Whether they are women like Labour Party politician, Alice Bacon, who became the first female MP in Yorkshire, or young ballerina, Tala Lee-Turton, who made history as the third British female to graduate from Bolshoi Ballet Academy, there are plenty of women who have made Yorkshire proud.
For International Women’s Day, we have compiled a list of the most inspiring women either from Yorkshire or with links to Yorkshire.
1. Brenda Hale
Brenda Hale, Baroness Hale of Richmond, is a judge who served as President of the Supreme Court of the UK under the premiership of Theresa May from 2017 until her retirement in 2020. She now serves as a member of the House of Lords as a Lord Temporal. She was appointed Lord of Appeal in Ordinary at the House of Lords and is the only woman who has been offered this position. Brenda was born in Leeds, both of her parents were headteachers and she has two sisters. She moved to Richmond with her parents when she was three years old. She went to Richmond High School for Girls and later studied law at Girton College, Cambridge, and was the first from her school to study at Cambridge. Photo: Raveendran / AFP via Getty Images
2. Helen Sharman
Helen was born in Sheffield, where she began her education at Grenoside Junior and Infant School and later moved to Greenhill. She obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry at the University of Sheffield in 1984 and a PhD degree from Birkbeck, University of London in 1987. She worked as a research and development technologist for General Electric Company (GEC) in London and later as a chemist for Mars handling flavouring properties of chocolate, after which she was dubbed ‘The Girl from Mars’ by the UK press. On November 25, 1989, Helen beat out 13,000 applicants when she applied to be the first British space explorer. The programme was called Project Juno. Helen was nearly 28 years old when she went into space and she was later (as of 2017) named the sixth youngest out of 556 individuals to have travelled to space. She has broken a number of records during her career, including: the first British cosmonaut on November 25, 1989, the first British person in space on May 18, 1991 and the first Western European woman in space on May 18, 1991. Helen also received multiple honorary degrees from 11 different UK universities. Photo: Jack Taylor / Getty Images
3. Tala Lee-Turton
Tala was born and raised in Barnsley, where she began dancing at the age of four and was scouted by her local dance school. At the tender age of 11, she won a scholarship to one of the UK’s most prestigious performing arts schools, but while she studied there, she was told that she would never become a classical dancer. This didn’t phase her, as she went on to find new teachers and was invited to audition for the world-famous Bolshoi Ballet Academy; in 2012, she won a place at the school and became the third British female to graduate from the school in its 245-year history. She moved to Moscow, Russia, when she was just 16 years old. Tala is now the creative producer and founder of Tala Lee-Turton Productions and a freelance professional dancer and has worked with English National Ballet and Astrakhan State Theatre of Opera and Ballet. Photo: Bruce Rollinson
4. Jessica Ennis-Hill
Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill was born in Sheffield and is one of two daughters. Her Jamaican father is a self-employed painter and decorator, while her English mother is a social worker from Derbyshire. Both of her parents had an interest in sport; her father did some sprinting at school, whilst her mother preferred the high jump. During her school summer holidays in 1996, Jessica went to a Start:Track event at the Don Valley Stadium, where she won her first athletics prize: a pair of trainers. She met Toni Minichiello, who went on to become her coach. She immediately fell in love with the sport and joined the City of Sheffield and Dearne Athletic Club the following year at the age of 11. She attended Sharrow Primary School and King Ecgbert School in Dore, then went on to study psychology at the University of Sheffield, graduating in 2007. She continued to participate in athletics after her degree and ended up winning a bronze medal for England at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia, a gold medal at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, another gold at the 2010 European Championships and won two Olympic medals; a gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics and a silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Photo: Jeff Spicer / Getty Images