The story of Leeds is bound up in the stories of its women workers. But
what were conditions like for ordinary women, and how did their lives
change in the hundred years between 1850 and 1950? Who were the women
who toiled in the mills, factories and sweatshops that transformed the
city's landscape? Where and how did they live? What did they do in their
leisure time? What happened to them when they needed medical care? What
did the campaign for suffrage mean in real-life terms for the women who
had no vote and whose voices have rarely been heard?
In Leeds, the campaign for suffrage was set against a backdrop of
industry that relied on women workers for whom hardship was a fact of
life. As the campaign for votes for women gained traction from the
1860s, social and political reformers and activists worked to improve
conditions not just in industry, but in schools, hospitals and in the
opportunities available to women and girls.
Some of the women, like the prominent suffragette Leonora Cohen and
Leeds' first female MP, Alice Bacon, are still talked about, but the
city's history is full of the stories of exceptional, inspirational
women who in their own ways did their bit, broke the mould, and refused
to fit into proscribed roles. In doing so, they opened the door for
women to achieve some of the freedoms we now take for granted. This new,
fully illustrated book brings them back from obscurity and lets their
voices to heard.