The Catholic Women's Suffrage Society The organisation was founded in
London, England in 1911 as the '''Catholic Women's Suffrage Society''', with a focus on organising Catholic women in England to support
women's suffrage.
Founding Prior to the founding of the Catholic Women's Suffrage Society, Catholic suffragettes had participated in other suffrage organisations, such as the
Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), the
Women's Freedom League (WFL), and the
National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). The roots of the Catholic Women's Suffrage Society began when young Catholic suffragettes
Gabrielle Jeffery and May Kendall met on 8 December 1910, coincidentally the date of the
Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Jeffery and Kendall met while waiting outside
Holloway Prison to welcome the release of imprisoned suffragettes, a common practice for the WSPU in England at the time. Jeffery and Kendall developed the idea of creating a Catholic women's suffrage organisation to bring together Catholics, male and female, to work towards women's suffrage. Together with seven other Catholic suffragists, they held their first meeting on 25 March 1911 and created the Catholic Women's Suffrage Society. In addition, the CWSS chose Joan of Arc as their patron. St. Joan's was the first group in Catholicism to work for women priests. The first chapter in
Australia was founded in 1946, in
New South Wales. Additional Australia chapters started in 1950 and the first Australian conference was held in 1951 in
Sydney.
Enid Lyons was the
Victoria, Australia founding president. In 1952, the organisation was placed on
consultative status with the
United Nations, triggered by the organisations involvement in a discussion with the United Nations about
female castration. The organisation also became involved in anti-
slavery and anti-
human trafficking causes. ==Notable members==