Isabella Maria Susan Tod (18 May 1836 – 8 December 1896) was a Scottish-born campaigner for women’s civil and political equality, active in Northern Ireland. She lobbied for women’s rights to education and property, the dignified treatment of sex workers, and female suffrage as an Irish unionist. In 1887, her North of Ireland Suffrage Society secured the municipal vote for women in Belfast.
Tod was born in Edinburgh and educated at home by her mother, Maria Isabella Waddell, from County Monaghan, Ireland. Her father, James Banks Tod, was a merchant from Edinburgh. In the 1850s, she moved to Belfast with her mother. She contributed to several publications, including the Dublin University Magazine, The Banner of Ulster, and the Northern Whig.
In 1868, Tod was the only woman to give evidence to a select committee on the reform of married women’s property law. She founded the North of Ireland Women’s Suffrage Society in 1872, supported by MPs William Johnston and Joseph Biggar. Her lobbying ensured the 1887 Act granted the vote to persons, not just men, in Belfast, preceding local government enfranchisement for women in the rest of Ireland by eleven years.
Tod and Margaret Byers formed the Belfast Women’s Temperance Association in 1874 and campaigned for girls’ secondary and tertiary education. Tod was instrumental in founding several educational institutions and lobbied for girls’ inclusion in the Intermediate Education Act of 1878.
She campaigned against the Contagious Diseases Acts, arguing they violated civil liberties by forcing medical examinations on prostitutes, and highlighted the root causes of the sex trade: poverty, inequality of law, and social judgement. She also advocated for women to serve as Poor Law Guardians, achieving limited success.
In 1888, Tod co-founded the Irish Women’s Liberal Unionist Association, opposing Irish Home Rule due to its potential to hinder social reform for women. Her work continued through the Irish Women’s Suffrage Society, engaging figures like Dr. Elizabeth Bell and writer Elizabeth McCracken.
Isabella Tod died at 71 Botanic Avenue, Belfast, on 8 December 1896 from pulmonary tuberculosis and is buried in Balmoral Cemetery, South Belfast.
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