My Jameson grandmother never went to school; she had a governess. My Hill grandmother may have been to school but she was no blue stocking.
My brother went to Sandhurst; in those days the academy offered a university style education. I went to Durham, in the footsteps of my Hill grandfather. My sister went to a school where she could be accompanied by her pony. It’s hardly surprising women were seldom leaders in Financial Services. Indeed our lunch guest yesterday said she needed special dispensation to visit The Room at Lloyd’s. In my experience only Finland and Norway had women in senior positions in oil companies. Now in many organisations senior positions are held by women: hurrah!
I took Bertie to the Charterhouse one evening this week for a conducted tour of the gardens. Bertie dashed off to make friends with a film crew shooting an ad for Hunter wellies and thought he might be a welcome visitor in the kitchen. Meanwhile I was told something by an alumnus of Trinity College, Dublin, that interested me.
The Dublin Stock Exchange was founded in Dame Street in 1793. In spite of the street name members were all men. Now fast forward to Dublin in 1925. Joseph Keogh had his own broking firm and was assisted by his 22 year-old daughter, Oonah. Good golly, Miss Molly, she applied to be a member and nobody could think of any reason to oppose her application. She was the first female member of a Stock Exchange anywhere in the world and that remained the case until the first women were admitted to the New York and London Stock Exchanges in 1967 and 1973 respectively.
It would be lovely to think that the Irish Free State was an early advocate of feminism. The reality was that every obstacle was put in the way of women applying to work in the Civil Service and they were encouraged by Church and State to be wives and mothers. So one swallow didn’t make a summer.