This figure is inspired by Amelia Jenks Bloomer (1818-94), a leading figure in the movement for women's rights in America. Born in Homer, New York, she came from modest means and worked as a governess to a family in Seneca Falls. In 1840 she married Dexter Bloomer and started to write for his newspaper, the Seneca Falls County Courier.

In 1848 she attended the Seneca Falls Convention, the first convention for women's rights, and the following year she began writing and editing 'The Lily: A Monthly Journal devoted to Temperance and Literature', the first newspaper run by and for women. Eventually she took on full responsibility for editing and publishing the paper, writing articles that advocated for women's suffrage and other rights.

Bloomer became particularly famous for her fashion of wearing loose Turkish-style pantaloon trousers, which became known as 'bloomers' and were promoted in her newspaper. This was a radical and progressive act in an era where women were expected to wear heavy skirts and only men wore trousers, which caused a stir in public and often invited ridicule. However 'bloomer-mania' quickly spread and inspired many musicals and theatrical productions, including 'The Bloomer Costume' at the Strand Theatre and 'Bloomerism; or The Follies of the Day' at the Adelphi Theatre, both perfomed in London in 1851. These productions and the controversy surrounding this development in women's fashion likely inspired the manufacture of this Staffordshire figure, which is thought to be a generalised depiction of the fashion and not necessarily Amelia Bloomer herself.