Margaret Heitland (née Bateson; 27 February 1860 – 31 May 1938) was a British journalist and social activist (

suffragette A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...

). She was the daughter of

William Henry Bateson William Henry Bateson (3 June 1812, Liverpool – 27 March 1881, Cambridge) was a British academic, who served as Master of St John's College, Cambridge. The son of Richard Bateson, a Liverpool merchant, Bateson was educated at Shrewsbury School ...

, master of

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...

. In 1901 she married William Emerton Heitland, Classicist and Fellow of St John's. She was sister of the geneticist

William Bateson William Bateson (8 August 1861 – 8 February 1926) was an English biologist who was the first person to use the term genetics to describe the study of heredity, and the chief populariser of the ideas of Gregor Mendel following their rediscover ...

, whose son was the anthropologist and cyberneticist

Gregory Bateson Gregory Bateson (9 May 1904 – 4 July 1980) was an English anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician, and cyberneticist whose work intersected that of many other fields. His writings include '' Steps to an ...

, and sister of the historian,

Mary Bateson Mary Catherine Bateson (December 8, 1939 – January 2, 2021) was an American writer and cultural anthropologist. The daughter of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, Bateson was a noted author in her field with many published monographs. A ...

. She is buried in the

Ascension Parish Burial Ground The Ascension Parish Burial Ground, formerly known as the burial ground for the parish of St Giles and St Peter's, is a cemetery off Huntingdon Road in Cambridge, England. Many notable University of Cambridge academics are buried there, includi ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

Career

Margaret, her two sisters, Anna and Mary Bateson, and their mother Anna Aitkin were involved with the

Women's suffrage movement Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to gran ...

. Margaret was interested in journalism which she began pursuing in 1886. She then began working for '' The Queen'' where she stayed for the majority of her career. In 1888, she organized a campaign of meetings for the Women's Suffrage Society and in 1895 she published ''Professional Women upon their Professions: Conversations''. In 1913 she became president of the Cambridge Women's Suffrage Association, a member of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies Executive committee and vice president of the Central Bureau for the Employment of Women. In 1912, as a member of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, she wrote a letter to

Maud Arncliffe Sennett Alice Maud Arncliffe Sennett also known with the stage name of Mary Kingsley (born Alice Maud Mary Sparagnapane; 4 February 1862 – 15 September 1936) was an English actress and suffragist and a suffragette, arrested four times for her activism. ...

stating that both men and women should have the opportunity to live in better conditions than they did. In 1920, she was a member of the standing committee of the Cambridge Branch of the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship still in hopes of political equality.

References

External links

Professional Women Upon Their Professions: Conversations, etext at Archive.org

Career

References

External links

Further reading