Historic Women

Regardless of what I think about this pageants...

Every woman who stood up in defence of Miss Mexico knew what they risked by doing so. They also knew what they risked by not. These women have my utmost respect.

Miss Universe contestants walk out after organiser berates Miss Mexico

The Miss Universe 2025 competition took a tense turn this week when a contestant was called “dumb” by a pageant executive in front of all the other contestants in Thailand.

The confrontation occurred during a sashing ceremony on Nov. 4, which was livestreamed on the Miss Universe Thailand Facebook page.

Nawat Itsaragrisil, executive director of the Miss Universe Organization (MUO), reprimanded Miss Universe Mexico, Fátima Bosch, during the ceremony, causing her to stand up and leave the room.

Several contestants, including the current reigning Miss Universe, Denmark’s Victoria Kjær Theilvig, Miss Universe Canada Jaime VandenBerg and Miss Universe Iraq Hanin Al Qoreishy, followed Bosch out of the room in solidarity.

Miss Universe Mexico Walks Out

Twitter video

Twitter video

Historic Women

 Michelle Wu, the incumbent mayor of Boston, ran unopposed in the 2025 mayoral election after her main opponent, Josh Kraft, withdrew from the race following the preliminary election in September. Wu had won the preliminary with about 72% of the vote, while Kraft received about 23%. Kraft's withdrawal left Wu as the only candidate on the November general election ballot, making her the first Boston mayor to run unopposed in a general election since 1997. Wu subsequently secured her second term as mayor easily.

Mary Sheffield is the mayor-elect of Detroit, having won the November 4, 2025 election with about 77% of the vote, making her the first woman to serve as Detroit's mayor. Sheffield, 38, has served on the Detroit City Council since 2014 and became its president in 2022, the youngest ever in that role. She ran as a "people’s champion" and has a history of focusing on community issues such as gun violence, infrastructure, housing, and transit. Sheffield is known for advocating increased funding for community violence intervention and mental health resources and plans to focus on rebuilding neighborhoods, creating jobs, and poverty alleviation in her administration.

Historic Women

Tom the backroads traveller hosts this weekly meme.

 

May 2025 - OTTAWA ON

Ottawa Famous Five

The "Women are Persons!" sculpture in Ottawa commemorates their successful 1929 "Persons Case," which ruled women were "persons" under the law and eligible for appointment to the Senate. The sculpture, created by Barbara Paterson, is located near the Senate of Canada Building on the Plaza Bridge.

The Famous Five were five Alberta women—Emily Murphy, Henrietta Muir Edwards, Nellie McClung, Louise McKinney, and Irene Parlby—who brought the "Persons Case" to legal challenge in Canada. They are famous for their successful fight to have women legally recognized as "persons" under the British North America Act, which opened the door for women to be appointed to the Senate and advanced gender equality in Canada.

There is also a Famous Five sculpture in Calgary Alberta.

Emily Murphy: A judge and activist who was the leader of the Famous Five. 

Henrietta Muir Edwards: A women's rights advocate who worked with the National Council of Women. 

Nellie McClung: A novelist, teacher, and suffragist who served in the Alberta Legislature. 

Louise McKinney: A social reformer and the first woman elected to the Alberta Legislature. 

Irene Parlby: A farmer's wife and the first female cabinet minister in Alberta. 

The Persons Case

In 1927, the five women asked the Supreme Court of Canada if women could be appointed to the Senate. 

The Supreme Court ruled that the word "person" in the British North America Act did not include women. 

Undeterred, the Famous Five appealed the decision to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London, England, which was then Canada's highest court of appeal. 

On October 18, 1929, the Privy Council overturned the Supreme Court's ruling and declared that women were "persons" under the

Signs

   Joining Tom at Signs2

Wordless Wednesday Wordless

September 2025 - Toronto ON

More from the LCBO. 

Check out the black bowler hat!

Monday Mural

 I'm linking up at Monday Mural 

January 2025 - Palm Springs CA

Other Winter 2025 PS murals.

Woman in Glasses 

Painted by artists James Haunt & Zes MSK, the Woman in Glasses is a colorful and fun mural in Palm Springs. Haunt & Zes MSK, famously known for street art in Los Angeles, created a modern piece of public art that perfectly fits in with the vibrant culture found in Greater Palm Springs. 

Various 

Day of the Dead

 

Historic Women

Mary ‘May’ McGee: The dignified Irish mother who took on the might of the State and became a feminist icon died October 28, 2025.

 It was 1970's Ireland. May McGee was 27. She had four pregnancies, had strokes on three of them, suffered paralysis and a cerebral haemorrhage. Partially deaf, living in a mobile home in Skerries with her fisherman husband Seamus, her doctor, a good man, said another pregnancy could kill her. He advised a diaphragm and spermicidal jelly. 

May’s stuff was seized by Customs. She and Seamus was denounced from the altar: ‘Certain people in this parish have brought the church into disrepute’ She left, and never went back.

She was furious. How dare they! Mary Robinson agreed to take her case. Mary Robinson would become Ireland's first female president.

First the High Court threw May’s case out. Then the Supreme Court came down in favour, 4 to 1.

A landmark case. It took another four million years before ‘normal people’ could get what they needed, without prescription, or a letter from the Pope, to protect against pregnancy. 

Contraception on demand! did you ever hear the like?! ‘ A terrible waste of male seed!’ Why couldn’t the young couple live as ‘brother and sister?’. 

May, and Seamus, did us all an enormous favour. They breached the steely grip of the Church, backed by the State. They showed it was possible for ‘ordinary’ people to take them on, and win.

And just in case you’ve forgotten the depths of hypocrisy our very own Taliban sank to, while May was fighting for freedom to choose, 78 priests in Blackrock College were raping little boys, while nuns in ‘Mother and Baby Homes’ and Magdalene Laundries were terrorising young pregnant girls, dumping their dead babies in septic tanks or open fields, or selling them, for handsome profits, to America. 

Ah yes, the good old days