Increasing industrialisation in Britain had led to a huge number of people seeking employment in towns and cities, resulting in many living in slum conditions. By the mid nineteenth century, such was the concern for the plight of working people that reform societies were established to petition for better treatment of the poorest in society. In 1857, the reformer Lord Brougham established the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science to advise the government in addressing the issues of public health, industrial relations, penal reform and female education.

Brougham served as president of the Association for much of its first decade, with the Scottish writer and reformer Isa Knox serving as its first secretary. Despite facing much discrimination for her gender and her background (she was the daughter of an Edinburgh hosier and was largely self-taught), Knox tirelessly fought for women’s rights for much of the century.