tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/100-years-of-votes-for-women-49248/articles100 years of votes for women – The Conversation2018-12-11T03:21:19Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1067712018-12-11T03:21:19Z2018-12-11T03:21:19ZWill the new Mary Poppins film acknowledge the suffragettes’ success?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249569/original/file-20181210-72539-1gdtntw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lin-Manuel Miranda (centre), Emily Blunt, Julie Walters, Emily Mortimer, Pixie Davies, Nathanael Saleh, and Joel Dawson in Mary Poppins Returns (2018).</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lucamar Productions,Marc Platt Productions,Walt Disney Pictures </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Mary Poppins first flew down from a hazy London skyline to care for Jane and Michael Banks in a children’s book published in 1934. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000267/bio">Julie Andrews</a> immortalised the character on screen in the celebrated 1964 film; now Emily Blunt is set to do the same in the 2018 sequel, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5028340/">Mary Poppins Returns</a>. </p>
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<p>In the original children’s books, penned by London-based Queensland expatriate <a href="https://www.biography.com/news/pl-travers-facts-mary-poppins">P.L. Travers</a>, Mrs. Banks was <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/qre.2015.6">not a suffragette</a>. But Disney’s 1964 film, set in 1910, reimagined this character (played by <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0424318/bio">Glynis Johns</a>) as a campaigner for women’s enfranchisement, complete with the campy, toe-tapping song Sister Suffragette.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245052/original/file-20181112-83586-1tmm9e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245052/original/file-20181112-83586-1tmm9e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245052/original/file-20181112-83586-1tmm9e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=949&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245052/original/file-20181112-83586-1tmm9e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=949&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245052/original/file-20181112-83586-1tmm9e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=949&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245052/original/file-20181112-83586-1tmm9e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1193&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245052/original/file-20181112-83586-1tmm9e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1193&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245052/original/file-20181112-83586-1tmm9e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1193&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Prefiguring Mrs. Banks? A 1909 Dunston Weiler Lithograph Co. anti-suffrage postcard.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Catherine H. Palczewski Postcard Archive/The Suffrage Postcard Project</span></span>
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<p>Mrs. Banks was recently described by one critic as a “<a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/disneys-sister-suffragette-mrs-banks-feminist-heroine-mary-poppins/">feminist heroine</a>”. However, the <a href="https://read.dukeupress.edu/camera-obscura/article-abstract/33/2%20(98)/69/135644/">portrait</a> the Disney film painted of the suffragette was far more complicated – a product of both the pro-suffrage and anti-suffrage propaganda of the 1910s.</p>
<p>The character of Mrs. Banks wears a “Votes for Women” sash, attends public suffrage demonstrations, and enthusiastically advocates the cause to her domestic workers.</p>
<p>But when her character is read through the lens of anti-suffrage propaganda, it seems the Disney vision was far more influenced by this worldview.</p>
<p>Anti-suffrage films and postcards revelled in depicting the suffragette as a flighty mother. Disinterested in her household, she was more dedicated to the suffrage cause than to her children.</p>
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<span class="caption">Prefiguring 14 Cherry Tree Lane? Anti-suffrage postcards depicted households in total disarray.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Catherine H. Palczewski Postcard Archive/The Suffrage Postcard Project</span></span>
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<p>As Lori Kenschaft has <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=Or13vhnA_W4C&lpg=PA241&ots=Q1qy7W5MME&dq=Just%20a%20Spoonful%20of%20Sugar%3F%20Anxieties%20of%20Gender%20and%20Class%20in%20Mary%20Poppins&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false">observed</a>, film reviewers in 1964 also perceived Mrs. Banks as a “nutty suffrage mother,” whose depiction fed into the idea that suffragettes — and, by extension, other feminists — were mentally unbalanced.</p>
<p>Anti-suffrage propaganda also warned that households would be turned upside-down by women’s involvement in the suffrage campaign.</p>
<p>The Banks household is indeed in a state of total upheaval – both literal and metaphorical – as evinced by the twice-daily explosions their neighbour Admiral Boom wreaks on Cherry Tree Lane.</p>
<p>The character of Mrs. Banks supports <a href="http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-35376">Emmeline Pankhurst</a> and the Women’s Social and Political Union. Under Pankhurst’s leadership, the union advocated <a href="https://theconversation.com/militant-suffragettes-morally-justified-or-just-terrorists-52743">militancy</a> to acquire the vote. This led to the imprisonment of many British suffragettes. Some famously carried out hunger strikes, which resulted in brutal, state-sanctioned force-feeding. </p>
