Norman Ian MacKenzie was born in London in on August 18, 1921. He graduated from the London School of Economics in 1943 (interrupted by war service in the Royal Air Force) with a B.Sc. (Economics). He was Assistant Editor of the New Statesman from 1943 to 1962. He taught at the University of Sussex, England from 1962 to 1983, initially as Lecturer in Sociology, retiring as Professor of Education. He edited The Letters of Sidney and Beatrice Webb (3 vols, 1978), as well as editing and writing books on various other subjects. Norman was commissioned by the Social Science Research Council of Australia to conduct a pioneering survey of the status and social and political roles of women in Australia in 1959-60, published as Women in Australia (1962). A revised edition was published as Women and Society: An Australian Study (with Sol Encel and Margaret Tebbutt) in 1975. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate (D.Univ) by the Open University (1977) was an Honorary Fellow of LSE.

Daisy Jeanne MacKenzie née Sampson (but always known as Jeanne, pronounced Jean) was born in St. Helens, Lancashire, on January 30, 1922. She graduated from the London School of Economics in 1943 with a B.Sc. (Econ). She worked as a civil servant during World War II and subsequently as a reader for Hamish Hamilton (publishers) and as a marriage counselor. She wrote Australian Paradox (1961), A Victorian Courtship: The Story of Beatrice Potter and Sidney Webb (1979) and The Children of The Souls: A Tragedy of the First World War (1986); and edited a literary anthology, Cycling (1981).

Norman and Jeanne married 25 October 1945. The couple had two daughters, Janetta (1951-99) and Julia (b. 1956). They co-authored An Authentic and Faithful History of the Mysterious Murder of Maria Marten (1948); biographies of H. G. Wells (The Time Traveller: The Life of H. G. Wells, 1973; the early Fabians (The First Fabians, 1977); and Dickens: A Life (1979). They also co-edited The Diary of Beatrice Webb (4 vols., 1982-85). They were both made Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and awarded the Society's Heinemann Prize for The First Fabians in 1978. After Jeanne's death in 1986, Norman married Dr. Gillian Ford in 1988. He died on June 18, 2013.

The Norman and Jeanne MacKenzie Papers primarily document the work of Norman MacKenzie in preparation for his report for the Social Science Research Council of Australia on the role and status of the Australian women, published as Women in Australia (1962). The collection consists primarily of background research on the status of women in Australia and women's roles in education, labor and employment, family and home life, literature, politics, and the feminist and women's suffrage movements. Included are comparative studies for New Zealand, England, and the United States. There is also some material on Vida Goldstein, pioneer Australian suffragist; and Amy Johnson, the first woman to fly solo from London to Australia. Types of material include correspondence, typed and handwritten notes, original typed and handwritten manuscripts, surveys, reports, maps, reviews, pamphlets, clippings, memorabilia, and books. There is a small amount of material related to other publications written by Norman and co-author, Jeanne MacKenzie.