International Women's Day 2025

On International Women's Day, we share how women from the global Leeds community are inspiring others across the world.

From trailblazing record breakers to pioneering scientists, here are six stories from over the last year - as well as your tributes to inspirational Leeds women.

Your tributes

Professor Dame Jane Francis

Professor Dame Jane Francis was a great teacher and was always there to help academically. She was very positive about how things were going, and she inspired me to carry out my final year dissertation under her guidance for which I got a first. Thank you Jane for being a great pioneering woman in the many roles you have achieved.

Gary Wilkinson (Geological Sciences 1995)

Dr Margaret Atack

Margaret Atack became Professor in the French department at Leeds in my final year. Her reputation preceded her as an amazing scholar of Simone de Beauvoir, my favourite French author. She was a breath of fresh air in the department, and someone who was a lot of fun, incisively witty and intellectually one of the greats. I felt very privileged and blessed to learn from the best.

Katherine Salmon (French and Italian 1995, MA 1997)

I was inspired by Dr Margaret Atack. It takes a strong brave woman to take on the Académie Française, and she did, and encouraged us to do the same.

Philippa Saddington (French 1990)

Dr Elizabeth Pender

Dr Pender in the Classics department was an inspirational lecturer and dissertation supervisor. She always greatly encouraged me even though I struggled in many ways with mental health and organisation. She always saw and did her utmost to support the less privileged students and students who were intellectually gifted but perhaps found other aspects more difficult. Her lectures and tutorials were always interesting and different. I even got to write a poem inspired by Plato once. I can't thank her enough for her encouragement, I'm not sure I would have even made it through my degree without her. I bet she is championing the underdog to this day.

Alice Sanders (Classical Civilisation 2004)

Professor Caroline Rose

I have always remembered Dr Caroline Rose who supervised my dissertation on the Japanese post-war constitution. She inspired me to pursue detail in my research and look into various sources with her knowledgeable and friendly nature. Of anyone I met during my undergraduate studies at Leeds, Caroline was the person I most remember and would like to pass on gratitude and thanks to all these years later.

Pamela Weeks (Née Skinner) (Asia Pacific Studies 2001)

Dr Barbara Douglas

Dr Barbara Douglas was the Warden at Tetley Hall girls' residence in Headingley when I arrived there in October 1974. She was a larger-than-life, middle-aged, beer-swilling, cigar-smoking botanist (who also looked every inch a lady in her favourite green suit!). She moved heaven and earth to keep me at Leeds when I had doubts in my first term. I went on to spend all three years in Tetley Hall, joining the committee in my second year.

I made many friends and memories at Leeds and was inspired by both men and women, young and older. But Dr Douglas - what a woman!

Barbara Page (Latin 1977)

It's not too late to pay tribute to a woman at Leeds who made a difference to you:

After recovering from bowel cancer, broadcaster and DJ Adele Roberts (ND Pharmacology 2000) has been given a second chance at life – and is making the most of it.

When she was diagnosed with bowel cancer, Adele feared the worst. She adopted a new mantra: “All we have is today. Things happen, but all that matters is how you respond.”

Adele set the Guinness World Record time for running a marathon with a stoma – less than a year after completing chemotherapy (a record she's since broken). Within 18 months, she was gliding across TV screens to finish third on ITV’s Dancing on Ice. And recently, she set about completing six world major marathons in the space of eight months in a cumulative world record time.

Read her inspiring story of hard work, determination, and positivity in our recent magazine feature

On the final day of the Paris Paralympics, Laura Sugar (Sports and Exercise Science 2012) retained her Paralympic title in the para canoe 200m sprint event.

When she was three years old, a doctor warned Laura’s parents she would never be able to do sport. She was born with talipes, or club foot, and had no movement in her ankle.

Thankfully, they chose not to share the words.

“For as long as I can remember, sport was the most important thing in my world,” Laura said. “So even if they had told me, I’m not sure I would have listened.”

In Paris Laura endured a close battle against home favourite Nelia Barbosa, but blustery conditions on the water saw her pull ahead – thanks to plenty of time training through “a horrible winter” back in the UK.

Read the full story about Laura's journey to the Paralympic Games in the Leeds magazine

Dr Sigourney Bonner (Human Physiology 2014) established Black in Cancer to tackle inequalities in both cancer research and treatment.

When she graduated from Leeds, Sigourney wanted to progress into medical research. Yet she wasn’t accepted onto PhDs, while fellow graduates with similar experiences were enrolled by the next term.

“Until I started my PhD, I’d never met a Black woman with a PhD,” says Sigourney, who is now a postdoctoral associate at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute. “I often felt I was the most qualified candidate, and yet I was at a disadvantage before I entered the room because of how I looked.”

Determined to bring about change, she founded Black in Cancer to expand knowledge of the disease within the black community and increase the number of black scientists in the field.

In 2021 Sigourney was named in the Forbes 30 under 30 list for her work in science and healthcare.

Read more about how Sigourney founded Black in Cancer

Charli XCX’s manager Twiggy Rowley (English 2014) played a key role in the cultural sensation of 2024.

Charli XCX’s album ‘brat’ has dominated pop culture, with chart-topping singles Apple, 360 and Guess streaming hundreds of millions of times. At the 2025 Brit Awards, she won five awards including best artist, album and song of the year.

As Charli’s longtime friend and manager, Twiggy watched brat change from noun to attitude. “Each Charli XCX release and each tour has been a step up from the last,” says Twiggy. “So for brat we dialled down on everything we’d learned as a team on previous releases.”

Read about the role Twiggy played in Charli XCX's recent success

Principal Climate Change Scientist at UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) Helen Macintyre (PhD Atmospheric Science 2011) provides evidence of the health implications of climate change.

Helen works at the UKHSA’s Centre for Climate and Health Security (CCHS), using computational modelling, analytical research, and evidence synthesis to provide the best scientific advice to local authorities, ministers and other stakeholders on the health impacts of climate change.  

“For many people, addressing climate change has often been viewed as saving the environment, and less so about people," says Helen. "But in reality, the climate crisis is also a health crisis; our changing climate will impact upon people's health and wellbeing.”

Read more about how Helen helps to shape the UK's response to climate change

Anti-knife crime campaigner Sarah Lloyd graduated with a Masters degree from the University in 2024 - a moment she says she could never have imagined a decade ago.

The mum of four was devastated when her 17-year-old son Kieran was fatally stabbed in the street in Harehills in 2013. She has now graduated with a Masters in Social Research thanks to support from the Lifelong Learning Centre.

“I never thought that studying at University was something within my reach as a single mum on benefits,” she said.

Sarah co-created and featured in an award-winning film launched by Tell Studio last year entitled ‘Cut Short – Fighting against Knives in the North’ in which she describes her trauma to warn young people about the tragic consequences of carrying knives. She is also author of Life without Kie, a memoir of her traumatic grief following the fatal stabbing.

Read about Sarah's tireless campaign journey and her route to graduation