Roberta was born Robert Cowell in 1918, to strict and religious parents, Ernest Cowell and Dorothy Cowell. Whilst still in the physical body of a man she was a racing car driver in the 1930’s, in 1942 he became a WW2 Spitfire pilot even winning awards for her skills. Throughout the war she was very ill struggling with depression and motion sickness, narrow escapes on her life were a daily event, she was even kidnapped in November 1944 after crashing in Germany. At the end of the war she started a motoring business and began racing again and in May 1941 she married Diana Carpenter a fellow racing car driver, the couple had two children, Anne and Diana.
Roberta had struggled with gender identity her whole life in her autobiography she said ‘what I knew deep down inside me though not consciously: my nature was essentially feminine and in some way my world was out of joint’, it was not until after World War 2 that it became much harder for Roberta to hide her true sexuality. She was experiencing further depression and trauma from the war and discomfort in her body. By 1948 she had separated from her family and began attending therapy sessions, in her autobiography she explained that these sessions confirmed that her unconscious mind was predominantly female. Roberta visited a number of doctors who told her she had female traits such as; small shoulders, wide hips and a breast formation that was not developed but ‘typically feminine’. In 1950 she began taking oestrogen (although men and women produce oestrogen it is one of the main female sex hormones), a key part of transitioning for a trans woman is to increase the amount of oestrogen in her body. Oestrogen can create physical changes such as; increased breast tissue, larger hips and buttocks, less erections and thinning of facial hair. When Roberta’s two daughters found out about her surgery, they were told it was a ‘money making scheme’, because she wrote an autobiography 3 years after her sex change and made £30,000 (in today’s money) from the book. There were also rumours that when she was living as Robert somebody overheard her saying that she could earn a lot of money if she had a sex change. In 1948 she was the first woman in Britain to have a orchidectomy, which is the removal of testicles and was illegal at the time. This operation was performed by a physician named Michael Dillion, who was born a woman and was the first trans person to have phalloplasty (a surgically created penis), the two became close friends. After having her testicles removed, she was classified as intersex by a gynaecologist. To be intersex means to have genitalia that doesn’t fit a ‘male’ or ‘female’ category, it does not necessarily mean you are born with the exact genitalia of the opposite sex. As she was now classified as intersex, she was able to go through genital reconstruction surgery. She worked with a surgeon called Harold Gillies, he was the first person to surgically create a vagina. On the 15th of May 1951 she became the first British trans woman (that we know of) to undergo gender-reassignment surgery, by having a vaginoplasty.
After her surgery Roberta said how happy she was to finally physically feel like a woman. However, the discrimination she faced held her back in most aspects of her life. She found making friends difficult due to the stigma against trans people, she was unable to continue racing despite being very skilled, it was almost impossible to get a job and she experienced a lot of public humiliation and discrimination. Roberta died alone on the 11th of October 2011 in sheltered housing in West London, only half a dozen people went to her funeral.
A little bit about the transgender process today.
As Roberta was transitioning almost everything she did was illegal. It is now legal to go through gender reconstruction surgery, although it took until April 4th, 2005, before the ‘Gender Recognition Act of 2004’ was enforced and it finally became legal for transgender people to officially reassign their sex. In order to reassign your sex you have to jump through many hoops, examples include; have or have had gender dysphoria, have lived in your true gender for at least two years, intend to continue living in your true gender until death, gather evidence of each of these requirements, be over 18 and complete your application with a fee of £140. The Equality Act of 2010 made all forms of discrimination against trans people illegal, meaning organisations such as; schools, workplaces and public facilities could not discriminate against a trans person (the equality act also applied to other forms of discrimination such as gender, disability, and sexual orientation).
Resources:
Equal Treatment Bench Book- Gender Reassignment:
The Telegraph, ‘Monument in Time: May 4th 1972 Roberta Cowell- Britain’s first transsexual woman’, by Marcus Parekh
Historic England, ‘Transsexual Pioneers’:
All about law, student, ‘The History of Transgender Rights in the UK’ by Sophie Nevrkla:
Merkle, ‘Roberta Cowell’
Gender Construction kit, Phalloplasty:
Gender Construction Kit, Oestrogen:
ngalaw, Changing your legal gender in the UK:
Healthline.com, ‘Here’s what to know about having a baby who is intersex’
UCL campaign, ‘Roberta Cowell’:
Gender Trust UK, ‘Gender Recognition Act’:
Image taken from Getty Images:
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