Summerskill, Edith (1901–1980)

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Summerskill, Edith (1901–1980)

English politician, doctor, and author who, as a member of Parliament (1938–55), successfully campaigned for a wide array of women's rights. Name variations: Baroness Summerskill. Born Edith Clara Summerskill on April 19, 1901, in London; died in 1980; daughter of William Summerskill (a physician and radical politician) and Edith Summerskill; educated at Eltham Hill Grammar School and King's College, London; studied at Charing Cross Hospital; married (Edward) Jeffrey Samuel (a physician), in 1924 or 1925; children: Michael Summerskill and Shirley Summerskill (both elected to use their mother's maiden name).

Edith Summerskill was born on April 19, 1901, in London, England, the daughter of William and Edith Summerskill . One of her earliest influences was her father, whose pro-feminist and radical political stands once led him to stand for Parliament as an Independent candidate. Also a physician, William took his young daughter with him on visits to patients, and passed on to her not only a love of the profession but also a firm belief in preventative medicine. Although women comprised only 4% of Britain's physicians, Summerskill followed her father into medicine. She studied at King's College in London and finished her studies with hands-on experience at Charing Cross Hospital. After qualifying as a physician at age 23 and becoming a member of the Royal College of Surgeons and a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians, she married fellow physician E. Jeffrey Samuel and started a medical practice with him.

Summerskill's work as a doctor among London's poor population further cemented in her mind the importance of preventing, rather than just treating, disease. While attending to patients suffering from rickets caused by malnutrition and those ill with tuberculosis from drinking tainted milk, she became involved with the Socialist Medical Association, a group of doctors dedicated to the establishment of a free national health service. She served as its vice-president for many years, but the association's lack of influence impressed on Summerskill the importance of gaining entrance into the political arena in order to exact real change.

Summerskill first became involved in politics in 1931, as a member of the maternity and child welfare committee in London; she was especially concerned about the high maternal mortality rate due to unhygienic conditions. Three years later, she won her first of many political campaigns as a Labour candidate when she made a surprise showing in the Conservative stronghold of Middlesex to win a seat on the county council. While retaining this position, she ran in national campaigns for Parliament in Putney and Lancashire, although she was unsuccessful until she defeated the Conservative candidate in a by-election in West Fulham in 1938.

Summerskill's entrance into the House of Commons was notable in that she represented the advancement of women in two professions formerly believed to "men's work": medicine and politics. As a member of Parliament, Summerskill became a vocal advocate of the causes for which she fought in her medical practice, and her support of women's rights in the areas of equal pay, birth control, and property rights were mixed with more radical ideas such as wages for housework, a just tax on prostitution, and legal rights in polygamous marriages. Although she was a controversial figure, her expertise on women's issues led to an international reputation, as Spain, Italy, the Soviet Union and the United States invited her to examine their welfare and maternity services. Believing that with equal rights comes equal responsibility, during World War II Summerskill encouraged women to join with men in learning to use weapons in the event of an invasion of England through the establishment of the Women's Home Defence Movement in 1939. Taking this idea a step further, she campaigned for women's admission into Britain's Home Guard and achieved this goal in 1943. Her expanding role in national and international politics necessitated her resignation from her county council seat in Middlesex in 1941.

In the years immediately following the war, Summerskill showed no signs of slowing down her activities. Appointed as under-secretary at the Ministry of Food in 1945, she was finally able to strike a blow against the tuberculosisspreading tainted milk she had campaigned against earlier in her career with the passage of the 1949 Clean Milk Act, which she hailed as her finest achievement. She gained a more prestigious appointment in 1950 when she was named Minister of National Insurance, becoming the first married woman to reach a Cabinet ranking (two single women had preceded her in Cabinet positions). However, the Labour government fell out of favor the following year, forcing her into a quick exit from this post. In the short time she had in power, Summerskill had pioneered legislative efforts to win compensation for workers suffering from industrial injuries or diseases.

This political setback increased Summerskill's role in her own party. Having served as a member of the Labour Party's National Executive Committee since 1944, she became its chair in 1954. Becoming the representative from Warrington the following year, she made social security a special cause as a member of the shadow cabinet (opposition) until 1957. In 1961, Summerskill was honored with a life peerage, becoming Baroness Summerskill of Kenwood, which gained her entrance into the House of Lords. Five years later, she was made a Companion of Honour.

Summerskill continued to battle on behalf of women's rights in the House of Lords, particularly as president of the Married Women's Association. She won significant victories for women in the area of property rights with the passage of the Married Women's Property Act (1964) and the Matrimonial Homes Act (1967). In the interests of national health, she also opposed smoking and sought to make professional boxing illegal. She published Babies Without Tears in 1941, a book with a pro-anesthesia stance; The Ignoble Art, which explained her position on boxing, in 1956; Letters to My Daughter in 1957; and A Woman's World in 1967. Her daughter Shirley Summerskill carried on her mother's activism by also becoming a doctor and an influential Labour MP. Edith Summerskill spent her later years touring the world and instigating important political changes for women in Britain before her death in 1980.