Elizabeth Garrett Anderson - Abstract - Born in Whitechapel, London in 1836. She discovered that the Society of Apothecaries did not specify that females were banned for taking their examinations and in 1865 sat and passed the examination. As soon as she was granted the certificate that enabled her to become a doctor, the Society changed their regulations to stop other women from entering the profession in this way. She established a medical practice in London and became active in Women's Rights. In 1902 she retired to Aldeburgh and in 1908 was elected mayor; the first woman mayor in England. She died in 1917.
Women's Social and Political Union - Details the evolution of this group from being purely political to engaging in militant acts in the course of campaigning for the female vote. Includes excerpts from the memoirs of suffragettes imprisoned for their actions and beliefs.
Frances Balfour - Abstract - Born in 1858. In 1887 she joined the recently formed Liberal Women's Suffrage Society. After women were granted the vote, Balfour spent her time writing books and articles including several biographies and an autobiography, Me Obliviscaris. She died in 1930.
National Union of Suffrage Societies - Explains how this organisation was formed in 1887, and describes some of its prominent members and major achievements.
Dorothea Beale - Abstract - Born in London in 1831. She authored a Textbook of General History which led to her appointment as Head Teacher of Cheltenham Ladies College which became one of the most highly regarded schools in the country. In 1865 she and several women formed the Kensington Society which in 1867 drafted a petition asking Parliament to grant women the vote. After failing, they formed the London Society for Women's Suffrage. She continued as an author, teacher and promoter of women's rights until her death in 1906.
Lydia Becker - Describes the life of this member of the suffrage movement in the late nineteenth century.
Annie Besant - Abstract - Born in 1847, she joined the Secular Society in 1874 and wrote many articles on issues such as marriage and women's rights eventually publishing her own book advocating birth control. A member of the Fabian Society, she was elected to the London School Board in 1889 where her achievements included a programme of free meals for undernourished children and free medical examinations for all those in elementary schools. She died in India in 1933.
Salvation Army - Describes how this organisation was founded, and the changes it sought to implement with regard to social inequality and poor living conditions.
Barbara Bodichon - Abstract - Born in 1827. In the 1850s she concentrated on the campaign to remove women's legal disabilities. This included writing articles and organizing petitions. In 1858 she helped found the journal, The Englishwoman's Review. In 1877 she was taken seriously ill and was left paralyzed. She remained an invalid until her death in 1891.
Margaret Bondfield - Describes the life of one of the first women to be elected as a Member of Parliament in Britain.
Catherine Booth - Abstract - Born in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, in 1829. At the age of fourteen she developed spinal curvature and four years later, incipient tuberculosis. It was while she was ill in bed that she began writing articles for magazines warning of the dangers of drinking alcohol. In 1864 she and William Booth began in London's East End the Christian Mission which later developed into the Salvation Army. She died of cancer in October 1890.
Josephine Butler - Abstract - Born in 1828. In 1867 she joined Anne Jemima Clough in establishing courses of advanced study for women. Later that year Josephine Butler was appointed president of the North of England Council for the Higher Education of Women. In 1885 Butler joined together with Florence Booth of the Salvation Army and W. T. Stead, the editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, to expose what had become known as the white slave traffic. She died in 1906.
Clementina Black - Abstract - Born in Brighton in 1854 she began writing fiction and in 1877 her first novell was published. In 1886 as a result of her friendship with the Marx family she became a member of the Women's Trade Union League and was appointed honorary secretary. She was also involved in the formation of the Consumers' League and in 1889 helped form the Women's Trade Union Association and was a member of the Fabian Society as well as the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies and in 1912 was editor of their journal The Common Cause. She died in 1922.
Selina Cooper - Describes the life and political career of this pioneering unionist and feminist who became a well-known public speaker in the early twentieth century.
Frances Buss - Abstract - Born in 1827. In 1850 she established the North London Collegiate School for Girls. She only employed qualified teachers and made use of visiting lecturers from Queen's College. In 1865 she helped form a woman's discussion group called the Kensington Society and the following year the group formed the London Suffrage Committee. She died in 1894.
