Women who 'changed history' are being acknowledged with a national 'stamp of approval' and one local woman of distinction, Baroness May Blood (pictured) has lent her support to Royal Mail in NI to launch new stamps that honour the courage and determination of six such women.

Baroness Blood said: "I'm really delighted to support the launch of these special stamps 'Women of Distinction' which commemorate six individuals whose dedicated work not only changed the lives of other women, but society as a whole.

"These women have certainly inspired me in my work for equality and social change," the Belfast woman said.

The stamp set, 'Women of Distinction' - issued today - highlight the work of women who defied discrimination to change the lives of other women; achieving both power and influence in the traditionally male areas of politics, medicine and social reform.

The 1st Class stamps features Millicent Garrett Fawcett, leading suffragist and a tireless campaigner for women's rights, who as President of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies was instrumental in securing the right to vote.

Her sister, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (48p) was equally pioneering, but in the field of medicine. She became the first British woman to qualify as a doctor, and seven years later, in 1872, founded the New Hospital for Women in London.

In 1908 Garrett Anderson became the first woman to be elected as a mayor in the UK, in Aldeburgh, Suffolk (see Notes to editors for more anniversaries linked to this stamp issue).

Opening her first clinic in 1921, Marie Stopes (50p) pioneered family planning, opening The Mother's Clinic, the first free family planning clinic in London.

The 56p stamp features Eleanor Rathbone who honed her political skills campaigning for social services for the women and children of Liverpool, before entering parliament in 1929.

She continued her long campaign for Family Allowances and saw them introduced a year before her death in 1946.

Claudia Jones (72p) was born in Trinidad, but brought up in Depression-era Harlem, New York.

In 1955 she arrived in England, and it was from her base in Notting Hill, London that she continued her campaign for the rights of the black community in the UK and in 1958 drew on her background in journalism to found the first Black newspaper in Britain, the West Indian Gazette. Her lasting legacy is undoubtedly the Notting Hill Carnival, which she helped launch a year later.

First elected to Parliament in 1945, the Labour MP Barbara Castle (81p), spent a lifetime fighting for social causes, key among them was the 1970 Equal Pay Act, which she oversaw. In 1965 she also became the first female Minister of State.

(BMcC)