Margaret Ashton (19 January 1856 – 15 October 1937) was an English suffragist, local politician, pacifist and philanthropist, and the first woman city councillor for Manchester.

[2] With the outbreak of the first world war in 1914, Ashton was amongst the internationalist minority who split from the NUWSS and the suffragette movement.

She was a signatory of the 'Open Christmas Letter', a call for peace addressed in sisterhood "To the Women of Germany and Austria", which was published in Jus Suffragii in January 1915.

Her name and picture (and those of 58 other women's suffrage supporters) are on the plinth of the statue of Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square, London; it was unveiled in 2018.

[9] In 2022, a mural depicting Ashton, by artist Emma Bowen,[10] was painted on a wall at Cavendish Community Primary School in West Didsbury.