Today is International Women's Day, a great opportunity to take a look back at the life of Harriet Shaw Weaver, a Frodsham-born suffragist and magazine editor whose quiet contribution to the world carries much more influence than one might expect.

Born to the very wealthy Frederic and Mary Weaver in 1876, Harriet was the sixth of eight children. She has been described as 'reserved' and 'unassuming' with 'clear blue eyes' and brown hair worn in a bun.

Between the ages of 10 and 18, in which time her family moved from Frodsham to London, she was educated at home by her governess, Marion Spooner, who was keenly interested in history and current affairs.

Under her influence, Harriet developed decidedly liberal views, fuelled by her reading of texts such as The Subjection of Women by John Stuart Mill and Helen Taylor.

Harriet wanted to continue her education at university, but her parents rejected the idea, arguing that there was little point in studying when she would never need to earn her own living.

However, eager to keep her mind active, Harriet threw herself into charity work and began a course on the economic basis of social relations at the London School of Economics 1905.

After this, she became involved with the women's suffrage movement, joining the Women's Social and Political Union.

Although she sold the Votes for Women newspaper and handed out pamphlets advocating women's suffrage, she never took part in any demonstrations. Harriet bowed out of active involvement after the beginning of the arson campaign, which saw suffragettes plot to burn down the houses of members of government opposed to giving women the vote.

In 1911, she subscribed to The Freewoman: A Weekly Feminist Review, a radical detractor of the institution of marriage and ideals surrounding female purity. In her articles, editor Dora Marsden championed the notion of free love, of personal relationships separated from state and church interference.

Interested by the ideas put forward by the periodical, Harriet soon joined the Freewoman Discussion Circle in London.

In 1912, W.H. Smith stopped selling The Freewoman, citing the 'unsuitable' nature of its articles, and its owners withdrew their financial support.

The publication was saved by Harriet, who entered into partnership with Marsden to create The New Freewoman in 1913.

In the journal's first edition, Marsden wrote: "The New Freewoman is not for the advancement of women, but for the empowering of individuals - men and women."

The renowned poet, Ezra Pound, later became the periodical's literary editor, suggesting its name be changed to The Egoist, while Harriet took on the role of editor in 1914.

Pound was responsible for finding new contributors, one of which was James Joyce, whose novels A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Ulysses were both serialised in the journal.

Harriet was convinced of Joyce's genius, and soon began to support his writing projects, setting up her own Egoist Press in order to ensure his controversial books were published.

As the pair's friendship grew, she even began reading and commenting on his manuscripts, helping to shape some of the most influential works in our literary canon.

Indeed, one of The New Freewoman's writers, Rebecca West, claimed that, without Harriet's attention, it is "doubtful whether Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom would have found their way into the world's mind".

In the 1930s, Harriet joined the Labour Party, and then, after becoming a fierce critic of Ramsay MacDonald, the Communist Party. As a member of this political movement, she took part in demonstrations and sold copies of The Daily Worker.

She died at her home in Saffron Walden, Essex, in 1961.

Sources: [I]A Brave and Beautiful Spirit by Les Garner, Dear Miss Weaver by Jane Lidderdale and Mary Nicholson and Spartacus Educational[.I]