Rosa Frances Emily Swiney ( Biggs; 21 April 1847 – 3 May 1922) was an early British feminist, writer, and theosophist. Biography Rosa Frances Emily Biggs was born in Poona, India, but spent most of her childhood in Ireland. In 1871 she married Major John Swiney (1832–1918), and devoted herself to becoming a full-time wife and mother. Swiney relocated to Cheltenham, Gloucestershire in 1877, a place she described later in her life as "the town of no ideals", where her husband joined her ten years later. Since 1890, Swiney was a feminist activist, lecturer, and writer in Cheltenham. She co-founded the Cheltenham Women's Suffrage Society (Cheltenham WSS) in 1896; was Vice President of the Cheltenham Food Reform and Health Association; and lectured in organisations such as the Higher Thought Centre in London, Theosophical lodges, and Ethical Societies. Swiney was a member of the Theosophical Society (TS), the Sociological Society, the National Union of Women Workers (NUWW), the Eugenics Education Society, the Secular Education League, the Woman's Freedom League (WFL), and the National Woman's Social and Political Union (WSPU), as well as of the council of the Woman's Branch of the International Neo-Malthusian League. Swiney was personally connected to various prominent and important figures of her time, such as Charlotte Despard, Harriet McIlquham, Charlotte Stopes, Margaret Sibthorpe, Elizabeth Clarke Wolstenholme-Elmy, and Annie Besant. Since 1910, her books were co-published by the League of Isis, which she founded in 1909. The League of Isis aimed to bring about "the betterment of the Race, by individual observance of the Natural Law of reproduction (…) for the building up of the Higher Self". This organisation, together with her writings, reflects a deep engagement in theosophical teachings: the belief in a spiritual evolution and in the Divine Mother (Isis), as well as the convincement that Theosophy can overcome the boundaries between science and religion. Death Swiney died on 2 May 1922, aged 75. Theosophy, motherhood and feminism Contemporary conceptions of motherhood and race strongly influenced Frances Swiney, the theosophist, feminist, and eugenicist. Like other feminists at that time, she reversed the negative connotations of womanhood and motherhood and used it for her own argumentation, to fight for women's enfranchisement. Swiney claimed justice for women as "aiders in creating the wealth of the nation and as mothers of the race". Swiney's feminist emphasis on motherhood, race, and evolution also influenced her interpretations of Theosophy. This is