Emma Anne Paterson (née Smith; 5 April 1848 – 1 December 1886) was an English feminist and trade unionist.
She resigned the post in 1873, when she married Thomas Paterson (1835–1882), a Scottish cabinet-maker and wood-carver active in the Working Men's Club and Institute Union, who had organized the Workmen's International Exhibition at the Agricultural Hall in 1870.
At Paterson's suggestion, a similar organization was established in Bristol, called the National Union of Working Women.
[1] Paterson put emphasis on the importance of women in the labour movement and her league was initially aimed at establishing women-only unions.
She attended each succeeding congress (except that of 1882) until her death, and by her tact partially overcame the prejudices of the working-men delegates against female activists.
In spite of increasing ill-health, Mrs. Paterson never relaxed her work until her death at her lodgings in Westminster on 1 December 1886; she was buried in Paddington cemetery.