h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Elizabeth Garrett Anderson - Victorian Women's Campaigner - A3130714
Author: Frenchbean <5 stars> honesty really is the best policy - U236943

Hello Peerers

Having found only one Guide Entry about the women's suffrage movement in the 19th Century, I decided it was about time it was better represented. So here's one about a real heroine of mine.

Comments invited as usual please


Five Fb

This is a great entry, Frenchbean!

One small thing that caught my eye--I'd be inclined to take the BBC History link off her name on the first line, and put it down in a "more BBC links" section at the end.

I think having a link on the first line to an alternative page about the subject of the whole entry is distracting. It's almost suggesting "read this other page instead of the entry". Putting the link at the end means the reader will have had your version of the whole story first.


Azara

Hello Azara

Point taken and amendment made Thank you!

She really was an woman of some vision, wasn't she? Makes me feel very fortunate indeed.

Five Fb

This is a really good Entry, and you're right - her importance should be more widely acknowledged.

(There is another claimant to the title of first British female doctor, as you might know. Miranda Barry was certainly a woman and certainly a fully-qualified medical doctor. She practised until her death, but she posed as a man to get registered and her gender was only revealed posthumously)

A truly inspiring entry Fb I remember the fight to keep the hospital open in the 1970s

Two things:

faught - fought

Mayor - does the word need to capitalised if it's used generically? I think it only needs a capital if you're talking about 'the Mayor'.


Scout

Hi Pinniped Thank you for reading and peering. Barry, yes, but she didn't get an MD and she didn't fight like EGA did to get women recognised. Do you think I should give her a footnote all the same?

Hello Gosho Wot? No pernickety pedantic peering today? Are you feeling alright? Perhaps I just wrote a brilliant entry in which even you couldn't find much fault? Pah! I don't believe it. I did amend those two wee things

Hi Frenchbean
I stand corrected about Barry's MD - that'll teach me to check before sounding off. She was pretty senior as an army doctor, nonetheless.
Footnote? Maybe. Barry probably deserves an Entry in her own right. She's one of the many who are problematical EG-wise, though, because the sure facts are scant and uninteresting, while the legend is wonderful and fanciful.

I peered as much as I could Fb but that's all I found

Hi Frenchbean! I haven't been around much in the last week, so I've only just had a look at this. It's good!

No Gnomon posting would be complete without the obligatory list of typos:

prompty --> promptly
in the 1850s, is it certain --> in the 1850s, it is certain
known as feminism, were developing --> known as feminism, were developing
St Andrews University
she and 10 others --> she and ten others
Kensington Society --> Kensington Society.
1500 signatures --> 1,500 signatures
and in 1897 17 of them --> and in 1897, 17 of them
NUWSS. --> NUWSS..
shipowner --> ship owner
to practice --> to practise [a few places]
unsong heros --> unsung heroes

Hurray for Gnomon

I'll get onto those typos later today. Thank you

Okay... typos done

Except, I couldn't work out what you were getting at here Gnomon
>known as feminism, were developing --> known as feminism, were developing<

And I assume St. Andrews University?

And shipowner is one word according to my dictionary



Fb

Apologies, FB.

St Andrews - you're right and I'm wrong. There is no apostrophe.

shipowner - you're welcome to leave it as one word, but I don't like it.

feminism - I slipped up there. I meant that you should remove that comma.

Really excellent entry, Frenchbean!

I have just one more typo to point out, at the start of the second paragraph. The line: 'She was woman who refused to accept...' is obviously missing an 'a'.

Thanks Ormondroyd... I'll go change that

Having said that.... where can an extra 'a' go?

She was woman who --> She was a woman who

Hi Fb,

Great entry! I knew nothing about this person, so I've now learned something new!

I'm wondering what "official England" of the time felt about her. Even though it seems so obvious nowadays, it wasn't always so; and I'm sure she had some very powerful enemies at the time.

"by the time she was 16 was determined that she would work for a living" - somehow it doesn't read well - I had to re-read it a few times. First I thought her family had determined that she should work, then I realised that she had made this decision. It's a truly small thing, and may just be me.

Thanks Gnomon

I've added a 'she' to that sentence Woodpigeon and I hope it makes more sense now

Thank you