Bloody Brilliant Women audiobook cover - Pioneers, Revolutionaries, and Geniuses Your History Teacher Forgot to Mention

Bloody Brilliant Women

Pioneers, Revolutionaries, and Geniuses Your History Teacher Forgot to Mention

Cathy Newman

★ 4.2 / 5(37 ratings)
Start ListeningDownload App
Categories:
EducationHistory

If You're Curious About These Questions...

You should listen to this audiobook

Listen to Bloody Brilliant Women — Free Audiobook

Loading player...

Key Takeaways from Bloody Brilliant Women

Learning Tools

Reinforce what you learned from Bloody Brilliant Women

Mind Map

Bloody Brilliant Women
Victorian Era Marriage Laws+
WWI & Suffrage+
Interwar Era Progress+
WWII & Equality Fights+
Post-War Welfare & Tensions+
1960s Sexual Revolution & Feminism+
Margaret Thatcher's Paradox+

Quiz — Test Your Understanding

Question 1 of 7
What was the legal doctrine of coverture in Victorian England?
  • A. A law that guaranteed married women the right to inherit and own property.
  • B. A legal doctrine dictating that a woman's legal rights were completely subsumed by those of her husband.
  • C. A policy that required middle- and upper-class women to work in factories during wartime.
  • D. A parliamentary act that prevented husbands from locking up their wives for refusing sexual advances.
Question 2 of 7
How did suffragette Millicent Garrett Fawcett view the outbreak of World War I?
  • A. As a major setback that would permanently derail the feminist cause.
  • B. As an opportunity for women to demonstrate their worth through patriotism to advance their suffrage agenda.
  • C. As a reason to increase militant protests against the government for immediate enfranchisement.
  • D. As a tragedy that required women to abandon all political activism and focus solely on nursing.
Question 3 of 7
What significant legal shift for women was introduced by the Infanticide Act of 1922?
  • A. It allowed women to seek abortions legally within the first 20 weeks of pregnancy.
  • B. It granted women the same rights to divorce their partners as men.
  • C. It prevented new mothers who killed their infants from being charged with murder by recognizing postpartum psychosis.
  • D. It officially banned employers from firing women who became pregnant.
Question 4 of 7
What was Beatrice Shilling's major engineering contribution during World War II?
  • A. She designed a new type of radar system for the British military.
  • B. She developed a simple brass restrictor that solved engine stalling issues in British fighter planes.
  • C. She managed the mass production of gas and TNT shells at the Woolwich Arsenal.
  • D. She organized a ten-day strike at a Rolls-Royce factory to successfully demand equal pay.
Question 5 of 7
According to the post-war research of psychologists Slater and Woodside, what was a major cause of soaring divorce rates in 1940s Britain?
  • A. The widespread availability and use of the new contraceptive pill.
  • B. The loss of universal health care, which put immense financial strain on working-class families.
  • C. Women refusing to give up their lucrative factory jobs to returning soldiers.
  • D. Husbands returning with post-war 'neurosis' (PTSD) and struggling to adjust to their wives' newfound independence.
Question 6 of 7
How was access to the contraceptive pill restricted when it was first introduced in the United Kingdom in the 1960s?
  • A. It was heavily taxed, making it unaffordable for working-class women.
  • B. It was initially only legally available to married women.
  • C. It was only available to women over the age of 30.
  • D. It was exclusively distributed through private clinics, bypassing the NHS entirely.
Question 7 of 7
Why did Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher actively diminish the feminist movement during her time in office?
  • A. She believed feminists were attempting to overthrow the Conservative Party's traditional values.
  • B. She believed in a strict meritocracy where hard work alone led to success, oblivious to her own financial privileges.
  • C. She argued that the feminist movement was ignoring the economic struggles of working-class men.
  • D. She wanted to divert all equal opportunity funding toward expanding the National Health Service.

Bloody Brilliant Women — Full Chapter Overview

Bloody Brilliant Women Summary & Overview

Bloody Brilliant Women (2018) shines a light on some of British history’s most remarkable women, who, for years, were conveniently left out of history books mainly written by men. Newman rights this wrong, providing an exhaustive history of the multitude of women responsible for shaping Britain from the 1880s to the present day.

Who Should Listen to Bloody Brilliant Women?

  • History buffs
  • Feminists
  • Anglophiles

About the Author: Cathy Newman

Cathy Newman is currently a presenter at Channel 4 News. She has previously held positions at Media Week, the Independent and Financial Times as a journalist. Newman won the prestigious Laurence Stern fellowship at the Washington Post in 2000.

🎧
Listen in the AppOffline playback & background play
Get App