Frances Henrietta Müller (1846 – 4 January 1906) was a British women's rights activist and

theosophist Theosophy is a religious movement established in the United States in the late 19th century. Founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and based largely on her writings, it draws heavily from both older European philosophies such as Neo ...

Biography

Müller was born in Valparaíso, Chile to William Müller, a German businessman, and Maria Henrietta Müller who was English.Elizabeth Crawford, 'Henrietta rancesMuller (c.1851-1906)', in ''The Women's Suffrage Movement. A Reference Guide 1866-1928'', London, Routledge, 2001, pg.428-430. As a child, she received little in the way of formal schooling but spoke six languages and was admitted to

Girton College Girton College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon as the first women's college at Cambridge. In 1948, it was granted full college status by the univ ...

at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

in 1873. It was there that she became involved in the

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

movement, helping to found women's trade unions and the

Women's Printing Society The Women's Printing Society was a British publishing house founded in either 1874 or 1876 by Emma Paterson and Emily Faithfull with the company being officially incorporated as a cooperative in 1878. Involvement in the suffragist movement Th ...

with Emma Paterson. Müller left Cambridge in 1878 and in the same year stood for election to the London School Board. Her campaign was successful, and she became one of the first female members of the board.Brown, Susan; Clements, Patricia; and Grundy, Isobel (eds.) (2006)
"Henrietta Müller"
. ''Orlando: Women's Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present''.

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

. Retrieved on 27 September 2014. During her term, she convinced the board to employ female workers—"cannily pointing out that this would save money since women were paid less than men"—and was involved with

Annie Leigh Browne Annie Leigh Browne (14 March 1851 – 8 March 1936) was a British educationist and Suffrage, suffragist. She co-founded College Hall, London, and funded and worked to get women elected to local government. Life Browne was born in Bridgwater in ...

and Mary Stewart Kilgour in establishing the first women's residence hall ( College Hall) in

Bloomsbury Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London, part of the London Borough of Camden in England. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural institution, cultural, intellectual, and educational ...

before leaving the board in 1885. In 1883 Müller, and others, founded the Society for Promoting the Return of Women as Poor Law Guardians, believing that work in the

Poor Law In English and British history, poor relief refers to government and ecclesiastical action to relieve poverty. Over the centuries, various authorities have needed to decide whose poverty deserves relief and also who should bear the cost of hel ...

system was best suited to women. She was an executive member of the

National Vigilance Association The National Vigilance Association (NVA) was a British society established in 1885. Its goal was to combat prostitution, particularly forced prostitution by children. It has been described as the main social purity organization in the United Kingdom ...

, which opposed the sexual exploitation of women and supported the closure of brothels, but resigned in 1888 when the organisation described pamphlets about

contraception Birth control, also known as contraception, anticonception, and fertility control, is the use of methods or devices to prevent pregnancy. Birth control has been used since ancient times, but effective and safe methods of birth control only be ...

as "vicious literature"; Müller believed that contraception could empower women. She was also on the executive committee of the

National Society for Women's Suffrage The National Society for Women's Suffrage Manchester Branch The National Society for Women's Suffrage was the first national group in the United Kingdom to campaign for women's right to vote. Officially formed on 6 November 1867, by Lydia Becker ...

and was a supporter of the

temperance movement The temperance movement is a social movement promoting Temperance (virtue), temperance or total abstinence from consumption of alcoholic beverages. Participants in the movement typically criticize alcohol intoxication or promote teetotalism, and ...

Müller wrote numerous articles for the ''

Westminster Review The ''Westminster Review'' was a quarterly United Kingdom, British publication. Established in 1823 as the official organ of the Philosophical Radicals, it was published from 1824 to 1914. James Mill was one of the driving forces behind the libe ...

'' which discussed the empowerment of unmarried women and criticised contemporary marriage. In 1888 she founded her own periodical, ''The Women's Penny Paper'' (later titled '' The Woman's Signal''), the first women's newspaper in London; she edited the paper under the

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

Helena B. Temple. By 1891, Müller had mostly withdrawn from politics and feminist activism, and joined the

Theosophical Society The Theosophical Society is the organizational body of Theosophy, an esoteric new religious movement. It was founded in New York City, U.S.A. in 1875. Among its founders were Helena Blavatsky, a Russian mystic and the principal thinker of the ...

. The next year she travelled to India as a lecturer on behalf of the society and became known as "the renowned woman-suffragist". After meeting

Swami Vivekananda Swami Vivekananda () (12 January 1863 – 4 July 1902), born Narendranath Datta, was an Indian Hindus, Hindu monk, philosopher, author, religious teacher, and the chief disciple of the Indian mystic Ramakrishna. Vivekananda was a major figu ...

at the

Parliament of the World's Religions There have been several meetings referred to as a Parliament of the World's Religions, the first being the World's Parliament of Religions of 1893, which was an attempt to create a global dialogue of faiths. The event was celebrated by another c ...

in 1893 she edited a number of his books, including '' Lectures from Colombo to Almora'', published in 1897. She adopted a

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

son in 1895. She later moved to China and then the United States, where she died in 1906 in Washington, D.C. Her estate was left to her sister Eva McLaren, also a women's rights activist, with no mention of her adopted son in her will.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Muller, Henrietta 1846 births 1906 deaths Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge British editors British expatriates in China British expatriates in India British expatriates in the United States British tax resisters British Theosophists British women's rights activists British women journalists British women editors Chilean emigrants to England People from Valparaíso Chilean people of German descent British people of German descent Members of the London School Board 19th-century women writers Chilean suffragists Chilean expatriates in England Chilean editors Chilean women journalists