Clodagh Finn: A grassroots guide to changing the world

It’s rare — and incredibly moving — to see so many women come together with the sole aim of helping other women

Gwen and Ralph Slazenger of Powerscourt Estate in Co Wicklow. Picture: courtesy of Powerscourt.

Real change might look something like this: More than 150 women are gathered in a room at Powerscourt House in Co Wicklow and Sarah Slazenger, the estate’s managing director, is talking about her stereotype-shattering grandmother, Gwen.
When, in 1961, she and her husband Ralph Slazenger (of the famous tennis-equipment family) took over the estate, they made a complete break from a past that was almost exclusively male.

Her granddaughter paints a vivid picture of that testosterone-fuelled history, which was “laced with lords building alliances, with kings and male politicians dealing in fear and favour; judges sitting on their hard, male benches, men designing and deciding on the development of the gardens and the house, men deciding on the future of Powerscourt, men bringing the estate to its financial knees.