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Eleanor Rathbone was the daughter of the social reformer William Rathbone. She was encouraged from an early age to take an interest in social issues and in 1909 published her first book: How the Casual Labourer Lives. A long-term campaigner for women's rights, she took over the presidency of the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship (the new name for the NUWSS) when Millicent Garrett Fawcett retired in 1919.
Her main crusade was for family allowances, which she believed should be paid to the wife rather than the husband. She also campaigned for women's rights in India and, during WWII, worked tirelessly for Jewish refugees. In 1929 she entered parliament as an independent MP. In 1945, she saw the Family Allowance Act, pass into law.
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