Women in Conservation - past and present. | Wildlife Trust for Beds Cambs & Northants

Our monthly podcast is back! And we're kicking it off with an episode to celebrate International Women's Day on 8 March

Welcome back to our monthly podcast! I'm delighted to be kicking off our new season with an in-depth chat with our esteemed Chair of Trustees, Dr Hilary Allison, about women in conservation.

Two women sit with microphones on a table in front of them, having a conversation

From her extensive research on the subject, Hilary introduces us to some of the brilliant women she's come across who have done great things for the conservation movement, and whose roles have often been downplayed, forgotten, or simply written off, with some even described as difficult, belligerent.. or even as a 'hellcat'. We also discuss some of the barriers that women in conservation face today, and how we might overcome them—as well as why diversity of all kinds is vital to any thriving organisation.

Credits

Podcast host and producer: Sophie Baker
Interviewee: Hilary Allison
Podcast music: Written and performed by James Williams. Mixed and produced by Jared Wentwick.

Some of the fantastic women we discuss

An elderly woman with a purple headscarf makes a serious point whilst seated on a sofa appearing on TV

Open Media Ltd., CC BY-SA 2.0

A black and white portrait of a woman with short hair

A 19th century sepia portrait of a woman holding a notebook

A 19th century sepia portrait of a woman wearing outdoor clothing, holding a shotgun

A statue of a woman who stands, one arm raised, on a plinth

A woman wearing a safari hat is pictured holding a baby orangutan in the jungle

Simon Fraser University, CC BY 2.0

A black and white portrait of a woman wearing a high collared dress, taken in 1913

A woman stands at a podium giving a speech

LSE Library

A fine painting of an older woman who sits with her hands on her lap

John Singer Sargent, 1898

A woman stands in the sea with a man as they both look into the water

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

A black woman smiles as she holds a grand silver trophy

Demosh CC BY 2.0

Reading list

Find out more about the women that come up in our conversation with a list of books recommended by Hilary:

Tessa Boase, Etta Lemon – the Women Who Saved the Birds. Aurum Press, 2022
Isabella Tree, Wilding – the return to nature of a British farm. Picador Press, 2018
Marcia Myers Bonta, Women in the Field – America’s Pioneering Women Naturalists. Texas A & M University Press, 1991
Barbara T Gates, Kindred Nature – Victorian and Edwardian Women Embrace the Living World. The University of Chicago Press, 1998
Madelyn Holmes, American Women Conservationists – twelve profiles. McFarland & Company Inc., 2004
Robert K Musil, Rachel Carson and her sisters. Rutgers University Press, 2014.
Nancy Unger, Beyond Nature’s Housekeepers - American Women in Environmental History. Oxford University Press, 2012
Natascha Scott-Stokes, Wild and Fearless – the Life of Margaret Fountaine. Peter Owen, 2006
Matthew Kelly, The Women who Saved the English Countryside. Yale University Press, 2022
Birute Galdikas, Reflections of Eden. Victor Gollancz, 1995
Wangari Maathai, Unbowed – a memoir. Penguin Books, 2006
Natalie Livingstone, The Women of Rothschild. John Murray, 2021
Dian Fossey, Gorillas in the Mist. Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1983
Dyana Z Furmansky, Rosalie Edge Hawk of Mercy; the Activist who saved nature from the conservationists. Wormsloe Foundation Nature Books, 2010

More information

Explore some resources to find out about diversity and inclusion in the conservation sector, and across the Wildlife Trust movement, and reflect on what we could all be doing better.