A Lady Has the Floor Book Review

As the years have gone by there has been more and more talk of female rights, about equality and what it means to be a feminist but within all these conversations have you ever heard the name Belva Lockwood mentioned? I'll be honest I hadn't so I was more than intrigued when I was asked if I'd like to review A Lady Has the Floor, a book dedicated to this marvellous lady and all that she stood for throughout her lifetime.

Are women not worth the same as men? 

Belva Lockwood never stopped asking herself that question. Belva Lockwood had big dreams and didn't let anyone stand in her way. Not her father when he disapproved of her attending college. Not her university when it tried to deny her law degree. Not even the U.S. Supreme Court when it refused to allow women lawyers to argue their cases.

This book and the woman that it represents is really quite remarkable. We follow the life of this woman as she grows. It's funny how right at the beginning of this book it seems like times haven't changed. At the age of just fourteen, Belva had already taken up a job as the head teacher at the one-room school house near where she lived but her pay is only half of the male teachers. Now isn't it a shame that we're still fighting these same battles today!

Bold! Determined! Strong!

From teaching both boys AND GIRLS to speak publicly to letting every student partake in any activity they choose from not just ones deemed suitable for their sex, Belva had a hand in making some monumental changes right from the beginning of her years. Each thing she fought for was just as important as the last. She was one of the first women in America to receive a law degree and from the things she's achieved you can understand just why this was the case.

Belva Lockwood devoted her long life to overcoming obstacles and demanding that women across the land be treated with fairness and equality. She was a woman who was never afraid to take to the floor and speak her mind.

I never stopped fighting. My cause was the cause of thousands of women.

Now I don't class myself as a feminist, but I will always speak out for what I believe in and this is a great book to make my girls realise that they can be exactly who they want to be, gender be damned! I still think it's a shame that as the female sex, we are still having to fight for equality, as previously mentioned, the gender pay gap is one that should not exist in this day and age but we're lucky to have great women who won't just accept this sort of thing lying down.

Along with the beautiful illustrations in this book, what you get as you turn the pages is something inspiring and empowering. There is a timeline of Belva's life spread over the last few pages and it shows you just what she did and when and what it proves is that not only does it not matter whether you are a boy or a girl, it also doesn't matter what age you are because things can be achieved as long as you are determined enough to follow things through.

Belva Bennett Lockwood was not afraid to raise her own voice so that everyone - girls and boys, women and men, African Americans and Native Americans, widows and veterans could be heard.

A Lady Has the Floor isn't just a book for girls to read, it is one for boys too because both genders should be aware of what has been achieved in the past in order to keep these changes happening both in the present and for the future. This a book that allows us to remember someone forgotten by history who deserves to be celebrated again, making as realise that perhaps what we want in life might not be such a ridiculous though after all.