Clara Collet, 1860 - 1948: An Educated Working Woman

This account of the life and work of Clara Collet, a leading economist, statistician and champion of women's employment, is the first biography of this remarkable woman and reveals through Collet's diaries and other primary sources, her fascinating personal life.

An early female university graduate (1880), then teacher, she campaigned for the secondary education provision of girls at a time when it was negligible. Her other major contribution was in raising the status of working-class women, becoming a Commissioner for the

 Royal Commission on Labour (1892). She was close to the family of Karl Marx, particularly with his daughter, Eleanor Marx, and she worked with Beatrice Webb.

Her enduring friendship with the cult Victorian author George Gissing deeply influenced his writing. Her working relationships with Charles Booth, Lloyd George, Ramsay MacDonald and Winston Churchill are also celebrated

Yet perhaps the most important aspect of Collet's life for posterity is the vast collection of statistical and sometimes anecdotal descriptions of the late Victorian and Edwardian world in which she lived, collected as part of her work for Charles Booth and later the Civil Service.  A full bibliography of her work is available in this book providing any researcher into the period with a vast wealth of original and fascinating data.