Women's Industrial Society - Explains how this organisation arose from the Women's Trade Union League and subsequently conducted investigations used to persuade Parliament to take action against the exploitation of women in the workplace.
Marie Corbett - Gives information about a founding member of the suffrage movement.
Margery Corbett-Ashby - Describes her involvement in campaigns for women's rights throughout the twentieth century.
Cicely Corbett-Fisher - Abstract - Born at Danehill, Sussex in 1885 and educated at home, she and some friends formed a society called the Younger Suffragists and later formed the Liberal Women's Suffrage Group. After the First World War, she was active in the Labour Party and the Women's International League. Died at Danehill in 1959.
Constance Markievicz - Abstract - Born at Lissadell, County Sligo, Ireland on 4th February, 1868. In 1893 she moved to London to study art and joined the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. In 1908 she joined Sinn Fein and subsequently founded Fianna Eireann. After the passing of the Qualification of Women Act, she stood as a Sinn Fein candidate and was the only woman successful in the 1918 General Election becoming Minister of Labour. She died in Dublin on 15th July 1927.
Emily Davies - Abstract - Born in Gateshead in 1830. In 1865 she joined with her friends to form a woman's discussion group called the Kensington Society. The following year the group formed the London Suffrage Committee and began organizing a petition asking Parliament to grant women the vote. In 1912 she resigned when the organisation decided to give its full support to the Labour Party. Emily now joined the much smaller Conservative and Unionists Women's Franchise Society. She died in 1921.
Emily Davison - Abstract - Born at Blackheath in 1872 she graduated from London University and obtained teaching post and joined the Women's Social and Political Union in 1906. In 1909 she gave up full-time teaching so that she could devote more of her time to the WSPU and the Workers' Educational Association. In June, 1913, she attempted to grab the bridle a horse owned by King George V at the Derby. The horse struck her and fractured her skull resulting in her death.
Charlotte Despard - Abstract - Born in Ripple, Kent, in 1844. In 1874 her first novel, Chaste as Ice, Pure as Snow was published. During the next sixteen years she wrote ten novels. She became a member of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) and in 1906 joined the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). In 1930 she visited the Soviet Union and impressed with what she saw she joined the Communist Party and became secretary of the Friends of Soviet Russia organization. She died in Ireland in 1939.
Millicent Fawcett - Describes the career of this early feminist who helped found Newnham College at Cambridge University.
Mary Fildes - Describes the life of this pioneering feminist in the early nineteenth century.
Chartists - A list of Chartists, their tactics, newspapers, artists and writers, and relevant Acts of Parliment.
Isabella Ford - Abstract - Born in Leeds in 1855. In 1885 she helped the president of the Women's Protective and Provident League, to form a Machinists' Society for tailoresses in Leeds. In 1889 she established the Leeds Tailoresses' Union and the following year she was elected president of the organisation. In 1890 she helped form the Leeds Women's Suffrage Society and three years later was involved in forming a Leeds branch of the Independent Labour Party (ILP). She died in 1924.
Elizabeth Fry - Abstract - Born in Norwich in 1780. By the 1820s largely due to her efforts to get prison reform, she had become a well-known personality in Britain. She also campaigned for the homeless in London and improvements in the way patients were treated in mental asylums as well as promoting the reform of workhouses and hospitals with an eye to training nurses. Queen Victoria gave her money to help with her charitable work. Se died in 1845 and although Quakers do not have a funeral service, over a thousand people stood in silence as she was buried at the Society of Friend's graveyard at Barking.
Mary Gawthorpe - Explains her role in forming the Women's Social and Political Union in 1905.
Katharine Glasier - Abstract - Born in 1867. She found work as a Classics mistress at Redlands High School in Bristol. In 1890, she joined the Bristol Socialist Society but finding their views too revolutionary she left to join the Bristol Fabian Society. In 1916 she became editor of the Labour Leader. In 1947 she celebrated her eightieth birthday by giving a lecture on the Religion of Socialism. She died on 14th June, 1950.
Mary Hamilton - Outlines the career of this academic and parliamentarian in the early twentieth century.
