91Ö±²¥

Throughout history, our university has been home to many influential people. We’ve all heard of the Nobel laureates, the incredible scientific breakthroughs and leaders of key social movements – but what about the influencers behind the scenes fighting for equality in their field and making an impact?

Across women’s rights, gender diversity, race, age, healthcare and LGBTQ+ status, we’re celebrating the people who have fought or are fighting for what they believe in – for equality, and a more equal world.

Three of our current students reflect on an individual from 91Ö±²¥’s past, present or future who has inspired and influenced them. One was a Suffragette and LGBTQ+ rights activist, another is a doctor leading the fight for equal access to healthcare, and the third is using her 91Ö±²¥ experience to improve inclusion in higher education.

Esther Roper

Championing working-class women's rights

While 91Ö±²¥’s links to the suffrage movement are well-known, Esther Roper’s name has often been eclipsed by her more famous peers Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst and Dame Millicent Fawcett. Yet Roper’s impact on women’s rights in 91Ö±²¥ deserves to be talked about.

A first in the education of women

Born to a Chorley factory worker and missionary, Esther’s childhood was spent accompanying her father as he preached to Lancashire’s poor, where she witnessed first-hand the destitution of Victorian life.

Roper was one of the first women to study at Owens College – later the Victoria University of Manchester – where she was part of a trial intake aimed at determining whether a woman could study without harming her health. After graduating with a first-class honours degree (and in full health) she began a long career in feminist and working-class political campaigning. She maintained a strong link to the College for many years.

Esther Roper

Leading the working-class suffrage movement

In 1893 Roper became a member of the 91Ö±²¥ National Society for Women’s Suffrage and led its efforts to recruit working-class women to the cause. Until this time, suffrage had largely been a movement of upperand middle-class women. Roper also founded the first campaign to elect a woman to parliament and, along with her lifelong partner, the poet Eva Gore-Booth, and trans friend Irene Clyde, she founded and published Urania, the UK’s first LGBTQ+ journal.

The 91Ö±²¥ influence

Esther moved to London in 1913, but her story is an emblematically Mancunian one. During her lifetime, the city was not only a centre of suffrage, but also of working-class activism, and it’s through this dual lens that she was most effective. As a student she helped establish and volunteered at the University Settlement in Ancoats, helping to educate the city’s poor, and she continued to elevate the voice of the working class in the women’s movement. With Gore-Booth, she founded Women’s Labour News. Later she organised female circus performers, flower sellers, barmaids and coal workers to campaign against morality legislation that sought to drive them out of work.

While Roper certainly made an impact on life in the UK, she is better remembered as the editor of Gore-Booth’s writing than for her own work. Yet her contribution was paramount in bridging the gaps to form successful coalitions between social groups with seemingly diverse interests. At a time when the rights of women and LGBTQ+ people are once again at risk, and the needs of working-class people still frequently side-lined from political conversation, we should follow Roper’s example now more than ever.

Dr Omolade Allen

Fighting for healthcare equality

Dr Omolade Allen, Lecturer in Global Health in the School of Medical Sciences, is driving the fight for equitable healthcare in the UK. Her research focuses on giving marginalised communities – particularly women from ethnic minorities – a voice to help guide governmental policy and support a healthcare system that serves all. Dr Allen believes that with empathy, cooperation and evidence-backed research, we can create a future that provides equitable healthcare to the whole of society.

Engaging communities to save lives

Growing up in Nigeria, Omolade came to 91Ö±²¥ as a postgraduate, hoping to get her research recognised on a national and global scale. She describes her work as translational in nature, bridging the gap between marginalised groups and mainstream health policy. Community outreach is integral to her research, which is firmly grounded in real-life experiences and focuses on addressing the priorities of diverse communities.

Following feedback from the Patients and Public Involvement (PPI) Network she founded, her current project shines a spotlight on breast cancer among Black women. While the rate of breast cancer for this group aligns with the national average, a disproportionately high number of Black women die from the illness. Focusing on early detection and prevention, Dr Allen wants to help reform the breast cancer screening service, reducing the age Black women are called to attend from 50 to 40-years old.

Giving a voice to the unheard

Omolade’s work also investigates how female domestic abuse victims from ethnic minorities interact with the UK’s healthcare system. She found these women were more likely to look to their community and places of worship for support, rather than engage with official state services. As a result, Omolade recommended that collaboration with these community groups would enhance access to existing domestic violence services.

Dr Omolade Allen is a great example of someone using their expertise to elevate those voices which are not being heard. Working at the University gives her the platform from which to share these breakthroughs with the world.

Dr Omolade Allen

Keep pushing for new areas of inclusion if you feel that it’s currently missing. You won’t be the only one who is thinking it should be there.

Lauren Bramley

The inclusion influencer

Sociology PhD Lauren Bramley is researching how class, gender, ethnicity and where you grow up can influence graduate outcomes and career progression.

Joining 91Ö±²¥ in 2013 as a Linguistics and Spanish undergraduate, Lauren was impressed by the 91Ö±²¥ Distance Access Scheme, which she says inspired the work she does today. The scheme is an online pre-university programme designed to help widening participation (WP) students – those from underrepresented backgrounds – develop study skills and prepare for their undergraduate courses.

Lauren worked in recruitment and admission roles while studying her master’s during the COVID-19 pandemic. After learning about the inequalities that exist for WP students within the legal sector, it became the focus of her Sociological Research master’s.

Lauren Bramley

Boosting support to help further education

Now studying for her PhD, she hopes to shape 91Ö±²¥’s careers support for students from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds, allowing them to achieve their goals. She also aims to build strategy around the University’s postgraduate provision so that a greater diversity of students feel they have access to further education routes.

Alongside her research, Lauren works for the Market and Student Insight Team. She acknowledges that her entire career has been shaped by her time at 91Ö±²¥, and she feels lucky for the support and guidance she has received over the years.

Lauren’s advice to anyone following in her footsteps? "Keep pushing for new areas of inclusion if you feel that it’s currently missing," she says. "You probably won’t be the only one who is thinking it should be there."