She founded the Women's Political Education League in 1902 which campaigned successfully to raise the age of consent to sixteen.

From an early age, Rose Scott was influenced by injustices she perceived towards women in history and literature such as Joan of Arc and Katherina Minola in The Taming of the Shrew.

In 1889, she helped to found the Women's Literary Society, which grew into the Womanhood Suffrage League of New South Wales in 1891.

Some of these girls were asked to come to her house on Saturday and describe the conditions in which they worked, and there leading politicians such as Bernhard Wise, William Holman, W. M. Hughes and Thomas Bavin met and discussed the drafting of the bill that eventually became the early closing act of 1899.

In 1900 she was one of the signatories with Louisa Macdonald, Helen McMillan, Dora Elizabeth Armitage, Zara Aronson (and others) of a letter sent by the National Council of Women.

[1] The League established branches throughout the state and consistently campaigned for the issue closest to Scott's heart: raising the age of consent from 14 to 16, achieved in 1910 with the Crimes (Girls' Protection) Act.

She traced the apparent inclination of public opinion to Federation to 'the freedom of the Australian people' having been 'too easily gained, and therefore too lightly prized'.