Jessie Chrystal Macmillan was a suffragist, peace activist, barrister, feminist and the first female science graduate from the University of Edinburgh as well as that institution's first female honours graduate in mathematics. She was an activist for women's right to vote, and for other women's causes. She was the second woman to plead a case before the House of Lords, and was one of the founders of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.
Chrystal Macmillan
Macmillan was photographed at The Hague in 1915 for an article published in The Survey.
International Congress of Women in 1915. left to right:1. Lucy Thoumaian – Armenia, 2. Leopoldine Kulka, 3. Laura Hughes – Canada, 4. Rosika Schwimmer – Hungary, 5. Anita Augspurg – Germany, 6. Jane Addams – U.S., 7. Eugenie Hamer, 8. Aletta Jacobs – Netherlands, 9. Chrystal Macmillan – UK, 10. Rosa Genoni – Italy, 11. Anna Kleman – Sweden, 12. Thora Daugaard – Denmark, 13. Louisa Keilhau – Norway
Memorial window dedicated to the parents of Jessie Chrystal Macmillan, Corstorphine Parish Church
International Congress of Women
The International Congress of Women was created so that groups of existing women's suffrage movements could come together with other women's groups around the world. It served as a way for women organizations across the nation to establish formal means of communication and to provide more opportunities for women to ask the big questions relating to feminism at the time. The congress has been utilized by a number of feminist and pacifist events since 1878. A few groups that participated in the early conferences were The International Council of Women, The International Alliance of Women and The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.
The officers of the U.S. National and International Council of Women at the congress held in Berlin, Germany in June, 1904. In the front row, the women seated at the tables (left to right), are Helene Lange, Ishbel Aberdeen, Susan B. Anthony, May Wright Sewall, Camille Vidart, and Teresa F. Wilson.