Cousins, Margaret Elizabeth

(nee Gillespie) (1878- ?). Educator and prominent worker for women’s rights and suffrage. Born November 7, 1878, she joined the Theosophical Society (TS) in 1904. She married James Henry Cousins on April 9, 1903. Cousins taught at various theosophical schools including Madnapalli and Mangalore (Mysore). She was appointed Senator for the Indian National University in 1918. In 1923 Cousins was the first woman to be appointed as a Bench Magistrate in India.

Cousins was a remarkably active social worker in India. She was involved in the Women’s Indian Association, 1923-31; Woman’s Home of Service, Madras, 1923; and All India Women’s Conference, 1927. She initiated the Irish Vegetarian Society, Dublin, 1904 and the New York Vegetarian Society.

Publications include:

The Awakening of Asian Womanhood, 1923; The Music of Orient and Occident, 1935.

© Copyright by the Theosophical Publishing House, Manila