Juanita Frances, née Juanita Frances Lemont, married name Juanita Frances Schlesinger (1901-1992) was a feminist activist and a founder of the

Married Women's Association The Married Women's Association (MWA) was a British women's organisation founded by Edith Summerskill and Juanita Frances in 1938. Summerskill became the association's first president. Its original aims were to promote financial equality between ...

(MWA).

Life

She was born in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. She never knew her father, Timothy Lemont, and she was brought up by her mother who was a shop assistant. Her father was in the navy. She trained as a nurse and moved to the UK in the 1920s. While she was helping women in North Kensington she met and was inspired by the veteran suffragette

Flora Drummond Flora McKinnon Drummond (née Gibson) (born 4 August 1878, Manchester – died 17 January 1949, Carradale), was a British suffragette. Nicknamed 'The General' for her habit of leading Women's Rights marches wearing a military style uniform 'wi ...

who was nicknamed "The General". She became involved with the feminist

Six Point Group The Six Point Group was a British feminist campaign group founded by Lady Rhondda in 1921 to press for changes in the law of the United Kingdom in six areas. Aims The six original specific aims were: # Satisfactory legislation on child assault; ...

after her arrival in England.Mary Stott, 'Obituary: Juanita Frances', ''The Guardian'', 2 December 1992 The group wanted to get women's equality included in the work of the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

and the "Equal Rights International Group" was formed and Frances was sent to Geneva where she had three unproductive meetings. She wanted to empower mothers and married women. She was instrumental in setting up the Married Women's Association in 1938, and later served as its president. The first President of the MWA was

Edith Summerskill Edith Clara Summerskill, Baroness Summerskill, (19 April 1901 – 4 February 1980) was a British physician, feminist, Labour politician and writer. She was appointed to the Privy Council in 1949. Early life Summerskill was educated at King's ...

and other notable recruits were

Vera Brittain Vera Mary Brittain (29 December 1893 – 29 March 1970) was an English Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse, writer, feminist, socialist and pacifist. Her best-selling 1933 memoir ''Testament of Youth'' recounted her experiences during the First ...

, the lawyer

Helena Normanton Helena Florence Normanton, Queen's Counsel, QC (14 December 1882 – 14 October 1957) was the first woman to take advantage of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 and join an institution of the legal profession. In November 1922, she was ...

and later in 1945 Lady Helen Nutting. In 1947 after they had two children she divorced her husband, a banker named Gerald Leonard Schlesinger. The London house which he had built became the MWA's official headquarters. 1952 was the big split. Helena Normington was President and she took an independent line when presenting evidence to the

Royal Commission on Marriage and Divorce Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a ci ...

. Rank and file objections were made that the approach favoured privileged women which was not the association's aim. The row resulted in a schism and the formation of the Council of Married Women led by Normanton,

Doreen Gorsky Doreen Marjorie Gorsky née Doreen Stephens (12 October 1912 – 20 March 2001), was a British Liberal Party politician, feminist and television producer and executive who during her career specialised in women's and children's programmes. Backg ...

, Evelyn Hamilton and Helen Nutting. These had been the President, Chair, Deputy Chair and Secretary, respectively, before their resignations. The Royal Commission would take five years to consider its position, reporting in 1956.

References

1901 births 1992 deaths British women's rights activists {{feminism-activist-stub