Ladies Elect: Women in English Local Government, 1865-1914

Fifty years before the suffragettes fought to have the parliamentary vote, women in England were able to elect and be elected to local district councils, school boards, and poor law boards. This study explores the world of those who held elected office on behalf of other women and children, the old, and the sick in mind and body. They faced widespread hostility, but such was their success that in many cities and counties they were a stronger presence in 1900 than in 1975. Local government offered that conjunction of compulsory philanthropy, municipal housekeeping, and local responsibility which made it a sphere suitable for women. Based on the records of some twenty town and ten rural districts, Ladies Elect describes and assesses their work in local government before 1914, and places it in the context of the general movement towards women's emancipation. This study will be of interest to students of nineteenth and early twentieth century British social, political, and educational history, of women's history, and the history of local government; local historians and sociologists.