This website presents the work of Vine Pemberton Joss. Vine is an independent historian specialising in research into the lives and history of Women in Leeds, principally during the 19th and 20th centuries. Her primary focus is on the women who were active in political and social movements and campaigns, who broke new ground for the participation of women in civic society, and who made a difference. Women such as Edith Pechey, the first female doctor in Northern England to practice outside London; Catherine Buckton, the first woman to be elected to the Leeds school board; Alice Cliff Scatcherd of Morley - who used her independent wealth to support movements for women's education, women's Trades Unions, and the suffrage movement; Isabella Ford, active in the Trades Union movement, the early Labour Party and the Peace movement; and many more.

The Vote Before The Vote Exhibition

In April 2018 Vine curated an exhibition entitled "The Vote Before The Vote", which debuted at Leeds Central Library and then went 'on tour' to other libraries and community spaces. This exhibition showcased Vine's researches to date, focussing on 19th and early 20th Century Womens movements in Leeds other than the Suffrage movements. Click here to see the web site that was prepared to support this exhibition.

Edith Pechey

Edith Pechey was one of the first women to qualify as a doctor in the UK, and she was the first woman to practice outside London when she opened her consulting rooms and pharmacy in Leeds (there is a Blue Plaque to her outside No 8 Park Square, Leeds, where she opened her consulting rooms). She went on to found a womens teaching hospital in India and worked to combat the Bubonic Plague that raged there later. She was also active in supporting women's education, and the suffrage movement. Click this panel to read more about Edith.