Sophia Jex-Blake - Outlines her efforts to become one of the first female doctors in the United Kingdom, and the subsequent foundation of a Women's Medical School.
Annie Kenney - Abstract - Born in Oldham, Lancashire in 1879, one of eleven children. She joined the Independent Labour Party and then in 1905 joined the Women's Social and Political Union. Arrested several times over the next few years for various activist protests, the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 ended her militant campaign for the vote and for the next four years she helped organize an Anti-Bolshevist campaign against strikes. Annie Kenney died in 1953.
Anne Knight - Abstract - Born in Chelmsford in 1781. By 1830 she was deeply involved in the Quaker attempt to end slavery. In 1834 she toured France where she gave lectures on the immorality of slavery. She also became active in the Chartist movement. She never married, and spent the last few years of her life in Waldersbach, a small village south-west of Strasbourg where she died on 4th November, 1862.
Jennie Lee - Abstract - Born in Lochgelly, Fife in 1904. She was able to become a student at Edinburgh University and joined the Labour Club, the University Women's Union and the editorial board of the Rebel Student. In February 1929 at twenty-four she became the youngest member of the House of Commons. She retired from the House of Commons in 1970 when she was created Baroness Lee of Asheridge. Jennie Lee died in 1988.
Constance Lytton - Abstract - Born in 1869 she spent the first eleven years of her life in India. In 1908 she joined the Women's Social and Political Union. In 1911 she suffered a stroke which left her partly paralyzed. Unable to take an active role in the suffragette struggle, she concentrated on writing articles and pamphlets on women's rights for the WSPU. Constance also wrote a book on her experiences in the suffragette movement called Prisons and Prisoners. She died in 1923.
Louisa Martindale - Provides information on this pioneering feminist and her medical career in the early twentieth century.
Harriet Martineau - Abstract - Born in 1802. In 1823 the Unitarian journal, Monthly Repository, published her anonymous article, On Female Education. In 1829, she moved to London and began to write books with great success on both religious and political topics. In 1852 she joined the staff of the Daily News and over the next sixteen years wrote over 1600 articles for the newspaper as well as articles for other magazines on women's issues. She continued to write pamphlets and articles until her death in 1876.
Unitarian - Explains how this society, established in 1791, became active in the late nineteenth century movements for factory reforn, public health, prison reform, temperance, women's rights and the abolition of slavery.
Rachel McMillan - Describes the career of this socialist and feminist in the late nineteenth century, particularly her efforts to improve the physical and intellectual welfare of slum children.
Hannah Mitchell - Abstract - Born in 1871. In 1904 she joined the local branch of Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) and in 1907 left to join the Women's Freedom League. She joined the Independent Labour Party and war opposition organizations including the No-Conscription Fellowship and the Women's Peace Council. In 1924 she was elected to the Manchester City Council. She died in 1956.
Florence Nightingale - Abstract - Born in Florence, Italy, on 12th May, 1820. At seventeen she felt herself to be called by God to some unnamed great cause. In 1851 she went to Kaiserwerth, Germany where she studied to become a nurse at the Institute of Protestant Deaconesses. In 1856 after long service in the Crimean war, she returned to England as a national heroine. In later life she suffered from poor health and in 1895 went blind. She died in London on 13th August, 1910 after fifteen years as an invalid.
Caroline Norton - Abstract - Born in 1808. She had always been interested in writing and in 1829 her long poem The Sorrows of Rosalie was published followed by The Undying One in 1830. As a result of these poems, she was invited to become editor of La Belle Assemblee and Court Magazine. One of the first factory reform poems, A Voice from the Factories (1836) and The Dream and Other Poems (1840) had received good reviews. In 1845 she published her most ambitious poem, The Child of the Islands. She died in 1877.
Christabel Pankhurst - Abstract - Born in Manchester in 1880. In 1903 she helped form the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). In October 1915, The WSPU changed its newspaper's name from The Suffragette to Britannia with the a new slogan: "For King, For Country, for Freedom'. In 1921 she went to live in the United States where she became a prominent member of Second Adventist movement. She died in the USA in 1958.
