Helen Fraser (feminist)

Helen Miller Fraser later Helen Moyes (14 September 1881 – 2 December 1979) was a Scottish suffragist, feminist, educationalist and Liberal Party politician who later moved to Australia.

Fraser was born in Leeds, Yorkshire to Scottish parents. She was educated at Higher Grade School, Queen's Park, Glasgow. She opened a studio in Glasgow that specialised in black and white illustration work and embroidery.

She joined the Women's Social and Political Union [WSPU] after hearing Teresa Billington speak in Glasgow. She travelled to England to help the WSPU campaign at the Huddersfield by-election, 1906. She became Treasurer of the Glasgow WSPU and a WSPU Scottish Organiser. In 1907 she organised the WSPU campaign during the Aberdeen South by-election, 1907 during which she met Adela Pankhurst with whom she remained close friends throughout her life. She also took a prominent role in the WSPU's Hexham by-election, 1907 campaign for which she was praised by the Daily Mail. By 1908 she was becoming disillusioned with the violent militant tactics of the WSPU. She criticised the actions of one WSPU member who broke the windows of the Prime Minister H. H. Asquith. She resigned from the WSPU soon after and was approached by the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies [NUWSS] and agreed to work for them. She was a member of the NUWSS national executive committee for 14 years.

Fraser was effective as a public speaker and had speaking engagements not just in Scotland, but all around Britain. In a one-year period (1908–09) her meetings collected a total of £56.19.10 for the NUWSS. In 1912 she spoke at a meeting in Cambridge organised by the Cambridge Women's Suffrage Association, held during a course of University Extension Lectures. In 1915 she acted as temporary Honorary Secretary of the Penarth Women's Suffrage Society.

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