A Yorkshire-born writer and comedian shared an array of incredible untold stories of Northern women for the Off the Shelf festival at the Millenium Gallery on October 26.
Kate Fox discussed her new book, Where There’s Muck There’s Bras, which covers Northern female icons ranging from actress Victoria Wood, to astronaut Helen Sharman.
She said: “Starting off as a radio journalist, I noticed that women were being left out of stories, and Northern women were being left out of stories, and I wondered: is this just a Northern chip on my shoulder?
“After doing some research, I realised there’s a thing about Northern-ness. We know that women get left out of history, and with Northern women it’s like a double or triple whammy!”
Ms Fox suggested that this gap in British history could be attributed to accentism – which is still a significant issue in the UK, with 45% of employees facing discrimination due to their accent.
She said: “I used to be a news reader, and it took ages for me to be allowed on air because of my Northern accent – and this was in the North, in Newcastle!
“We have never had a national news reader with a Northern accent, aside from Wilfred Pickles who was put on air during the second World War to confuse the Germans.”
Ms Fox also spoke about her focus on diversity when compiling stories for her book.
She said: “I was aware that you are already marginalised on at least two counts as a Northern woman, so there is an even greater level of invisibility as a Northern woman of colour or who is not cis-gendered.”
“Women of colour are still probably a little underrepresented in this book – there is far more research to be done, and I hope someone in the future can uncover those stories and do an even more updated version of my book to reflect that.”
Where There’s Muck There’s Bras is now available online and in bookstores nationwide.