Welcome to Women Winning
2025-2026
Harrogate's biggest ever project to mark International Women's Day
March 8 2025 sees the 50th anniversary of International Women’s Day being adopted by the United Nations, but its story goes back further in history.
This special day has actually been observed since the early 1900s - a time when women were starting to campaign for equal rights. But its main focus has never wavered over the years: it is used to reflect on the extraordinary accomplishments of women.
Harrogate has many inspirational women from the past and the present day and we feel that honouring these amazing women for just one day isn’t long enough. We want to bring their stories to new and bigger audiences. This year will see the greatest number of events round International Women’s Day ever held in Harrogate.
“Through Women Winning, these remarkable women will come under the ‘spotlight’ to make sure their accomplishments are long recognised and never forgotten. We also want to inspire and encourage others whether girls, teenagers, young women or adults to reach their full potential whatever that might look like. In years to come, they too could be celebrated during International Women's Days of the future.”
Paula Stott, Chair of Harrogate Film Society, one of the project’s partners
Women Winning will have a strong focus on Harrogate women and those connected with the wider district. Women who have made it in all walks of life including the arts, business, education and sport. There will be an extensive programme of events, entertainment, films and talks.
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More about Women Winning
The idea for Women Winning came about when two volunteers with the 2023 project marking the centenary of Harrogate’s war memorial heard one of the town’s oldest residents, centenarian WW2 veteran Sheila Pantin speak. Sheila’s talk ‘Road to the Concentration Camps’ was delivered to a full capacity audience during the commemorations. She left that audience clamouring for more.
Paula Stott and Lynne Mee decided that many more people should hear Sheila’s talk. Still pin-sharp, Sheila is a brilliant raconteur and tells movingly of how in April 1945 she became one of the first British service women to enter and face the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp - in her case, Belsen.
Sheila trained as a driver with the Auxiliary Territorial Service and also took on further training to become an Army physical training instructor.
Working in Partnership
Paula and Lynne first approached Soroptimist International Harrogate and District who already had confirmed plans for International Women’s Day (IWD) 2024 but readily agreed to work with them for 2025.
And from an idea of just one talk, IWD 2025 has grown in content, length and in partnership.
As part of their work with the war memorial project, Paula and Lynne were amazed to hear that by the end of 1920, women's football was attracting a lot of attention and pulling in huge crowds, in some cases bigger than the lower league men’s teams - something the then FA found intolerable. In 1921, the FA banned women's teams from playing on football league grounds.
With its support for women’s football and in particular its excellent Girls’ Development Programme, Harrogate Town Association Football Club was approached via its Chief Executive Sarah Barry to see if the Club would become a project partner. The Club replied with a resounding yes!
Harrogate Film Society, where Paula is Chair, proposed to kick-start the Women Winning programme with a pre-launch event on 3 March by screening Copa ‘71 The Forgotten Lionesses.
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Women Winning is being made possible thanks to this partnership between Harrogate Film Society, Soroptimist International Harrogate and District and Harrogate Town AFC
(Special thanks to Harrogate Web Solutions who provided us with the Women Winning graphic pro bono)
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PRE-LAUNCH EVENT
Copa 71
Monday, 3 March 2025 19:30 - 21:40 Harrogate Odeon
The first Women’s World Cup was held in Mexico City in 1971 - twenty years before the first official FIFA’s Women's World cup. Telling its story, Copa 71 was first released in cinemas last year and features the pioneering women - some would say the Forgotten Lionesses - who took part. Sadly, this historic event had been written out of sporting history - until now.
Sara Barry, Chief Executive of Harrogate Town AFC and Kate Donan the Club’s Head of Women’s Football will be introducing Copa 71 and will answer questions afterwards.
LAUNCH EVENT
‘In Conversation with Sheila Pantin’
Friday, 7 March 2025 2:30pm - 4:30pm St Peter’s Church, Harrogate
FREE TO ATTEND
Happily more people will get the chance to hear Sheila’s long, amazing and wonderful life story as she launches Women Winning. And even if you heard her first-time round, she still has more to tell.
PROGRAMME OF EVENTS
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INAUGURAL WOMEN WINNING WALKING TOUR
PLANNED FOR AUGUST
We are working with the charismatic Harry Satloka of Harrogate's Free Walking tours to launch a tour dedicated to some of Harrogate’s amazing women.
(Three amazing women are highlighted below but there will be more on the tour)
From local philanthropists such as Lady Frainy Bomanji (1893-1986) wife of shipping magnate Sir Dhunjibhoy Bomanji and one of only a handful of women to have been granted the Freedom of the Borough of Harrogate.
The Bomanji family’s last bequest to Harrogate was a beautiful French statue ‘La Douche’ located in the public gardens on Montpellier Hill and which used to reside at the family's magnificent mansion ‘Pineheath’ on Cornwall Road. The statue was bequeathed by the family in honour of Lady Bomanji’s daughter, Mrs Mehroo Jehangir.
L-R The 2013 Mayor of Harrogate Mike Newby and his Consort, Clive Kirkham are pictured at the statue’s unveiling with Mehroo’s sister-in-law Mrs Frainy Ardeshir
To the first Yorkshire born woman to qualify as a doctor, Dr Laura Veale (1867- 1963) who faced hostility from the medical profession to enter medical school but she overcame that to qualify at the grand age of 37. She became Harrogate’s first female doctor opening her surgery on Victoria Avenue.
Dr Laura Veale's brown plaque
And on to one of the country’s first female magistrates appointed in 1924, Leonora Cohen OBE (1873 - 1978). Whilst she may not be that familiar a figure in the suffragette movement, she acted as one of the bodyguards to Emmeline Pankhurst. She was definitely ahead of her time as a life-long vegetarian who along with her husband opened a vegetarian B&B in Harrogate. She died aged 105 in a vegetarian nursing home in Colwyn Bay.
Leonora Cohen OBE
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WOMEN ON TAP
Harrogate’s Rachel Auty founder of Women On Tap CIC - pioneers of initiatives that put brilliant women from the heavily male-dominated beer industry in the spotlight through a programme of activism including events, campaigns and arts - is working with us to see how we might get involved this year with her very successful Women on Tap Festival which has been held in Harrogate since 2017.
That is just a taster of what’s to come
There’s a lot more in the pipeline so keep checking here for more events as they get confirmed
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WOMEN WINNING - EVENTS
Fri, 07 MarSt Peter's Church
WOMEN WINNING IN THE NEWS
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Launch of Women Winning (27/01/2025)
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Sheila Pantin's Talk (03/03/2025)
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Harrogate's New Walking Tour (03/03/2025)
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Sheila Pantin's Talk - post-event (08/03/2025)