Activism > Women's Rights Archives - Page 52 of 62

Mary Somerville

Mary Somerville wrote many works which influenced Maxwell. Her discussion of a hypothetical planet perturbing Uranus led Adams to his investigation. Somerville College in Oxford was named after her.

Chrystal Macmillan was the first female science graduate at Edinburgh University and the first female honours graduate in Mathematics. She became active in the Women’s Suffrage Movement and went on to become a lawyer.

Frances Hardcastle

Frances Hardcastle was an English mathematician who held fellowships in the United States. She studied point groups and wrote some important works. She also was a major figure in the Women’s Suffrage movement and was secretary of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies.

Belva Ann Lockwood

Belva Ann Lockwood (1830-1917) was an American lawyer and reformer.

Frances E Willard

Frances E. Willard (1839-1898) was an American educator, suffragist and temperance reformer.

Ellen Hayes

Ellen Hayes was an American mathematician and astronomer. She was one of the first female American professors.

Kate Milligan Edger

Kate Milligan Edger was the first woman in New Zealand to gain a university degree

Christina Kirk Henderson

Her mother’s mission work led Christina to take an active role in the Presbyterian Women’s Missionary Union of New Zealand. She served as secretary (1917–20) and president (1930–32), but her main contribution was her editorship, from 1923 until 1946, of Harvest Field, the union’s magazine.

Elizabeth Caradus

Her interests in women and temperance led Caradus to the first meetings of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, established in Auckland in 1885. She quickly became a key member of the WCTU and the Auckland branch of the Women’s Franchise League, formed in 1892. Throughout the franchise campaign, and later, in the Auckland branch of the National Council of Women of New Zealand, Elizabeth Caradus was a leading figure. However, she rarely took a prominent office, perhaps because of financial restraints or business or family commitments. Caradus differed from most of the suffragist leaders in that she was of working-class origins and upbringing and had a large family to care for. Although she became treasurer of the WFL in 1893, she turned down the post of president of the Auckland branch of the WCTU. However, she frequently spoke publicly, moved resolutions and took part in deputations.

Elizabeth Reid McCombs

Elizabeth McCombs dedicated herself to improving the lot of women and demonstrated that women were the equal of men in political life in New Zealand.