Magnificent Women and their Revolutionary Machines

A centenary tribute to Britain’s trailblazing, boundary-breaking women engineers

‘Shows how Britain's female engineers were key figures in modernisation’ BBC History Magazine

‘Women have won their political independence. Now is the time for them to achieve their economic freedom too.’

This was the great rallying cry of the pioneers who, in 1919, created the Women's Engineering Society. Spearheaded by Katharine and Rachel Parsons, a powerful mother and daughter duo, and Caroline Haslett, whose mission was to liberate women from domestic drudgery, it was the world's first professional organisation dedicated to women's rights. 

Magnificent Women and their Revolutionary Machines tells the stories of the women at the heart of this group − from their success in fanning the flames of a social revolution to their significant achievements in engineering and technology. It centres on the parallel but contrasting lives of Rachel Parsons and Caroline Haslett − one born to privilege and riches whose life ended in dramatic tragedy; the other who rose from humble roots to become the leading professional woman of her age and mistress of the thrilling new power of the twentieth century: electricity.

In this fascinating book, biographer Henrietta Heald also illuminates the era in which the society was founded. From the moment when women in Britain were allowed to vote for the first time, and to stand for Parliament, she charts the changing attitudes to women's rights both in society and in the workplace.

‘A sensational book . . . both a reminder of how far women have come and a source of inspiration for how far we still need to go’ Jess Wade

‘A fascinating social history’ Ann Kennedy Smith, Times Literary Supplement 

‘This is a group biography of the Women's Engineering Society... Yet Heald also spins her story outward, taking in the ways in which the society's members became pioneers not just in engineering and technology but also politics, suffrage and social reform’ History Revealed 

‘Meticulously researched... provides a fascinating account of a century of change for women’ Journal of SMEE

Paperback: 400pp

Published: Wilton Square (December 2025)

ISBN: 9781800180277