Author Description

Tells the life and work of Chrystal Macmillan - suffragist, barrister, campaigner for peace and human rights Born and educated in Scotland, Chrystal Macmillan was one of Britain's most prominent campaigners for women's equality, justice and peace in the early 20th century. Throughout her life, she devoted her considerable energy and legal skills to a range of causes affecting women's lives at local, national and international level. By tracing one woman's active involvement in the push for legal reform, this book brings a personal dimension to the efforts of various women's organisations. Drawing on archival resources, it describes the controversies, failures and successes that campaigners encountered, and reveals the challenges faced by women to bring about the changes that revolutionised women's position in society. Through Chrystal Macmillan's life story, the authors examine women's struggle for the vote, their push for university education and entry to the professions, their claim to equal pay and opportunity in the workplace and their right to retain nationality on marriage to a foreigner. Helen Kay is an independent researcher with a special interest in the woman suffrage movement in Scotland and the early history of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. Rose Pipes is an independent researcher and a co-editor of The New Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women (Edinburgh University Press, 2018).