Women in Esperanto

Esperanto in Scotland

Course 1 · Chapter 6 · Women in Scottish Esperanto

The claim "it was a men's movement" is one of the six in Chapter 1. The evidence says otherwise: women taught the classes, wrote the plays and the dictionary, sat on the committees and filled the steamers to the congresses. This chapter sets out what the surviving records show, and what they leave out.

The idea in a box Women are well represented in the records of Scottish Esperanto, but the records still mark them as exceptions: "Miss" and "Fräulein" were written beside their names, and only one woman held a federation vice-presidency. The recent study argues that Esperanto offered an unusually open space for mixed company. It also stresses that little is known about many of the women involved.

Lois Beveridge (1889–1946)

Dresden, 1908

Aged 18 (or 19; the study gives both) she travelled from Dundee to the Universal Congress in Dresden, which drew about 1,500 Esperantists. The study says she would have met young speakers from other countries, but it names no one.

The diploma

In 1908 she earned the advanced proficiency diploma (Atesto pri Kapableco), which made her a certified teacher and an examiner for British Esperanto Association diplomas.

Teaching and office

She ran classes and a Friday-evening circle at her father's church and later at Harris Academy. Perth's club honoured her in December 1912, and in 1913 she was one of four vice-presidents of the Scottish Esperanto Federation, the only woman among them.

Other Women, Other Roles

Woman	What the records show
Heather Beveridge (1886–1940)	Entered University College Dundee at 16 and took a chemistry degree. She became a Carnegie Research Scholar and later worked at the University of Edinburgh. In 1908 she published "Hidro de para-toluidino" in the journal Internacia Scienca Revuo. The Dundee Courier reported her hope that scholars everywhere would read it.
Mary Jane Hare	A Dundee resident who wrote a three-act comedy, The Foreign Correspondent, staged at the Scottish Congress in Dundee in 1911.
Jane Baird	First author, with William Harvey and John Mabon Warden, of the Edinburgh Esperanto Pocket Dictionary, first published in 1915 and reissued often until 1939. She also appears in a photograph of Scots travelling to the 1912 Kraków congress.
Constance Ogston, Annie L. Burgess	Teacher and secretary-treasurer of the Aberdeen club (Chapter 2).
Janette King (1862–1947)	Journalist and first president of the Dundee club (Chapter 2).

Numbers

Edinburgh, 1911. Six members were chosen as delegate councillors to the British Esperanto Association, and four were women: Isabella Mears, Annie Robb, A. B. Mackenzie and I. E. McIntosh.
Antwerp, 1911. The study counts 65 women among the Scottish travellers to the Universal Congress, who left from Leith on a steamer. Of those whose jobs were listed, 22 of 65 women (33 per cent) were in professional work, against 21 of 41 men (51 per cent). The women's occupations included eight teachers, five stenographers, three accountants, three nurses, a typist, a cashier and a journalist.

These lists show women in the working world of the time: teaching, office work and nursing, and a few higher posts. Esperanto did not remove the pattern of which jobs were open to them. It did give them a place to meet others, speak in public and travel.

How Women Were Described

Reports of the time marked women with titles. "Miss" and "Fräulein" appear beside names in congress lists, and one 1908 report remarked on "proud young British women". Dundee was sometimes called a "women's town" because of its female industrial workforce, though the study does not claim that this explains the women's role in Esperanto.

A voice from outside Scotland Marie Hankel, an Esperantist from outside Scotland, won first prize at the first poetry competition held at a Universal Congress (Barcelona, 1909) and in 1911 founded the Esperantist Literary Association in Antwerp. The study quotes her saying in Washington in 1910 that universities may be closed to women, but books are open. She is not Scottish, but she shows what the wider movement said to the women in it.

"Languages of Egalitarianism"

The study argues that Esperanto offered women an unusually egalitarian space at a time when many were shut out of office, votes and some schools. It points out that other international women's organisations of the time could be closed to middle-class women, while Esperanto groups mixed men and women of different ages and classes. The argument is a hopeful one, and the study is cautious: it uses "may have" and "perhaps", and says that little is known about many of the women involved.

Care with the numbers Lois Beveridge's age at Dresden is given as 18 in one place and 19 in another (her 1911 census age was 22). The study gives other congress figures, such as the share of women among registered speakers in 1910, which I could not tie to a specific congress, so this chapter leaves them out. The occupation counts for Antwerp cover only those Scots whose jobs were listed.

A Short Reading in Esperanto

Lois Beveridge estis instruistino. En 1908 ŝi veturis sen siaj gepatroj al la Universala Kongreso en Dresdeno. En 1913 ŝi iĝis vicprezidanto de la Skota Esperanto-Federacio.

instruistino (female teacher) · veturi (to travel) · gepatroj (parents) · iĝi (to become) · vicprezidanto (vice-president).

The meaning: Lois Beveridge was a teacher. In 1908 she travelled without her parents to the Universal Congress in Dresden. In 1913 she became a vice-president of the Scottish Esperanto Federation. Notice siaj: it refers back to the subject ŝi (she), so the parents are her own.

Sources and doubts The facts here come from Chapter 3 of Postcards, Translators and Esperanto Pioneers (2025) as retrieved for this course. Little is known about many of the women, and their evidence is often a name in a list.

Exercises

Exercise 1

Using the chapter, answer "Esperanto in Scotland was a men's movement" with three facts, and add one limit on what those facts prove.

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Exercise 2

The study says 33% of the women at Antwerp with listed jobs were professionals against 51% of the men. What would you need to know before using these figures to say something about equality in Esperanto?

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Exercise 3

Write two sentences in Esperanto about a woman teacher who went to a congress in another country (use instruistino, veturi and kongreso).

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Quick Reference

Lois Beveridge: Dresden 1908, advanced diploma 1908, vice-president of the Federation 1913 (only woman)
Heather Beveridge: chemist, Esperanto article 1908
Mary Jane Hare: comedy for the 1911 Dundee congress
Jane Baird: first author of the Edinburgh Esperanto Pocket Dictionary (1915)
Antwerp 1911: 65 Scottish women travelled; 4 of 6 Edinburgh delegate councillors were women

Coming next Esperanto in Scotland, Chapter 7 moves to the twentieth century: William Auld and the Scottish poets.