#suffragism

Advice on Marriage. A pamphlet written by a suffragette in 1918

On 6th August, 1946, the Family Allowances Act (1945) came in to effect. It had been one of the raft of Welfare State proposals set out in the Beveridge Report in 1942, and was the first legislation to provide child benefits in the United Kingdom. The allowance was not means tested, and applied to each second and subsequent child.

According to the UK National Archives;

"...Significantly, this allowance was to be paid directly to mothers, in part to give women more economic freedom in the home. This was very much seen as a feminist issue...One of the significant people behind the campaigns to make this happen was women’s rights campaigner Eleanor Rathbone, who passionately believed it would help prevent child poverty. She had been campaigning on the issue since 1918..."

Eleanor Rathbone was an independent MP in the UK from 1929-46; a champion of human rights, suffragism and welfare, she attended Oxford University, but university rules at that time prevented women from receiving degrees. She was the first woman to be elected to Liverpool City Council in 1909, and fought for improved housing and the abolition of overcrowded slums with little or no sanitation; and to improve education, wages and working conditions.

She opposed the policy of Appeasement leading up to World War Two, and became known as the “MP for Refugees” owing to her work on behalf of those fleeing the Spanish Civil War and the Nazi annexation of Europe.

She lived to see the Attlee Labour government take office in 1945, and the beginnings of the Welfare State, in particular plans for her long-held wish of a family allowance, but died in early 1946 at the age of 73.

Tennessee Celeste Claflin, Viscountess of Montserrat and Lady Cook (circa 1843-46 – January 18th 1923), American spiritualist, healer, Wall Street broker, journalist, writer and suffragist

On Susan B. Anthony’s birthday: above, suffragist Florence Jaffray "Daisy" Harriman (1870-1967) holding a banner reading "Failure Is Impossible. Susan B. Anthony. Votes for Women." 

Margaret Wintringham (1879-1955) was the first female member of parliament for the UK Liberal Party, and only the third ever to be elected to the House of Commons.

Her husband, Thomas Wintringham, was MP for Louth (Lincolnshire). Upon his death in 1921, she was selected as Liberal candidate to succeed him, and at the ensuing by-election on September 22nd that year, secured the seat with a small majority. She had not actively campaigned owing to the fact that she was in mourning, but relied heavily on the support of a number of local women’s advocacy groups.

In Parliament, she campaigned for further extension to the franchise, building on reforms enacted through the Representation of the People Act (1918). She also fought for equal pay and child guardianship rights for women, and universal widows' pensions. Along with Conservative MP Nancy Astor, with whom she developed a strong friendship and working relationship, she spoke in favour of women police officers, gender equality more generally, and improved housing.

At the general election of 1924, she lost to Conservative Arthur Heneage, then stood unsuccessfully in 1929 and for another constituency in 1935. She stayed politically active in the cause of women’s issues, and passed away in 1955.

Tennessee Celeste Claflin, Viscountess of Montserrat and Lady Cook (circa 1843-46 – January 18th 1923), American spiritualist, healer, Wall Street broker, journalist, writer and suffragist