Female pioneers celebrated in puppet form

The stories behind six of history's greatest female achievers have been explored using giant hand puppets.Mighty Women from History and Science, organised by scientist Sarah Snell-Pym, took place at The Folk of Gloucester, to mark International Women's Day."When I started my undergraduate degree, I was very aware there was not only a lack of women taking up sciences and technologies, but also a lack of role models."When I looked, I realised there were lots, but their history has been missing or muted, or in the shadow of their male counterparts," she said.
The six women celebrated are: Fossil hunter Mary Anning, who uncovered the first complete Plesiosaur skeleton.Computer mathematician Ada Lovelace, who wrote what is considered to be the first computer programme.Archaeologist Mary Leakey, who made numerous discoveries related to early humans and their ancestors.Nurse Florence Nightingale, who became famous as "the lady with the lamp" during the Crimean War.Nurse Mary Seacole, who also worked during the Crimean War.Saxon Queen Aethelflaed, who took over the ruling of Mercia and founded St Oswald's Priory in Gloucester.Ms Snell Pym's show started with just one puppet of Ada Lovelace, and has since grown into a touring event for families."Ada Lovelace was basically working before computers even existed. "Her friend Charles Babbage came up with the idea of an engine that would do calculations, she started writing maths programmes for it. "These were the first computer algorithms," she said.
She also wanted the event to challenge the perceptions people had about some of the women in the show."We all know Florence Nightingale as a nurse, but she was actually an amazing statistician and she designed a whole new type of pie chart which looked at what was killing people"She's only ever remembered for nursing, and that's quite sad because she herself felt that she actually had not achieved what she should have done with the nursing," Ms Snell-Pym said.

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