Jessie Stephen
| Jessie Stephen | |
|---|---|
1930 portrait (aged 36–37)
|
|
| Born | 19 April 1893 |
| Died | 12 June 1979 (aged 86) Bristol |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Known for |
|
Jessie Stephen, MBE (19 April 1893 – 12 June 1979) was a twentieth-century British suffragette, labour activist and local councillor. She grew up in Scotland and won a scholarship to train as a teacher. Family finances dictated otherwise, leading to her becoming a domestic worker at the age of 15. She became involved in national labour issues as a teenager, via organisations such as the Independent Labour Party and the Women's Social and Political Union. After moving to Lancashire and London she visited the United States and Canada, where she held meetings with the public including migrant English domestic workers.
Stephen later become more involved in formal political parties, being elected as a local councillor and standing as a candidate in general elections. After moving to Bristol she became the first woman president of Bristol Trades Council. She was appointed MBE in 1977 and her life is commemorated by a blue plaque in Bristol.
Stephen is recorded in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography as a "suffragette and labour activist", and has been described as "working-class".
Some sources give Stephen's place of birth as Marylebone, London, others as Glasgow. The eldest of eleven children in a "closely-knit ... family", her father was a tailor. She has been described as "virtually the only Scottish working-class Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) member about whom anything is known". She attended Sunday schools separately linked to the church and to socialism, and was educated at North Kelvinside School. She won a scholarship to train as a pupil-teacher.
...
Wikipedia