Some surprising omissions

I found your recent poll ( 100 Women Who Changed the World, September) fascinating – although I’m kicking myself for not getting round to voting.

No doubt, like many others, my own list would be different and in a different order. But I am pleased to see several of my top women on the list including Aphra Behn, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Catherine de Medici, Mary Wollstonecraft and Ada Lovelace. I am also very surprised at some omissions, including Nancy Astor (the first female MP to take her seat), Beatrice Rathbone and several other female politicians and suffragists.

With the exception of cricketer Rachael Heyhoe Flint, I would exclude all sportswomen, as their inclusion panders to over-glorification of sport. I also find it extraordinary that Diana, Princess of Wales is on the list. Her inclusion plays up to her popular celebrity and victim status. And on the subject of royalty, I find the omission of Queen Elizabeth I extraordinary. She demonstrated how a woman could triumph in a man’s world and during her reign this country was transformed.

Another glaring omission is Beatrix Potter – so much more than a successful and accomplished author, but also a pioneering environmentalist and leading expert on mushrooms and fungi.

I hope the poll stimulates a lively and continuing debate. Marilyn Liddicoat, Cornwall