Biographies

Lydia Becker

Lydia Becker the daughter of Hannibal Becker and Mary Duncuft, was born in 1827. Hannibal Becker owned a chemical works in Manchester. The eldest of fifteen children, Lydia, like the rest of her sisters, was educated at home. After the death of her mother in 1855, Lydia had the responsibility of looking after her younger brothers and sisters.

Lydia developed an interest in botany and in 1864 won an award for her collection of dried plants and in 1866 her book Botany for Novices, was published. Lydia was a keen writer and was an active member of Manchester's Ladies Literacy Society.

In 1866 Lydia heard Barbara Bodichon give a lecture on women's suffrage at a meeting in Manchester. She was immediately converted to the idea that women should have the vote and wrote an article 'Female Suffrage' for the magazine, The Contemporary Review. Emily Davies and Elizabeth Wolstenholme were two of the women who read the article and later that year they joined with Lydia Becker to form the Manchester Women's Suffrage Committee.

Lydia Becker continued to write articles about the need for parliamentary reform and in 1870 she founded and became the editor of the Women's Suffrage Journal. Lydia Becker was also involved in other feminist campaigns. In 1868 she became treasurer of the Married Women's Property Committee and also joined Josephine Butler in her campaign against the Contagious Diseases Acts.

The Education Act of 1870 allowed women to vote and serve on School Boards. Lydia Becker was elected to the Manchester School Board where she took a strong interest in improving the education of girls in the city. Becker criticised the domestic education of girls in Manchester's schools and argued that boys should be taught to mend their own socks and cook their own meals.

In 1874 it was suggested that Parliament might be willing to grant single, but not married women, the vote. Lydia Becker, who was unmarried, created a controversy in the suffrage movement when she supported this proposal. Although Lydia only suggested this as a short-term strategy, some married suffragists, such as Emmeline Pankhurst, were outraged by her views. Later that year Becker was forced to resign from the Married Women's Committee.

Lydia Becker continued as editor of the Women's Suffrage Journal throughout the 1870s and 1880s. However, in 1890 she became ill and she took medical advice to visit the health resort of Aix-les-Bains. While she was there she caught diphtheria and died.

Biographical Links

Emily Davies
Elizabeth WolstenholmeElmy
Barbara Bodichon
Emmeline Pankhurst

Sources 5.4
9.3
14.1
14.4

Internet Links

'The Claim of Englishwomen to the Suffrage' by Helen Taylor (1867)
http://www.indiana.edu/~letrs/vwwp/taylor/suffrage.html

Further Reading

Helen Blackburn, Women's Suffrage: A Record of the Movement, Williams & Norgate (1902)
Marie Roberts (ed.), The Educators, Routledge (1995)
Sylvia Pankhurst, The Suffragette Movement, Virago (1977)
Jill Liddington & Jill Norris, One Hand Tied Behind Us: The Rise of the Suffrage Movement, Virago (1978)

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