Liverpool Politics: Social Work & Women's' Suffrage
Furthering the Cause for Women
Upon completing her studies at Somerville College at the University of Oxford in 1896, Eleanor returned to Liverpool eager to express her commitment to social reform and feminism through practical campaigning and organisation. Over the next two decades, she became the most prominent woman in Liverpool’s public life.
In 1909, Eleanor Rathbone became the first woman elected to Liverpool City Council.
"Everybody said that it was very rare, almost unheard of, for a mere Municipal Election Candidate's Meeting to attract so many, but of course that merely means curiosity at the novelty of a woman candidate"
She stood as the independent councillor for the Granby Ward between 1909 and 1934.
In the years after the First World War, Eleanor Rathbone concentrated on feminist politics and was a prominent campaigner for the cause of women’s suffrage. In 1909, the Liverpool Women’s Suffrage Society was established, largely through her efforts. Eleanor also founded the first Women’s Association in Liverpool in 1913 to promote women’s involvement in political affairs. Over the years, she also became a leading voice in the movement which saw the introduction of widows’ pensions in 1925 and the equal franchise legislation of 1928.
She was also involved in the Victoria Settlement for women in Liverpool. Founded in 1897 at a time when there were many such institutions in major cities throughout the UK, the settlements' aim - according to a booklet produced by the organisation in 1913 (D45/4/1) - was ‘to bring the two social elements commonly designated as “rich” and “poor” into some sort of natural and friendly relations with each other, so that each might get to know and understand a little of the other.’
Eleanor acted as Honorary Secretary, and it was through their joint efforts for the Victoria Women’s Settlement that she met the Scottish social worker Elizabeth Macadam (1871-1948), who - Warden of the Victoria Settlement at that time - was to become her lifelong collaborator and companion.
Furthering the Cause for Men
Eleanor's concern for social issues was not only viewed through the prism of feminism; she always sought to understand wider social contexts, with her most ambitious social study focusing entirely on men.
Encouraged by Charles Booth, a shipowner and social reformer, Eleanor had begun the investigation into Liverpool's system of dock labour with her father William Rathbone MP. Upon his death in 1902, it soon became apparent that it was Eleanor who would most strongly continue the family's philanthropic tradition.
The resultant report laid bare the inefficiencies and hardships of the system, and also noted the terrible impact of erratic wages on dockers' wives trying to maintain a household budget.
Such investigations led her to view the possibility of direct state provision for child rearing as desirable, and, as early as 1912, she advocated state pensions for widows raising young children alone.
This work fed into her later campaigning on family allowances.