Unearthing Women’s Contribution Towards Social Changes: Reading Mary Neal’s Autobiographical Account

Although little known, Mary Neal’s autobiography (1937) bears witness to a lifelong commitment to improve the lives of working women. A prominent English social worker, reformer, and philanthropist, she founded the Espérance Club in London in 1895. Its aim was bettering the lives of women employed in factories, who endured appalling poverty, by employing them as dressmakers with regulated hours and fair wages. Having observed the detrimental effects of the lack of rights for women, Neal believed in their enfranchisement and became involved with the Suffrage movement. Later in life, she further demonstrated her dedication to the social cause by founding the Green Lady Hostel in Littlehampton, welcoming economically disadvantaged women to holiday by the seaside, as a way for revitalizing their spirit burdened by labour in factories. Drawing from Neal’s personal narrative of her “life’s calling” as articulated in her unpublished autobiography, I will relate her personal memories to the wider webs of social and historical structures, examining the marginalised position of impoverished working women during the late Victorian and Early Edwardian periods. Furthermore, I will highlight women’s roles and contributions to social change at a pivotal moment in the battle for women’s rights in the United Kingdom.