Courage and the fight for justice: two women's inspirational journeys

Dr Anna Abram, Principal of the Margaret Beaufort Institute for Theology, Cambridge, recently came to celebrate Mary Ward Day with us. She explains what Mary Ward and Margaret Beaufort had in common, and how we can apply it to our own lives.

I work at the Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology, named after Margaret Beaufort, who was the mother of King Henry the Seventh and – like St Mary’s founder Mary Ward – she strongly believed in the importance of learning and education. Margaret Beaufort, 140 years before Mary Ward, was founding colleges (including St John’s and Christ’s Colleges here in Cambridge). Both women were deeply spiritual – for them, faith in God and improving lives of others were very important.

When I read about Mary Ward, I notice that authors describe her as courageous. On the Bar Convent website, Sr Patricia Harris CJ lists courage as Mary Ward’s main character trait. She also mentions tenacity, deep faith, cheerfulness and common sense.

What exactly is courage? When I ask my students a similar question, the students prefer to answer it by referring to images: they say a soldier on the battlefield is courageous, a firefighter pouring water on a burning house is brave.

Courage (and associated with it bravery or fortitude) is connected with two emotions: fear and confidence. Feeling too much fear can stop you from doing the right thing. Similarly feeling too confident can sometimes be also problematic. Courage helps us to overcome fear but at the same time be realistic about what we are able to do.

I can see why Mary Ward is described as a woman of courage. She lived in an age of religious intolerance and a real under-appreciation of women. A passionate advocate for women and girls, she spoke out on behalf of women many times – her views were not popular and received criticism. But she strongly believed that she was doing the right thing when she was persuading others that girls and boys, women and men, have the same potential, and that the education of girls and women is the way to realise this potential. I wonder if Mary Ward today would be called a courageous activist in the way that Greta Thunberg is?

So, inspired by Mary Ward, I would like us to remember that courage is not reserved for soldiers and firefighters. It can be practiced anywhere, at home and at school, in the church and in politics. A scientist working tirelessly on the discovery of a new vaccine to combat the coronavirus is courageous. If you are defending your unfairly treated friend, despite the disapproval of others, you are being courageous. I imagine Mary Ward felt afraid at times – both in terms of her frequent, arduous and potentially dangerous travels, and in terms of the fear of rejection she may have felt when she was campaigning for change. However, she was always able to confront her fear and continue her pioneering work so that girls and women could flourish. Fear didn’t paralyse her, and I hope that the same is true for us all - that we are all capable of courage, and that we won’t let fear stop us when fighting for justice and doing good for others.