Ellen Hughes (1867–1927) was a Welsh-language writer, temperance reformer and suffragist from

Llanengan Llanengan (Welsh for " St. Einion's") is a small village and community around Abersoch in Gwynedd in north-west Wales. It had a population of 2,024 at the 2001 census, which had been reduced to 1,989 at the 2011 Census. The popular seaside ...

North Wales North Wales ( cy, Gogledd Cymru) is a region of Wales, encompassing its northernmost areas. It borders Mid Wales to the south, England to the east, and the Irish Sea to the north and west. The area is highly mountainous and rural, with Snowdonia N ...

. Strongly influenced by Sarah Jane Rees, she had a poem published in the Welsh-language women's periodical ''Y Frythones'' in 1885, when she was only 18. The year 1907 saw the publication of the essay ''Angylion yr Aelwyd'' (Angels in the Home) which she had written in 1899. Now a member of the Undeb Dirwestol Merched y De (UDMD), the South Wales Women's Temperance Union, her article criticized men's arguments for keeping women out of parliament. The same year she also published ''Murmur y Gragen. Sef detholion o gyfansoddiadau barddonol a rhyddiaethol'' (Murmur of the Shell: Selection of Poetry and Prose). In her ''A View Across the Valley: Short Stories by Women from Wales'' (1899),

Jane Aaron Jane Frances Aaron (April 16, 1948 – June 27, 2015) was an American filmmaker and children's book illustrator, best known for her work on '' Between the Lions'' and ''Sesame Street''. Aaron mixed live-action shots and animated images to tea ...

describes Hughes as "arguably the Welsh-language author of the period who comes closest to being a feminist in the modern sense". Covering her contributions to the journal ''

Y Gymraes ''Y Gymraes'' (literally The Welsh Woman) was a women's magazine founded by the minister and journalist Evan Jones in January 1850 in response to a government report on education in Wales which had strongly criticized the morals of Welsh women. ...

'' (The Welsh Woman) in 1900, she quotes a passage in which Hughes mocks

William Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four non-cons ...

, the prime minister of the day: "The idea that an elder of the wisdom of Mr Gladstone should doubt the capacity of the majority of women to vote in an election strikes us as wonderfully astonishing!".

Selected works

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hughes, Ellen 1867 births 1927 deaths 19th-century essayists 20th-century essayists 19th-century Welsh poets 20th-century Welsh poets 19th-century Welsh women writers 20th-century Welsh women writers People from Gwynedd Welsh women poets British temperance activists Welsh suffragists Welsh-language writers Welsh essayists British women essayists