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<span class="caption">Many anti-suffrage postcards suggested that the force-feeding of suffragettes was humorous.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ville de Paris/Bibliothèque Marguerite Durand</span></span>
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<p>Anti-suffrage postcards routinely found humour in such violence. Mrs. Banks herself offers a rather blithe account of these experiences in the 1964 film. Gleefully, she shrieks, “Mrs. Whitman-Allen chained herself to the wheel of the prime minister’s carriage!”</p>
<p>Today, the representation of suffrage in popular culture can still be controversial. The 2018 open world video game Red Dead Redemption 2, set in an alternate history of the American frontier in 1899, offers players the chance to assault and kill a suffragist who wears a “Votes for Women” sash.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/violence-towards-women-in-the-video-game-red-dead-redemption-2-evokes-toxic-masculinity-106920">Violence towards women in the video game Red Dead Redemption 2 evokes toxic masculinity</a>
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<p>This character, a statuesque figure with grey hair and square jaw, resembles <a href="https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/anna-howard-shaw/">Rev. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw</a>, who became president of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/National-American-Woman-Suffrage-Association">National American Woman Suffrage Association</a> in 1904. Earnestly spruiking historically faithful suffrage propaganda, she says:</p>
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<p>Once women get the vote … there’ll be no more wars, no hunger, no stupidity. We’ll elect a woman president! Within the first ten years, of course. You see, men are such judgemental prigs, you need women to help straighten you out!</p>
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<p>Videos have since <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/games/2018/nov/07/red-dead-redemption-2-game-criticised-over-killing-of-suffragette">emerged</a> on YouTube featuring players violently beating this suffragist unconscious after she says, “Let me vote.”</p>
<p>The 1964 characterisation of Mrs. Banks is far kinder than this. But it presents enough ambiguity to beg the question: Is Mrs. Banks really the crusader so many have envisioned her to be?</p>
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<p>At the end of the film, Mrs. Banks gives her “Votes for Women” sash to her children to use as their kite’s tail. As the Banks family stands together harmoniously, the kite disappears into the air. Is Mrs. Banks shouting the cause from the rooftops, or abandoning it altogether?</p>
<p>Suffrage may not hold much consequence in Mary Poppins Returns. The 2004 Cameron Mackintosh musical theatre adaptation of the 1964 film excised the suffrage subplot entirely.</p>
<p>And yet, this long-awaited sequel will be set in 1935, just years after the full enfranchisement of British women through the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act of 1928. Mrs. Banks herself famously sang of this next generation:</p>
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<p>Our daughters’ daughters will adore us;
And they’ll sing in grateful chorus:
“Well done, sister suffragette!”</p>
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<p>The film’s trailer features Jane and Michael Banks rediscovering their tattered old kite in the attic. Briefly visible to the discerning eye, its tail still features their mother’s “Votes for Women” sash.</p>
<p>While Michael leaves the kite streetside for garbage collection, his young son and the chimney-sweep Bert soon recover it. When they take the kite for a whirl, it lures Mary Poppins back down from the sky. Might Mary Poppins Returns also follow Jane Banks in her exploits as a recently enfranchised woman?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106771/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ana Stevenson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Disney’s 1964 classic film had a suffragette theme, but it remains to be seen if the new version will celebrate votes for women.Ana Stevenson, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, International Studies Group, University of the Free StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1078192018-12-05T06:04:18Z2018-12-05T06:04:18ZSinn Féin’s sudden rise to power in 1918 was long seen as a ‘youthquake’ – now there’s a different explanation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248747/original/file-20181204-34138-11rwamc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=47%2C395%2C1715%2C1041&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Following_the_pipers!_(29677821546).jpg">Wikimedia Commons.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The 1918 election is probably best known in Britain as being the first election in which women could vote. In Ireland, it is remembered for something quite different. The general election in December that year saw Sinn Féin – a revolutionary independence party, which had not contested the previous general election – win 73 out of 105 seats in Ireland. </p>
<p>It’s long been thought that Sinn Féin’s dramatic victory was, in part, due to major changes to the Irish electorate. In early 1918, the right to vote <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/womenvote/case-study-the-right-to-vote/the-right-to-vote/birmingham-and-the-equal-franchise/1918-representation-of-the-people-act/">was extended</a> to all men over 21 and most women over 30. Ireland, at the time still part of the UK, saw its electorate grow from less that 700,000 <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1750-0206.12341">to more than 1.9m</a>. </p>
