How women fueled activism in 1901

Netflix's latest mystery film Enola Holmes 2 is rooted in historical reality.

The sequel to the 2020 title shows Enola, sister of the famed Sherlock Holmes, taking on her first case as a detective agency owner. She is to unravel the disappearance of Sarah Chapman, a match girl at Milan Lyon's Match Factory.

The missing woman's case will expose Enola to London's brutal work conditions: Unfair wages, backbreaking hours, the multiple deaths of match girls from the cheap alternative phosphorus being used. The company covers up the deaths as resulting from typhus.

The fictional character of Sarah Chapman is based on a key historical figure of the same name.

The real-life Chapman was a member of the Matchgirls Strike Committee. She, alongside Annie Besant, Alice Francis, Mary Cummings, Kate Sclater, Mary Driscoll, Eliza Martin, Jane Wakeling, Mary Naulls, and a thousand other girls, marched out of the Bryant and May match factory on 5 July 1888 to protest the dismal and dangerous working conditions inside.

As Enola Holmes 2 narrates, the health of the Bryant and May factory workers was in danger because of the white phosphorus used in production. Many developed a condition called the "phossy jaw," which literally causes the jawbone to rot.

Bryant and May were forced to come to terms with the match girls. The use of white phosphorous was banned in 1901, 13 years after the women's strike. The women were rehired, fines were abolished, and more humane work regulations were put in place.

The movement, known as the Match Girls Strike, was the "first ever industrial action taken by women for women." It inspired the unskilled working class to stand up and fight for better working conditions. It also led to the establishment of the Union of Women Match Makers, the country's largest female union.

In 1891, Chapman married Charles Henry Dearman. They had six children and moved to Bethnal Green where Chapman lived until her death in 1945. She was buried at Manor Park Cemetery in London.