Anna Maria Haslam (née Fisher; 6 April 1829 – 28 November 1922) was a suffragist and a major figure in the 19th and early 20th century women's movement in Ireland.

Thomas was a feminist theorist and from 1868 he wrote about many topics concerning female rights and issues such as prostitution, birth control and women's suffrage.

[citation needed] Both Anna and Thomas were expelled from the Society of Friends due to their interests in social reform but both still maintained links with the community.

In 1868 Thomas published a pamphlet called "The Marriage Problem", in which he raised and supported the idea of family limitation and outlined a number of contraceptive methods including the safe period.

In 1872 she organised the "General Meeting of the members and friends of the Irish Society for Women's Suffrage" in Blackrock, Dublin, which was chaired by George Owens and attended by MPs Maurice Brooks (a Home Ruler) and William Johnston (a northern Orangeman)[7] and by the future Liberal Unionist MP Thomas Spring Rice.

[2] Ireland's early women's rights activists had a close relationship with their English correlatives and shared the same discrimination in education, employment, sexual freedom and political participation.

The DWSA organised the introduction of a private member's bill to remove disqualification "by sex or marriage" for election or serving as a poor law guardian.

The bill passed in 1896 and the association immediately wrote to the newspapers and published leaflets explaining the process on how register to vote and stand for election and encouraged qualified women to go forward as candidate.

This display of unity by activist women from all shades of political opinion acknowledged her role in the fight for the right to vote.

[11] A memorial seat to Anna and Thomas Haslam was erected in 1923 in St Stephen's Green, Dublin, with the inscription "in honour of their long years of public service chiefly devoted to the enfranchisement of women."