"Efter" [Efter] Meaning: After
International Womens Day 2023
08 March 2023
International Womens Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating equality for women.
Ulster-Scots has a rich history of pioneering women in the fields of science, education, and activism to name a few and today we celebrate them and the legacy they have left behind.
Margaret Byers (1832-1912)
Educator, Activist, and Suffragette
Margaret Byers’ vision was ‘to provide for girls an education... as thorough as that which is afforded to boys, in schools of the highest order’.
Having herself been widowed with a baby son at a young age, she realised the importance of providing young women with an education which would enable them to earn a living, rather than schooling them in lady-like accomplishments to please their husbands.
She set up a school for girls in Belfast and fought to get young women into university. Pupils from her school were among the first students at Queen’s University Belfast. Margaret Byers’ innovative approach changed the face of education for girls in Ulster.
The school opened by Margaret became known as Victoria College. Today, a blue plaque dedicated to Margaret is located at the old Victoria College – now the Crescent Arts Centre in Belfast.
Annie S. D. Maunder (1868-1947)
Mathematician and Pioneering Astronomer
Annie Scott Dill Maunder (née Annie S.D. Russell) was born in Strabane, County Tyrone, in 1868.
She contributed greatly to the area of astronomy, including recording the first evidence of the movement of sunspot emergence from the poles down towards the equator. Sunspots are natural phenomena on the sun’s surface that appear as temporary spots which are darker than the surrounding areas.
However, her contribution to astronomy was downplayed at the time of her work because of her gender. She studied at Girton College in Cambridge and in 1890 she was turned down for a job at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. It would be a year later, in 1891, when she was accepted by the Observatory and commenced work in the solar department.
In 1895, Annie married fellow astronomer Walter Maunder, with whom she had worked on the Greenwich photoheliograph (a solar telescope) programme. Her marriage subsequently meant she had to resign from her job as there were restrictions on married women working in public service at the time.
She did not stop working in the field, however, accompanying her husband on a number of solar eclipse expeditions. Annie also co-authored with her husband on papers while she published the work ‘The Heavens and their Story’ in 1908, with her husband Walter as a co-author.
A blue plaque located at Oysters Restaurant in Strabane is dedicated to this mathematician and pioneering astronomer.
Amy Carmichael (1867-1951)
Missionary and writer
Amy Beatrice Carmichael was born in Millisle, County Down, and spent her life dedicated to helping the poor of India.
Despite ill health and an injury which left her mostly bed-ridden for the last 20 years of her life, Amy served in India for 56 years, without a break, and wrote many books about missionary work. Amy’s hands-on approach to helping the lowest and most socially disadvantaged people in Indian society and her efforts to fit into the culture of the country where she worked was unusual at that time. She brought about social innovation in the way missionary work has been carried out since.
There are two blue plaques dedicated to Amy in Ulster; the first is at Millisle Baptist Church, and the second is located at Welcome Evangelical Church in Belfast.
To learn more about some of our pioneering Ulster-Scots, including Amy Carmichael and Margaret Byers, click here.