Magna Carta and women'. In 1915; to coincide with Magna Carta's 700th anniversary; the suffragette campaigner; Helena Normanton (d. 1957); published this essay on 'Magna Carta and Women'. Appearing in the periodical The Englishwoman; Normanton's essay argued that the disenfranchisement of women contravened Magna Carta's famous clauses 39 and 40. For Normanton; 'it is expressly contrary to Magna Carta to refuse; deny; or delay; right or justice. The right of the franchise is still unconstitutionally withheld from women; but the spirit of Magna Carta sounds a trumpet-call to them to struggle ever more valiantly to realise its noble ideal'. Helena Normanton went on to become the first female barrister to practise in England; and she was also founder of the Magna Carta Society.