Top 10 inspirational women from the Border region

To mark International Women's Day, we're celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women in Cumbria and southern Scotland.

Take a look at our top ten :

  • Beatrix Potter

Beatrix is well-known all over the world for writing children's books about animals - the most famous being the Tale of Peter Rabbit. Helen Beatrix Potter was an illustrator, author, conservationist and natural scientist and wrote most of her work in the Lake District. Her legacy is preserved in the region and attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists a year.

Beatrix Potter Credit: PA

  • Shelby Watson

Dumfries and Galloway-born Shelby is a one of the region's most successful paralympian. She holds five world records in T33 wheelchair races. Last year, they announced there would be no stand-alone women's T33 event in the 2020 Olympics which she is campaigning to change.

Shelby Watson Credit: PA

  • Isabel Cowe

St Abbs suffragist who fought for the right to vote with peaceful protests. She handed out petitions all over the country and even marched from Edinburgh to London to appeal to the government. In order to keep her legacy alive, an exhibition has gone on display in her hometown.

Isabel Cowe Credit: ITV Border

  • Mabel Farrer

Mabel was one of the first women appointed to the Women Police Service in 1916, training in London. She then became one of the first female police officers in Gretna, starting work in January 1917. At the time, Mabel was not allowed to arrest anyone. She was later promoted to Sergeant.

Mabel Farrer Credit: Cumbria Polcie

  • Jane Haining

Born in Dunscore, she was arrested by Nazis in 1944 for harbouring Jewish Girls at the Scottish Mission School in Budapest in Hungary. The 47-year-old was eventually taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp in Nazi occupied Poland where she died.

Jane Haining Credit: Cameron Brooks

  • Mary Somerville

Born in in the 1780s in Jedburgh, Mary was nominated to be the first female member of the Royal Astronomical Society. She was a science writer and polymath and studied astronomy in depth.

Mary Somerville Credit: Wikimedia

  • Helen Housby

Born in Carlisle, Helen is a professional netball player who represented England for the first time in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow 2014. The goal attack/goal shooter won the winning point against Australia at the Gold Coast in 2018.

Helen Hoswby Credit: PA

  • Fiona Armstrong

International broadcaster turned Lord Lieutenant of Dumfries, Fiona is a well-known television journalist and presenter. Fiona has made films on Aids orphans in Africa and the Lockerbie air disaster. As well as this, she is the UK's best-known women anglers.

Fiona Armstrong Credit: PA

  • Sue Hayman

Our region's first ever female MP has served as Workington's member of Parliament for Labour. Sue is currently Shadow Environment Secretary for the party.

Sue Hayman, MP Credit: PA

  • Margaret Forster

Carlisle-born Margaret Forster was an English novelist, historian, biographer, critic and memoirist most famous Georgy Girl, Lady's Maid, Diary of an Ordinary Woman, Have the Men Had Enough? and The Memory Box.

Margaret Forster Credit: ITV Border