With a weekend of celebrating women and girls at our WAGWalk, we’re continuing to honour the women of Liverpool who paved the way for us all as we mark Women’s History Month.
Here are just ten amazing women who made their mark and their voices heard across Liverpool and Merseyside.
- Eleanor Rathbone was a social reformer and politician who established the District Nursing system in Liverpool and campaigned for family allowances, becoming an independent MP from 1929 until her death in 1946.
Only victory will put an end to it all. But meantime let no one say: ‘We are not responsible.’ We are responsible if a single man, woman or child perishes whom we could and should have saved. Eleanor Rathbone, speech to House of Commons, 19 May 1943.
Eleanor Rathbone was a feminist and a humanitarian whose humanist values led her to devote her life to supporting the poor, the disadvantaged, and the voiceless. As a leading feminist she promoted a ‘new feminism’ concerned not just with achieving equality between the sexes, but also with addressing women’s needs as women. And as a politician her profound compassion led her to become known as ‘the MP for refugees’.
2. Kitty Wilkinson, known as “The Saint of the Slums,” founded the first public wash-house in Liverpool in 1842, helping combat cholera and improve public health. Kitty Wilkinson saved countless lives during the cholera epidemic. She famously offered the residents of Liverpool the use of her boiler to wash their clothes and bedding, and also demonstrated how to use chloride of lime as a disinfectant. The boiling water killed the cholera bacteria, which meant fewer people fell ill and the disease spread less rapidly.
Subsequently, she proposed the construction of the first public bath and washhouse in Liverpool. She became the superintendent of this first bathhouse for the poor—the first such building not only in Liverpool but in the entire country.
3. Dorothy Kuya was a black anti-racist campaigner and feminist who played a key role in establishing Liverpool’s International Slavery Museum.
Dorothy Kuya (1933-2013) was one of Liverpool’s most prolific political activists whose antiracism campaigning spanned seven decades, from the 1940s to the 2000s. From a young age, Dorothy gained prominence as a local organiser in the antiracist, anticolonial and feminist movements of post-war Britain. She witnessed and effected change as a tireless campaigner, whose work covered many spheres.
Dorothy was born to a white European mother and black West African father, in the Liverpool 1 area, during an era when racial discrimination was open and hostile on every level in society. Following WWII the Kuya’s, along with many other Black families, relocated to Liverpool 8. In the early 1950s, as well as becoming a nurse for the newly established NHS, Dorothy became an early member of socialist feminist organisations the National Assembly of Women and the Women’s International Democratic Federation.
Bessie Braddock (dead November 1970) The Mp For Liverpool Exchange. She Is Pictured In Her Days As A Councilor.
Bessie Braddock (dead November 1970) The Mp For Liverpool Exchange. She Is Pictured In Her Days As A Councilor.
4. Bessie Braddock served as MP for Liverpool Exchange and worked tirelessly to improve living conditions for the city’s poor, later becoming Vice-Chairman of the Labour Party.
She was popularly known as ‘our Bessie’, as she constantly fought to improve the living conditions for Liverpool’s poor. It’s worth noting that her mother, Mary Bamber, was also a political activist, which inspired Bessie to continue her work.
Bessie Braddock became the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Liverpool Exchange division in the post-war election of 1945. She later became a member of the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee, and in 1968, she became the Vice-Chairman of the party. Her political work led to the Council building a new block of flats for low-income families, which was named ‘The Braddocks’ in her honour.
5. Lucy Cradock was the first female doctor in Liverpool, providing medical care to women and children and serving as a medical officer for local institutions.
Lucy also established and ran a surgery on Huskisson Street. Alongside this, she served as the medical officer for the female staff at the Liverpool Post Office and was a house physician at the Women’s Hospital. She also held a practice at the Victoria Settlement.
This Liverpool native lived in the city for the rest of her life, dedicating it to treating the residents of Liverpool and its surrounding areas.
6. Born to an affluent family in 1776, Hannah Lightbody became an early champion of women’s rights nearly a hundred years before the founding of the Suffragette movement.
Hannah also campaigned for the abolition of the slave trade while advocating the rights of women within British society, attending debates, lectures and making her voice heard among Liverpool’s entirely male-dominated cultural discussions.
7. Lizzie Christian wasn’t a feminist, an activist, or a Member of Parliament. She is famous for her entrepreneurial spirit. The fact is, this woman was a legendary flower seller in Liverpool. For over 60 consecutive years, she sold her wares six days a week, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
It is known that Lizzie Christian married at the age of 20 and the couple had seven children. To help her husband provide for the family, she initially worked cleaning steps before starting to sell flowers from a large basket. Her flowers were popular with wealthy customers, and she eventually opened her own flower stall, selling her goods in rain, snow, and heat.
8. Kate Sheppard was one of the most pioneering and respected Suffragettes in history. Born in 1847, Kate was educated in Liverpool, where she became renowned for her fierce intellect and strong sense of social justice.
After moving to New Zealand in her 20s, Kate became one of the most influential figures in women’s suffrage, founding the Women’s Christian Temperance Union before becoming leader of the suffrage campaign in 1887. New Zealand Parliament finally granted women the vote in 1893, and Kate Sheppard became active in suffrage movements across the world before she died in New Zealand in 1934.
9. Born in Toxteth in 1875, Margaret Beavan attended Belvedere School and was later approached by a former pupil to run classes for disabled children at Liverpool Victoria community centre.
The centre, based on Netherfield Road North, was founded in 1897 and provided community support during a time when there was no formal education provision in the city, and Everton occupied some of the worst slums in the North West.
Margaret was elected as a Coalition Liberal MP in 1923 but switched to the Conservative party, before being selected as Liverpool’s first woman Lord Mayor in 1927. Her lack of consistency did little for her popularity, although she gave scant regard to her position as a Conservative representative, frustrating both her political allies and opponents.
Margaret died in 1931 at the Hospital for Children at Leasowe, which she co-founded, and a large civic memorial service was held, but her confusing politics sadly overshadowed her many great public achievements and dedication to the people of Liverpool.
10. The daughter of an Irish GP and district nurse, Mary Sheridan OBE was born in Liverpool in 1899. She gained a scholarship to the University of Liverpool School of Medicine, graduating in 1922 and working at the Liverpool Royal, where she specialised in Paediatric medicine.
After working in Cheshire and Manchester, Mary observed several hearing, speech and visual conditions she felt required earlier diagnosis to lessen the impact on children’s development. Mary Sherridan went on to become a leading authority in child development, working as a consultant paediatrician at Guy’s Hospital London where she performed research, and lectured at the Institute of Child Health and Nuffield Speech and Language Unit.
In 1968, Mary was awarded the highest honour of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health – the James Spence Medal, and received an OBE for establishing developmental paediatrics as a specialty in the United Kingdom before her death in 1978.
Sources: International Women’s Day: 10 Liverpool ladies and their incredible legacies | The Guide Liverpool Famous women of Liverpool: what they did for the city and the country Liverpool Eleanor Rathbone (1872-1946) | Humanist Heritage – Exploring the rich history and influence of humanism in the UK