Women in Religion: Suffragists edit

This page highlights women who were involved in the fight for woman suffrage, who had a strong religious motivation or affiliation. Many were also involved in other reform movements, such as abolition, temperance, and social reform. Many were also involved in the fight for women's ordination, access to seminary education, or other inter-connected women's rights issues.

While biographies of suffragists have received attention recently, most need additional information on the religious background, motivations and activities of notable women suffragists.

Anti-suffrage sentiment was also sometimes motivated by religious belief, so a few notable names are included below as well.

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Worklist: edit

American Suffragists (small selection - many others exist): edit

Suffragists from other countries: edit

  • Edith Archibald, Canadian suffragist, president of Maritime WCTU
  • Elizabeth Brentnall, Australian suffragist, temperance activist and philanthropist
  • Isabella Carrie, Scottish secret suffragette, Church of Scotland trained teacher[9]
  • Dorothea Chalmers Smith, Scottish suffragette, divorced by her husband, a church minister, and separated from her sons[10]
  • Helen Crawfurd, Scottish suffragette, rent striker, socialist and Communist politician, in earlier life Sunday School teacher and had converted to Catholicism[11]
  • Mary Colton, Australian suffragist, president of YWCA
  • Margaret Elizabeth Cousins, Irish-Indian suffragist, theosopist
  • Louise Eates, British suffragette, women's education activist, later taught citizenship classes at Young Women's Christian Association[12]
  • Concepción Felix, Filipina social reform activist and suffragist, awarded the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice by Pope Pius XII
  • Hermila Galindo, Mexican suffragist, outspoken critic of Catholicism
  • Isabella Goldstein, an Australian suffragist and social reformer, one of the organisers of the Women's Suffrage Petition ("Monster petition") to the Victorian state parliament and the mother of Vida Goldstein.
  • Vida Goldstein, Australian suffragist, Christian Science practitioner
  • Mary Pollock Grant, Scottish suffragette, Church of Scotland missionary (in education in India),later Christian Science practitioner[13]
  • Alice Stewart Ker, British physician and suffragette, brought up in Free Church of Scotland[14]
  • Serena Lake, Australian suffragist and evangelical preacher
  • Margaret Bright Lucas, British temperance and suffrage activist[15]
  • Hattie Mahood, British Baptist deacon, temperance and suffrage activist[16]
  • Ethel Moorhead, British suffragette, brought up in a mixed religion home: Irish Catholic [17]and Protestant Huguenot[18]
  • Agnes McLaren, Scottish doctor and social activist, converted to Catholicism, petitioned the Pope for women's medical rights in India[19]
  • Priscilla Bright McLaren, British suffragette and Quaker[20]
  • Anna Munro, British suffragette, formerly with the Wesleyan Methodist Sisters of the People[21]
  • Sarojini Naidu, Indian suffragist, worked with Ghandi, first women to hold office as Governor in India
  • Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, Nigerian Christian, pastor's wife, women's rights activist and suffrage leader
  • Jessie Rooke, Australian suffragist, and temperance leader, president of WCTU
  • Huda Sha'arawi, Egyptian feminist, and nationalist, noted for removing her veil in defiance of tradition
  • Rachel Scott (women's education reformer), British feminist, brought up in Church of Scotland home[22]
  • Margaret Skinnider, Scottish feminist, involved in Easter Rising & Irish War of Independence, later teacher in Dublin Catholic school[23]
  • Georgiana Solomon, Scottish feminist and suffragette, Jewish liberal, became school headteacher in South Africa[24]
  • Daisy Solomon, British suffragette, Jewish liberal and feminist reformer[25]
  • Catherine Helen Spence, Scottish-born Australian feminist, suffragist and Unitarian preacher[26]
  • Barbara Steel, Scottish social activist, brought up in United Presbyterian home, later suffrage activist in South Africa[27]
  • Jessie Stephen, British suffragette and labour activist, attended church and socialist Sunday Schools[28]
  • Táhirih, Iranian suffragist and women's rights advocate, theologian of the Babi faith, "first suffrage martyr", venerated by Bahais and Azalis
  • Maria Veleda, Portuguese suffragist, spiritualist, founder of Spiritualist Group Light and Love (Grupo Espiritualista Luz e Amor)
  • Anne Ward, temperance advocate, suffragist from New Zealand
  • Jane Wigham, Scottish abolitionist, suffragist, Quaker[29]
  • Henria Leech Williams, Scottish suffragette, brought up in Primitive Methodist home[30]
  • Jennie Fowler Willing, Canadian suffragist, preacher, and editor for National Women's Christian Temperance Union

