributions made by British born Jewish women in the arts during the twentieth century. Some of the women you will meet here were well-known in their fields such as singer Amy Winehouse, and others whose names are less familiar, but whose contributions to their fields are no less notable such as Rebecca Solomon, a painter of social injustices. The intersection of gender, Jewishness, social status and education links the experiences of all of the women featured in this volume, across their varied cultural outputs and contributions from acting to musicianship, writing to art, sport to cookery. The persecution of the Jews across the ages, including the Holocaust, is one of the factors that ties many of these highly accomplished women together. This, alongside the legacies of immigrant and refugee backgrounds, motivated and inspired them to shape British culture in remarkable and fascinating ways.

Here Isabelle Seddon reveals the astonishing contributions made by British born Jewish women as campaigners for social justice and in the professions of science, medicine, politics, law, religion, media and journalism during the twentieth century. Many of them were trailblazers, and this volume highlights their achievements, looks at how their Jewish history and background impacted and contributed to their success and exposes the intersections of gender, religion and ethnicity/race in British history. Often battling antisemitism in British society, and gender prejudice within and outside the Jewish world, what they achieved was remarkable. Some of the women you will meet here are well-known in their fields such as BBC presenters Dame Esther Rantzen and Emily Maitlis, pioneering agony aunt Marjorie Proops, politicians Edwina Currie and Shirley Porter, medical doctor and television personality Miriam Stoppard, Rabbi Dame Julia Neuberger and the brilliant scientist Rosalind Franklin, whose role in the discovery of DNA was overshadowed for many years. This book also chronicles the lives and careers of those whose names are less familiar, but whose contributions to their fields are no less notable. Among many others, these pages introduce you to Helen Bamber, of Amnesty International, Rose Heilbron, the first woman to sit as a judge in Old Bailey, Rabbi Elizabeth Tikva Sarah, one of the first women and first openly gay rabbis to be ordained in Britain, and Labour politician Margaret Hodge. For the first time, the significant achievements of this widely varied group of women have been gathered in one volume, documenting the struggles they faced and highlighting their considerable influence on British society, culture and politics.