Lillie Devereux Blake

Lillie Devereux Blake, a 19th century American writer and women’s rights reformer, played an important, though often overlooked, presence in social movements in the United States.

In 1833, Elizabeth Johnson Devereux was born in Raleigh, North Carolina to southerner George Pollock Devereux and northerner Sarah Elizabeth Johnson. Following her father’s death in 1837, her mother moved her two daughters back to her home in New Haven, Connecticut, where the young Lillie attended the Apthorp School for Young Ladies.

Esther Roper

What connects Winston Churchill, women’s trades unions, Irish independence, an early 20th century magazine opposing traditional gender concepts and a suffrage petition long enough to carpet a railway platform?

The answer is Esther Roper: suffragist, labour organiser and pioneering writer on gender and sexuality.

Emily Davies

Sarah Emily Davies was born on 22nd April 1830 in Southampton, England. She helped start the first college in England for women.

Emily Davies was involved in women’s rights throughout her life. She edited a magazine which focused on women’s rights called The English Woman’s Journal, and was one of a number of like-minded women who formed The Kensington Society, a group where where they met to discuss equality issues such as the right to vote and the right to education.