A WOMAN'S Worth

In the depths of the pandemic, British novelist Kate Mosse embarked on a mission to unearth forgotten female leaders from history. Here, she explains why understanding the past is vital to safeguarding gender equality today.

- Kate Mosse

In January 2021, publishing my latest novel into the dark and longest lockdown in the UK, when bookshops were shut, I wanted to do something positive. With a few author friends—Paula Hawkins, Anita Anand, Bernardine Evaristo, Lee Child, Jojo Moyes, and Anthony Horowitz among them— I launched a social media campaign asking people to name a woman from history they felt should be better known. Within days, thousands of people from all over the world, from Japan to Russia, Haiti to Saudi Arabia, had joined #womaninhistory, nominating women of science and law, explorers and astronauts, playwrights and poets, prime ministers and community leaders, women of courage and conviction, women of conservation, warrior queens, and quiet revolutionaries. So many extraordinary women, from every era of history and every part of the world, all of them deserving to be household names. Yet, they were not.