The campaign for the vote was not all stone throwing, picture slashing, placard waving and building burning. Of more importance was the struggle for hearts and minds. This blog will look at the role of the visual arts, pictures, posters and postcards, in the women’s suffrage movement. Two organisations were at the forefront of this campaign: the … Read more
The Women’s Suffrage movement is not often associated with male supporters in the popular imagination. Whilst we often remember the women who fought for the vote, their male counterparts can be left by the wayside. But the women’s suffrage movement did have its male supporters, the most famous of which included James Keir Hardie, founder … Read more
1918 and 1928 are landmark years in histories of women’s involvement in British parliamentary politics. In December 1918, following the passage of the Representation of the People Act in February, some women voted for the first time in a UK General Election. In July 1928, the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act made all … Read more
Barbara Bodichon was a key figure in the early women’s suffrage movement, organising one of the first women’s suffrage committees and coordinating the first mass petition to go before parliament on the question of enfranchising women. Bodichon was born in East Sussex in 1827 as the illegitimate daughter of Benjamin Leigh-Smith and Anne Longden, a … Read more
We’re clearly soldiers in petticoats And dauntless crusaders for woman’s votes Though we adore men individually We agree that as a group they’re rather stupid! In 1903 Emmeline Pankhurst, her daughters, Christabel and Sylvia, and a small group of other supporters founded the Women’s Social and Political Union (WPSU). The group adopted the slogan … Read more
On the morning of 10 March 1914, ‘a small woman… attired in a tight-fitting grey coat and skirt’ entered the National Gallery in London. Wandering through the rooms, she stopped occasionally to sketch the paintings. She came to Velásquez’s The Toilet of Venus (known as the Rokeby Venus), and stood in front of the painting … Read more
The call for votes for women did not emerge out of a vacuum. In 1792 Mary Wollstonecraft, in A Vindication of the Rights of Women, called for women to have a voice in Parliament; the great radical orator, Henry Hunt, wanted the Great Reform Act of 1832 to be amended to include women; and Susanna … Read more
Constance Gore-Booth (1868-1927), a leading figure in the Irish Revolution and a prominent campaigner for women’s suffrage, was the first woman elected to Westminster. The eldest of five children, Constance came from a privileged, upper-class Irish Protestant family. Prior to embarking on her political career, Constance studied art in London and Paris. In Paris, she … Read more
When we think of women campaigning for the vote we tend to think of the Suffragettes, those organised by the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) led by the redoubtable Emmeline Pankhurst. We may also think of the Suffragists, women who campaigned for the vote within the bounds of the law. These women were principally … Read more
At the outbreak of the First World War the Suffragettes not only ceased their military campaign, they actively threw themselves behind the national war effort. One way in which they did this was through their work as nurses, doctors, and surgeons. There is currently a small display in the Camden Local Studies Centre about such … Read more
