In this, the first of a series of monographs on ‘overlooked Scottish women’, the subject is Jessie Chrystal Macmillan, a Scotswoman, born in Edinburgh in 1872, whose remarkable achievements have until relatively recently been under-recorded; indeed, by the 1990s, even her family had little knowledge of the part she played during the early to mid-1900s as a vigorous campaigner for women's equality, a barrister and a much-admired and respected figure in the women's movement, both in the UK and internationally.

Unlike some of her contemporaries in the women's movement, such as Christobel Pankhurst, Flora Drummond, Eleanor Rathbone and Helena Normanton, Chrystal Macmillan (as she was always known) was neither flamboyant nor militant, and apart from her one moment in the headlines when she appeared in the House of Lords (see Chapter 2), her achievements received little press publicity. But while ‘fame’ eluded her, she was nevertheless a striking figure, very well known in feminist circles, both at home and internationally, and highly regarded by her colleagues for her persistence, strategic thinking, composure and reliability – all qualities that meant she was sought after as a leader and spokeswoman for many women's causes, and as a ‘safe pair of hands’ on committees. It was also due to these qualities that she was invited to speak in place of the Lord Advocate for Scotland at a dinner held to celebrate the passing of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919, and that she was chosen to contribute an article on the legal position of women to the fourteenth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.