[2] Parsons took piecework in a tobacco factory and she was surprised to find how little she earned compared to the men, who also had comfortable restroom for breaks, women only had toilets.

[1] She brought up an orphaned niece and three daughters with her husband, Robert Stanley (Tom) Parsons,[3] who was a driver for the Stepney Borough Council and a union activist.

[3] Parsons was inspired by Minnie Baldock in Canning Town[4] and so she joined Sylvia Pankhurst's East London Federation of Suffragettes and became the secretary of the branch in South West Ham.

In 1914, Sylvia Pankhurst went on hunger strike and refused to stop until the Prime minister received women so that they could present their case for the vote.

Asquith agreed and Parsons was able to tell him of her problems, as she was one of the six women chosen including Jessie Payne, led by Mrs Julia Scurr.