Caroline Haslett

Caroline Haslett
Caroline Haslett c.1924, when she became director of the Electrical Association for Women
Born	(1895-08-17)17 August 1895 Worth, Sussex
Died	4 January 1957(1957-01-04) (aged 61) Bungay, Suffolk
Nationality	British
Occupation	Electrical engineer; business woman; educator
Known for	Feminism; electrifying the home to liberate women from domestic drudgery. She was the leading professional woman of her age.
Title	Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire

Dame Caroline Harriet Haslett, DBE, JP, born in 1895 in Worth, Sussex, was an English electrical engineer, electricity industry administrator and champion of women's rights.

She was the first secretary of the Women's Engineering Society and the founder and editor of its journal, The Woman Engineer. She was co-founder, alongside Laura Willson and with the support of Margaret, Lady Moir, of the Electrical Association for Women, which pioneered such 'wonders', as they were described in contemporary magazines, as the All-Electric House in Bristol in 1935. She became the first director of the Electrical Association for Women in 1925. Her chief interest was in harnessing the benefits of electrical power to emancipate women from household chores, so that they could pursue their own ambitions outside the home. In the early 1920s, few houses had electric light or heating, let alone electrical appliances; the National Grid was not yet in existence.

'Way is being made by electricity for a higher order of women – women set free from drudgery, who have time for reflection; for self-respect. We are coming to an age when the spiritual and higher state of life will have freer development, and this is only possible when women are liberated from soul-destroying drudgery ... I want [every woman] to have leisure to acquaint herself more profoundly with the topics of the day.'

Born in Worth (now part of Crawley, West Sussex), Caroline Haslett was the eldest daughter of Robert Haslett, a railway signal fitter and activist for the co-operative movement, and his wife, Caroline Sarah, formerly Holmes. After attending school in Haywards Heath, she was employed by the Cochran Boiler Company as a clerk and joined the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). Transferring to the Cochran workshops during the First World War, she acquired a basic engineering training in London and in Annan, Dumfriesshire; from that time she became a pioneer for women in the electrical and professional world.