Anti-Suffrage Notable Women edit

References edit

  1. ^ "Antoinette Brown Blackwell | American minister". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2020-09-12.
  2. ^ "Olympia Brown: pioneering minister, women's suffragist". UU World Magazine. 2013-06-16. Retrieved 2020-09-12.
  3. ^ "Celia Burleigh, Connecticut's First Female Minister". Connecticut History | a CTHumanities Project. 2020-03-15. Retrieved 2020-09-12.
  4. ^ "Dr. Mabel Ping-Hua Lee (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2020-09-12.
  5. ^ "Ruffin, Josephine St. Pierre". National Women’s Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2020-09-12.
  6. ^ "Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2020-09-12.
  7. ^ "Mary Ann Shadd Cary". Biography. Retrieved 2020-09-12.
  8. ^ "Sojourner Truth". National Women's History Museum. Retrieved 2020-09-12.
  9. ^ "Carrie, Isabella Scrimgeour (1878–1981), suffragette and schoolteacher". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-60800. Retrieved 2021-11-08.
  10. ^ Atkinson, Diane (2018). Rise up, women! : the remarkable lives of the suffragettes. London: Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-4088-4404-5. OCLC 1016848621.
  11. ^ Atkinson, Diane (2018). Rise up, women! : the remarkable lives of the suffragettes. London: Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-4088-4404-5. OCLC 1016848621.
  12. ^ Atkinson, Diane (2018). Rise up, women! : the remarkable lives of the suffragettes. London: Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-4088-4404-5. OCLC 1016848621.
  13. ^ "Grant, Mary Pollock – Suffragette | Dundee Women's Trail". Retrieved 2021-11-08.
  14. ^ Elizabeth Ewan; Sue Innes; Sian Reynolds; Rose Pipes, eds. (2007). The biographical dictionary of Scottish women : from the earliest times to 2004. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0-7486-3293-X. OCLC 185096266.
  15. ^ Crawford, Elizabeth (2 September 2003). The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928. ISBN 1135434026.
  16. ^ "First Baptist Woman Deacon". The Eastern Press. 21 January 1910. p. 10.
  17. ^ Henderson, Mary (2020). Ethel Moorhead. independently published. ISBN 979-8625582469.
  18. ^ Leneman, Leah (2004-09-23), "Moorhead, Ethel Agnes Mary", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, retrieved 2021-11-08
  19. ^ Burton, Katherine (1946). According to the pattern: the story of Dr. Agnes McLaren and the Society of Catholic Medical Missionaries. New York: Longmans, Green. OCLC 717114660.
  20. ^ Holton, Sandra Stanley (2007). Quaker women : personal life, memory and radicalism in the lives of women Friends, 1780-1930. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-28143-1. OCLC 78892918.
  21. ^ "Munro [married name Munro-Ashman], Anna Gillies Macdonald (1881–1962), campaigner for women's suffrage and magistrate". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-63880. Retrieved 2021-11-08.
  22. ^ "The death of Mrs C. P. Scott". The Guardian. 29 November 1905.
  23. ^ McAuliffe, Mary. "Margaret Skinnider: radical feminist, militant nationalist, trade union activist". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2021-11-08.
  24. ^ Crawford, Elizabeth (2003-09-02). The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-43402-1.
  25. ^ Crawford, Elizabeth (2003-09-02). The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-43402-1.
  26. ^ "The Scot who was lauded as the Grand Old Woman of Australia …". The National. Retrieved 2021-11-08.
  27. ^ ""1871 England, Wales & Scotland Census". Kew, Surry, England: The National Archives UK. 2 April 1871. microfilm #104006 – via Findmypast. U P Manse, Back Street, Dalry, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland: Paterson, Rev. Alexander A. (1813, Aberdeenshire); Jane (1831, England); ; Barbara J. (1857, Dalry); Henry A. B. (1862, Dalry), 1 servant". 1871 England, Wales & Scotland Census.
  28. ^ Canning, Audrey (2004). Stephen, Jessie (1893–1979). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press.
  29. ^ Pickering, Paul A. (2000). The people's bread : a history of the Anti-Corn Law League. Alex Tyrrell. London: Leicester University Press. ISBN 978-0-567-20497-4. OCLC 741690162.
  30. ^ "Leech, Henry (1808-1881)". My Primitive Methodists. Retrieved 2021-11-08.