thumb|Naden's grandparents' home, Pakenham House, 20 Charlotte Road, [[Edgbaston, Birmingham]]
Constance Caroline Woodhill Naden (24 January 185823 December 1889) was an English writer, poet and philosopher. She studied, wrote and lectured on philosophy and science, alongside publishing two volumes of poetry. Several collected works were published following her death at the young age of 31. In her honour, Robert Lewins established the Constance Naden Medal and had a bust of her installed at Mason Science College (now the University of Birmingham). William Ewart Gladstone considered her one of the nineteenth century's foremost female poets.
Early life
Constance Naden was born on 24 January 1858 at 15 Francis Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, England to Caroline Ann Woodhill Naden who died within two weeks of giving birth, and Thomas Naden, an architect, later president of the Birmingham Architectural Association. from 12 days old until her grandparents' deaths. Her father lived with the Woodhills for a time, but by 1871 the census shows that he was living nearby with a new wife and Naden's four half-siblings aged between three and seven. At age eight Naden was sent to a local Unitarian day school, where she developed a talent for painting. In 1885 she won the "Paxton prize" for an essay upon the geology of the district.
Naden published a number of essays defending this view, in the Journal of Science, Knowledge, The Agnostic Annual and other periodicals. In his work The Social Organism (1860), Spencer compared society to a living organism and argued that, just as biological organisms evolve through natural selection, society evolves and increases in complexity.
Poetic writing
In 1881, Naden published her first volume of poetry Songs and Sonnets of Springtime.
Later life
Naden's grandmother Woodhill died on 21 June 1887