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'Essex girl' campaign seeks nominations to challenge stereotype

BBC White stilettosBBC
Snapping the Stiletto: Campaigning for Equality is putting the "Essex girl" cliché to rest

A project that aims to challenge the "Essex girl" stereotype is calling for nominations of "inspirational" women to become faces of the campaign.

Snapping the Stiletto: Campaigning for Equality wants to put the term to rest by sharing stories of the county's women.

Campaigners want names of women who have been born, worked or lived in the county to be put forward.

The chosen women will have their portraits captured by an illustrator.

They will then become the faces of Snapping the Stiletto: Campaigning for Equality in 2021.

Southend Museums Service Volunteers at Mersea IslandSouthend Museums Service
Volunteers at Mersea Island Museum piecing together research

Susan Barker, Essex County Council's Conservative cabinet member for communities and culture, said they were seeking "those who have inspired, encouraged, pioneered or led the way, perhaps against the odds".

"We would urge everyone to nominate the exceptional women in their lives, whether they are friends, parents, teachers, businesswomen, volunteers or community leaders, we want to hear about the inspirational women who have made - and continue to make - our county what it is today," she said.

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According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Essex girl is a "contemptuous term applied (usually jocular) to a type of young woman, supposedly to be found in and around Essex, and variously characterised as unintelligent, promiscuous and materialistic".

Snapping the Stiletto wants to challenge this by finding and telling stories of women of "all ethnicities and backgrounds", and representing "what it is like to be woman living in Essex today".

OED Essex girlsOED
The Oxford English Dictionary definition of Essex girl

Project leaders said while the role of Essex women throughout history would be explored, it was not looking for the county's historical female figures to be nominated.

A panel will choose five Essex women who "encapsulate the campaign's criteria".

Entries close on 20 December.

Southend Museums Service Westcliff Institute mumsSouthend Museums Service
Mums from the Westcliffe Institute - Snapping the Stiletto wants to reshape the idea of what it means to be an "Essex girl"

The competition marks the second phase of the project that has been backed by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

As part of the first stage, more than 130 volunteers scoured microfiche, public records and council minutes to showcase the achievements of their predecessors.

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