Sometimes what matters is not what happens, but what gets remembered.

I spent most of today in the British Library reading about female Victorian historians, like Agnes Strickland and Mary Anne Everett Green. So I had a good day.

One thing which kept coming up was that these historians have been neglected from the historiography. They do not quite fit with the conception of Victorian 'Whig' history, and their role as the pioneers of social and cultural history has too often neglected. Elizabeth Stone wrote a social history of England 30 years before her any of her male colleagues.

Since the early 1990s more attention is being paid to them - historians like Joan Thirsk and Bonnie G. Smith, and Rosemary Mitchell have all done some really interesting analysis, fitting Victorian female historians in not just with Victorian historiography but feminist theory.

As I was reading about this, I kept thinking about the Hottest 100, and the same pattern played out in twentieth century rock music. Grudging contemporary respect, and then neglect. And then a group of women going "Hang on, these women existed and they were awesome and why the fuck are they ignored?" (In the case of the historians, without the swearing. It's kind of frowned upon in academic articles.)

I can't help but wonder what other women have existed out there doing wonderful things that we just never hear about. Role models matter. That this reclamation of heroines is happening is brilliant, but it shouldn't have to happen.