Eleanor Rathbone MP, pioneer of family allowances

spotlight on...Eleanor Rathbone (1872 - 1946)

From time to time a different woman will be featured on this page. She may be well-known or she may have spent her life in relative obscurity but one thing will remain constant - whoever is featured will have proved an inspiration to others. (To read previous entries go to archive.)

This time we pay tribute to Eleanor Rathbone, an independent MP and vigorous campaigner for social justice. She is best remembered as the pioneer of Family Allowances.

Eleanor Rathbone was born in Liverpool in 1872, the daughter of William Rathbone MP and social reformer. She was educated at home and went on to read classics at Somerville College, Oxford where she became involved in the struggle for the vote.

She was prominent in the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) - and was strongly opposed to the militant tactics of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU).

In 1909 she became the first woman to be elected to Liverpool City Council where she remained until 1935. During her time with the council she campaigned for improved housing.

Eleanor had very definite views about the way forward for women. In her view, the best way to alleviate poverty amongst women and children was to reduce a woman's dependence on a man.

Even among the poorest families, it was accepted that a man would keep back some of his wages for himself - however small his income. A minority went further and kept their families short, preferring to spend their money in public houses even when their children had nothing more than bread and margarine to eat.

During the war many women received a separation allowance giving them control of their family finances while their husbands were away. Eleanor began her campaign for mothers' allowances in 1917, after observing that many women and children were healthier during the war than they had been before it.

She became president of the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship after the war - though she wasn't a campaigner for equal pay - preferring to campaign for mothers' allowances. A Family Allowances Act was finally passed in 1945.

Eleanor was elected to Parliament in 1929 as an Independent Member for the Combined English Universities, and served there until her death in 1946. As an MP she continued her work to right injustice and was a major campaigner for the improvement of the condition of Indian women. She attacked the practice of child marriage in India in her book, 'Child Marriage: The Indian Minotaur'.

She was a forceful and passionate speaker and was one of the first to warn of the danger of Hitler and fascism. She argued strongly against appeasement and later devoted much of her time in campaigning on behalf of the many refugees fleeing the atrocities in Europe.

A Blue plaque in Tufton Street, Westminster, London