Emmeline Pankhurst - Absrtact - Born in Manchester in 1858. 0In 1895 she became a Poor Law Guardian. She became concerned about the way women were treated and it reinforced her belief that women's suffrage was the only way these problems would be solved. In 1917 she helped form the Women's Party and in 1925 joined the Conservative Party and was adopted as one of their candidates in the East End of London. She died in 1928.
Sylvia Pankhurst - Describes the life and achievements of this pacifist, historian, feminist and humanitarian in the early twentieth century.
Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence - Abstract - Born in 1867. In 1895 she formed the Esperance Club helping a group of young women establish a co-operative dressmaking business. In 1907 she helped start the journal Votes for Women. In the 1920s and 1930s she worked for the Women's International League, an organisation committed to world peace and remained active in politics until 1950 when she had a serious accident that left her immobilized. She died of a heart attack in 1954.
Elizabeth Robins - Abstract - Born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1862, she an away from Vasser at 18 to become an actress. In 1888 she introduced British audiences to the work of Henrik Ibsen. She was a member of the Women's Social and Political Union and active in the Actresses' Franchise League and the Women's Writers' League and wrote a large number of speeches defending militant suffragettes between 1906 and 1912. She died in Brighton in 1952.
Ethel Annakin Snowden - Abstract - Born in 1880. She became a teacher in Liverpool where she joined the local branch of the Independent Labour Party and was active in the Temperance Society and helped form a branch of the Nation Union of Women's Suffrage Societies in Leeds. During the first world war she was an active member of the Women's Peace Crusade. In 1926 she was made a member of the BBC Board of Governors where she clashed with the Director General. She died in 1951.
Marie Stopes - Biography of the feminist crusader who established Britain's first birth control clinic. Includes excerpts from her letters.
Women's Freedom League - Explains how this group broke away from the equally militant but more violent Women's Social and Political Union in the early twentieth century.
Harriet Taylor - Abstract - Born on 8th October, 1807. She helped, indeed wrote much of John Mill's books and articles, she was active in the women's suffrage campaign. She was an original member of the Kensington Society that produced the first petition requesting votes for women. She also took part in the agitation for women to be allowed to take part in local government and after the passing of the 1870 Education Act served as a member of the London School Board.
Elizabeth Thompson (Lady Butler) - Abstract - Born in Lausanne in 1846. In 1874 submitted a painting entitled the Roll Call to the Royal Academy in London where the painting caused a sensation. By 1875 she was the most popular and well-known painter in Britain. After 1881 she found it very difficult to sell her paintings and although she continued to paint military pictures until her death in 1933, she was never again to achieve the popularity that she enjoyed in the early part of her career.
Muriel de la Warr - Outlines the contribution of this feminist and socialist to the suffrage movement.
Beatrice Webb - Abstract - Born on 2nd January, 1858, at Standish House in Gloucestershire. In she joined the Charity Organization Society (COS), an organisation that attempted to provide Christian help to those living in poverty. While working with the poor, she realised that charity would not solve their problems. She began to argue that it was the causes of poverty that needed to be tackled, such as the low standards of education, housing and public health. She died on 30th April, 1943.
Octavia Wilberforce - Describes the difficulties this woman faced in gaining her medical degree in the early twentieth century, and how she went on to help establish and run a women's hospital and a convalescent home.
Elizabeth Wolstenholme-Elmy - Abstract- Born in 1834. In 1853 she purchased her own boarding school in Manchester and in 1865 joined with other women schoolteachers in her area to form the Manchester Schoolmistresses' Association. Two years later Elizabeth and Josephine Butler helped establish the North of England Council for the Higher Education of Women. In 1865 she joined with Lydia Becker to form the Manchester Society for Women's Suffrage. She died in 1913.
Schooling - Explains how attitudes to girls' education began to change at the end of the nineteenth century.
Marriage - Describes the changing attitudes to a woman's role, including her rights within the relationship.
Women and University Education - Describes the lengthy campaign to increase educational opportunities for women in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Includes excerpts from accounts by some of the key figures.
