Founded and edited The English Woman's Journal

In March 1858, Bessie Rayner Parkes established The English Woman's Journal, becoming its founding editor. The periodical emerged from discussions among the Langham Place Group, a circle of Victorian feminists including Barbara Bodichon, Adelaide Procter, and Matilda Hays, who sought a dedicated platform to address the pressing 'Woman Question' of the era.

The journal covered topics that were largely absent from mainstream Victorian publications: women's access to paid employment, the inadequacy of girls' education, married women's property rights, and the broader social and legal disabilities faced by women. It provided a serious, intellectually rigorous forum at a time when women's public discourse on such matters was often dismissed or ridiculed.

Parkes edited the journal for several years, using it as a vehicle to promote the Society for Promoting the Employment of Women, which she also helped found. The publication became a hub for the nascent organized women's movement in Britain, connecting activists, publicizing petitions, and building the intellectual foundation for later suffrage and legal reform campaigns.

Though the journal ceased publication in 1864 due to financial difficulties, its legacy was profound: it demonstrated that women could sustain serious periodical journalism on their own political and social concerns, and it directly nurtured a generation of activists—including Emily Davies and Jessie Boucherett—who would go on to found colleges, unions, and campaigns for women's advancement.