Ethel Bentham (1861-1931)

Wikipedia

Ethel Bentham was the Labour MP for Islington East in 1929 during the second ever Labour government. She was the fifteenth ever female MP, the first Quaker, and the oldest woman. Before she became an MP, she was a trained physician, working as the first female doctor in Newcastle, and an executive member of the executive committee of the Newcastle branch of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies.

Bentham’s medical and political careers are both inspirational. She fought against unfavourable odds to support mothers with young children, and women’s rights, especially suffrage. She continued her medical work alongside being an MP, establishing mother and baby clinics in London, and opening her home to like-minded women. Bentham was a classic career woman- showing women that having a family was a choice and not a dutiful requirement. Her fervour for the wellbeing of others both medically and socially is inspiring.