Name/TitleWomen and the New Franchise Bill
About this objectSlim pamphlet originally printed for private circulation, titled 'Women and the New Franchise Bill: A Letter to an Ulster Member of Parliament' by Isabella M. S. Tod, dated March 1884. The letter concludes:
"I fear that if some of our legislators do not realise that if our demand is a quiet and unexcited demand, it is also a persistent one. No class that has once decidedly asked for franchise has ever accepted a defeat. The claim will be reiterated until it is granted; for it is not based upon caprice, but upon an assured conviction that it is impossible for women to do their duty, and to protect their interests and dignity, without the same weapon which men find essential for the same purposes."
Fully digitised (12 pages)
MakerTod, Isabella
Maker RoleAuthor
Date Made1884
Period1880s
Place MadeN. Ireland, Belfast
Medium and MaterialsOrganic, paper
Inscription and MarksFront cover, top, in pencil: "324.62309416 (1884) 39005 3187 ~ DUP"
Front cover, bottom left, in pen on white sticker: "324.62309416 (1884)"
MeasurementsH: 210 x W: 138 mm
Subject and Association Keywordswomen's suffrage, right to vote
Subject and Association KeywordsGender equality
Subject and Association KeywordsParty politics
Subject and Association KeywordsHealth & well-being
Subject and Association Descriptionhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_Tod:
Isabella Maria Susan Tod (18 May 1836 – 8 December 1896) was a Scottish-born suffragist, women's rights campaigner and unionist politician in the north of Ireland. In Belfast she helped secure the municipal vote for women in 1887.
Tod was born in Edinburgh and was educated at home by her mother, Maria Isabella Waddell, who came from County Monaghan, Ireland. Her father was James Banks Tod, a merchant from Edinburgh. In the 1850s she moved with her mother to Belfast. She contributed to several newspapers, including the Northern Whig and the Dublin University Magazine.
In 1872 Tod moved the foundation the North of Ireland Women's Suffrage Society which later became the Irish Women's Suffrage Society. Determined lobbying by the Society ensured the 1887 Act creating a new city-status municipal franchise for Belfast conferred the vote on persons rather than men. This was eleven years before women elsewhere Ireland gained the vote in local government elections.
In 1874, with Margaret Byers (the founder of Victoria College) Tod formed the Belfast Women's Temperance Association.
Along with Anna Haslam she campaigned for the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts. These acts allowed for state regulation of prostitutes in areas in which the British army was stationed. She was on the executive committee of the Ladies National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts until 1889.
After the Liberal Party split over the issue of Home Rule in Ireland she became an organiser of the Liberal Women's Unionist Association in Belfast.
Tod died at 71 Botanic Avenue, Belfast on 8 December 1896 from pulmonary tuberculosis. She is buried in Balmoral Cemetery in South Belfast.
Named CollectionGlasgow Women's Library
Object TypeDocument
Object numberGWL-2022-59-1
Copyright LicenceAll rights reserved