Careers and Professions - Abstract - In the 19th century upper class and middle class women were not expected to earn their own living. Women rarely had careers and most professions refused entry to women. It was virtually impossible for women to become doctors, engineers, architects, accountants or bankers. Women were allowed to become teachers. In 1861 over 72% of teachers were women, but teaching was a low status job and poorly paid. By 1900 there were only 200 women doctors. It was not until 1910 that women were allowed to become accountants and bankers.
Birth Control - Abstract - Working class women were expected to work until they had children. These women tended to have more children than upper and middle class wives. In the middle of the 19th century, the average married woman gave birth to six children and over 35% of all married women had eight or more.Birth control was a prohibited subject, opposed by both the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church as well as government. Many were jailed for the publication of materials and the advocacy of immoral behaviour.
Industrial Work - Abstract - By 1910 women made up almost one third of the workforce, often on a part-time or temporary basis. The Women's Industrial Council concentrated on acquiring information about the problem and by 1914 the organisation had investigated one hundred and seventeen trades and published the book Married Women's Work. This information was then used to persuade Parliament to take action against the exploitation of women in the workplace.
Kensington Society - Describes how a women's discussion group formed in London in 1865 was the forerunner of the movement for suffrage.
Liberal Women's Suffrage Society - Describes the origins of this organisation, with excerpts from the memoirs of founding members.
Men's League For Women's Suffrage - Explains how several prominent figures expressed their support for the women's movement in the early twentieth century.
Anti-Suffrage League - Abstract - Founded in the summer of 1908, the Anti-Suffrage League argued the case against women's suffrage and collected signatures against women having the vote and at a meeting on 26th March, 1909, announced that over 250,000 people had signed the petition and the following June reported there were 15,000 paying members and 110 branches and the number who had signed the petition had reached 320,000.
Parliamentary Campaigns - Describes attempts by the supporters of women's suffrage to lobby politicians in an effort to gain support for Bills which would allow women to vote.
Arson Campaign - Abstract - In July 1912, a secret arson campaign was organized and attempts were made to burn down the houses of two members of the government who opposed women having the vote. Not all were infavour of this approach and left the instigating organisation.
Hunger Strikes - Abstract - In 1909, an imprisoned suffragette refused to eat. Afraid that she might die and become a martyr, it was decided to release her. Soon afterwards other imprisoned suffragettes adopted the same strategy. Unwilling to release all the imprisoned suffragettes, the prison authorities force-fed these women on hunger strike. Several suffragettes, probably died as a result of being forced fed in prison. Determined to avoid these women becoming martyrs, the government introduced the Prisoner's Temporary Discharge of Ill Health Act which became known as the Cat and Mouse Act.
Cat and Mouse Act - In 1913 the Women's Social & Political Union increased its campaign to destroy public and private property. The women responsible were caught and once in prison went on hunger-strikes. Determined to avoid them becoming martyrs, the government introduced the Prisoner's Temporary Discharge of Ill Health Act. As soon as they became ill they were released but once recovered, were re-arrested and returned to prison where they completed their sentences. This became known as the Cat and Mouse Act.
Women's Pilgrimage - Describes how 50,000 members of suffrage societies marched to London in 1913 in support of the campaign for voting rights.
First World War - Abstract - On 4th August, 1914, England declared war on Germany. As men left jobs to fight overseas, they were replaced by women. Women filled many jobs brought into existence by wartime needs. As a result the number of women employed increased from 3,224,600 in July, 1914 to 4,814,600 in January 1918.
1883 Corrupt Practices Act - Abstract - In 1883 Gladstone's government introduced proposals to stop candidates using their wealth to win elections. The Corrupt Practices Act specified how much money candidates could spend during election time and banned such activities as the buying of food or drink for voters.
1918 Qualification of Women Act - Explains how years of debate and protest resulted in Parliament allowing women to vote in a British General Election for the first time.
Equal Franchise Act - Abstract - After the passing of the Qualification of Women Act in 1918 the NUWSS and WSPU disbanded. In 1919 Parliament passed the Sex Disqualification Removal Act which made it illegal to exclude women from jobs because of their sex. A bill was introduced in March 1928 to give women the vote on the same terms as men and it became law on 2nd July 1928.
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