Nine famous female Fellows inspiring inclusion

The RSA’s values involve being open, optimistic, courageous, rigorous and enabling. This approach to life encourages inclusivity – welcoming new thinking and different perspectives – and respect for everyone. It helps to bring equality and equity to marginalised and underrepresented groups, including women.

Our work is guided by more than just our values though. We stand on the shoulders of our Fellows (or members as they were known before 1914) and their achievements. As individuals they convene and collaborate to bring about meaningful positive change for people, place and planet.

Female Fellows have done, and are doing, amazing things to promote and foster gender equality in all areas of society. This might be through their work – whether it’s founding a charity tackling domestic abuse, establishing educational associations for women or being an international delegate for women – or simply by representing their gender and being seen as role models by aspiring women. Both can be equally inspiring.

To celebrate International Women’s Day 2024, we wanted to highlight just nine of the many thousands of female Fellows whose work has catalysed and continues to catalyse gender parity.

Are you working to inspire inclusion? Perhaps you know another Fellow striving to reach gender equity for women? Share your insights and the efforts of others in the comments section at the bottom of this blog. But for now, find some inspiration in the following Fellows.

Sarah Mason

Chief executive and charity leader

A Fellow since August 2023, Sarah Mason is Chief Executive of the Women’s Aid Federation Northern Ireland, having worked in various roles in the movement for more than three decades. The Federation provided specialist support to more than 7,500 women in the financial year 2022–23. She was made an MBE for services to women and girls in the 2024 New Year Honours List.

Bernardine Evaristo

Author

Bernardine Evaristo is a British author and academic. Her books have been awarded ‘Book of the Year’ 60 times and her novel Girl, Woman, Other jointly won the Booker Prize in 2019, making her the first Black woman to claim the prize. She has received numerous honours and was made an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2020. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2004, she became its president in 2022.

Caroline Haslett

Electrical engineer

Dame Caroline Haslett started her career as a clerk at the Cochran Boiler Company. Her interest led her to train in the manufacture of boilers, ultimately leaving the company to become the first secretary of the Women’s Engineering Society. She went on to create the Electrical Association for Women, which implemented a national educational programme and was elected a Fellow in 1934.

Mary Moser

Painter

Mary Moser was a celebrated artist admired for her paintings of flowers. She won her first premium for a design from the Society aged 14. In 1795, Moser received another and was awarded the Society’s silver medal for ‘extraordinary merit’. The painting was displayed at the Society’s first art exhibition in 1760 and again in the ‘Exhibition of Exhibitions’ in 1951. At 24, she was one of two female founding members of the Royal Academy.

Georgina Lara Booth

Journalist and humanitarian

Georgina Lara Booth is a British Dutch humanitarian, writer, filmmaker and journalist. She is a UN Women delegate at the Commission on the Status of Women and recipient of the International Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Award. In March 2023, Booth was selected for the Forbes 30 under 30 list in the media category for her journalism and editorial work.

Shirley Manson

Musician and actress

Lead singer of the American rock band Garbage, Shirley Manson has released seven studio albums, including Version 2.0, which garnered two Grammy Award nominations. Born and raised in Edinburgh, she commuted to the US for recordings with the band. Manson is credited with inspiring other female artists and has used her profile to help raise millions of pounds for charitable causes, most notably Aids charities.

Mary Robinson

Former president of Ireland

Mary Robinson became the seventh president of Ireland in 1990 and served until September 1997. She was the first woman and the first independent to hold the country’s highest political office. Following her time as president, in 1997 Robinson became the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. She has received praise for her work in the fields of sexuality, contraception and gender equality.

Kirthi Jayakumar

Lawyer and activist

Peace educator Kirthi Jayakumar is a Commonwealth Scholar, serves as an adviser to the G7 and was named one of UN Women’s 30 for 2030. She is head of community engagement at World Pulse and founded the Gender Security Project, a feminist initiative working towards peace, security and justice. Previously, she founded The Red Elephant Foundation, an initiative for peacebuilding and gender equality.

Jane Boyd

Artist

Jane Boyd is a British artist best known for her work in light-based installation and drawing. Exhibiting internationally since 1986, Boyd was the first woman to be elected Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts, awarded by Trinity College, Cambridge.

How have the above Fellows inspired you to be more inclusive in your work or life? Don’t forget to tell us about your inclusion work or the work of others in the comments section below.

Happy International Women’s Day 2024!