Parkes, Bessie Rayner (1829–1925)

English feminist and editor. She was a founding member of the women's movement with Barbara Bodichon, a lifelong friend, and campaigned for the married woman's property bill. In 1858 Parkes bought the Englishwoman's Journal, which she edited with the help of Bodichon and Emily Faithfull. The journal became the voice of the woman's movement.

Parkes was born into a Unitarian family, and was the great-granddaughter of the English chemist and Unitarian minister Joseph Priestley. She was the mother of the writers Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes and Hilaire Belloc.