012 INFLUENTIAL WOMEN OF EAST KENT


ALTHOUGH I’M THE FIRST FEMALE MP TO REPRESENT CANTERBURY, I AM NOT THE FIRST WOMAN IN EAST KENT TO BREAK BOUNDARIES AND MAKE WAVES


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Creative quarter


Following in Mary’s footsteps, there have been other creative successes for women in East Kent, including celebrated artist Mary Martin, from Folkestone. Despite a backdrop of few further educational opportunities open to women at that time (in the 1920s), she was accepted at Goldsmiths College, and she went on to enjoy a successful career including working with her fellow artist husband Kenneth, and continued painting into the 1950s. More recently, Tracey Emin has been


fl ying the fl ag for women artists in East Kent, having staged several exhibitions in Margate where she spent much of her childhood.


Having gained an international profi le with her often controversial work, she most recently displayed her famous disheveled bed alongside her favourite dramatic seascape works of Turner at Turner Contemporary in Margate. She described


the unlikely pairing of


classical and contemporary works as being symbolic of the high level of turmoil in her life at that time.


Groundbreaking achievement


As Canterbury MP Rosie Duffi eld explains there have been a number of female role models down the ages in Kent who have held positions of power, as well as challenging the political establishment. Rosie told Canterbury INDEX: “This year marks 100 years since (some) women gained the vote in this country. Sometimes sitting in the House of Commons, I imagine how my great-great grandmother and all women of her generation, would have grown up believing that parliament and the world of law-making that surrounds it, was a world only for men.


“How pleased I am that things have


changed. Although I’m the fi rst female MP


to represent Canterbury, I am not the fi rst woman in East Kent to break boundaries and make waves,” explained the member of parliament, who confounded political analysts last year with her unexpected General Election victory that overturned more than a century of Conservative control after standing successfully for Labour. Rosie added: “With Kent’s long history,


women here have always been challenging the establishment and if not being on, then certainly being behind, the seat of power. “Going back to the 14th century, you can see Joan of Kent standing out amongst


© Tate London 2017


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