<p>With a near tripling of the electorate and a landslide victory of a new, radical political party occurring in the same year, scholars <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Founding_of_D%C3%A1il_%C3%89ireann.html?id=cEczAAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">have long assumed that</a> the two were linked: that Sinn Féin experienced it’s very own “<a href="https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/word-of-the-year/word-of-the-year-2017">youthquake</a>”, just like the UK’s Labour party, which also <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jan/29/youthquake-why-age-did-matter-for-corbyn-in-2017">benefited from</a> a surge in turn out among young people, almost 100 years later. But our new research challenges this assumption. </p>
<h2>A radical upset</h2>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248750/original/file-20181204-34148-6f4rj5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248750/original/file-20181204-34148-6f4rj5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248750/original/file-20181204-34148-6f4rj5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=744&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248750/original/file-20181204-34148-6f4rj5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=744&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248750/original/file-20181204-34148-6f4rj5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=744&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248750/original/file-20181204-34148-6f4rj5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=935&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248750/original/file-20181204-34148-6f4rj5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=935&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248750/original/file-20181204-34148-6f4rj5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=935&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Total wipeout.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/Irish_UK_election_1918.png">Wikimedia Commons.</a></span>
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<p>This Sinn Féin victory ushered in an era of revolution. The previously dominant and more moderate party of Irish nationalism, the Irish Parliamentary Party, was decimated, and returned just six of the 67 seats they held prior to the vote. And within two months of the election, Sinn Féin’s MPs had declared independence from the UK, and the armed conflict that would become Ireland’s War of Independence began. </p>
<p>On the eve of his party’s crushing electoral defeat, William Doris, an Irish Parliamentary Party candidate, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/historical-journal/article/franchise-factor-in-the-defeat-of-the-irish-parliamentary-party-18851918/8BC17D233CBD71B454C0458A6E324940">lamented</a>:</p>
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<p>On the old register we were perfectly safe and the question is how the extended franchise will affect us. I am satisfied that a majority of the women over 30 will be with us, but the vast majority of the boys from 21 to 30 will be against us. They appear to have gone mad and no doubt we will have all kinds of intimidation, personation and so on.</p>
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<p>This longstanding view has not been extensively tested – until now. To examine the impact of the voting reforms on the 1918 election results, we combined the results of the election for each constituency in Ireland with information on the number of new male and female voters. We also constructed an economic and social profile of each constituency, by collecting information on things such as occupation, literacy and religion from the 1911 census.</p>
<p>A statistical analysis of this information failed to uncover a link between the number of new male voters in a constituency and support for Sinn Féin. Where there were more women voters, however, support for Sinn Féin appears in fact to have been lower. </p>
<p>This is not perhaps surprising: the restrictions on women’s voting rights meant that younger women and those who failed to meet the property requirement - those who were not rate payers or wives of rate payers - were still denied a voice. Indeed studies of Britain suggest that the Conservatives <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1750-0206.12336">were the main beneficiaries</a> of the new women’s vote. Our research found that in Ireland, women may have been less likely than men to use their vote at all.</p>
<h2>Rising up</h2>
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<span class="caption">A Sinn Féin election poster.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sinn_F%C3%A9in_election_poster_-_1918.jpg">Wikimedia Commons.</a></span>
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<p>It’s impossible to know for sure how individuals voted in 1918. But our findings suggests that new voters did not, by themselves, propel Sinn Féin to power in Ireland. Other factors must have played a bigger role than previously thought. The legacy of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/six-days-that-shook-the-world-how-the-easter-rising-changed-everything-57140">Easter Rising</a> is a strong contender, with public opinion appearing to shift sharply in support of the rebels following the British crackdown. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/six-days-that-shook-the-world-how-the-easter-rising-changed-everything-57140">Six days that shook the world: how the Easter Rising changed everything</a>
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<p>The <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/sinn-f%C3%A9in-and-the-conscription-crisis-1.3451617">conscription crisis of 1918</a> may also have had a big impact. Conscription had been enacted in Britain in 1916 and the German offensive of 1918 had induced the cabinet to finally extend conscription to Ireland. The attempt to introduce conscription in Ireland was, of course, deeply unpopular. </p>
<p>Although all strands of Irish Nationalism were united in opposition to conscription, it was Sinn Féin who claimed the role of the most forceful opponent of conscription. As such, Sinn Féin’s electoral success was more likely driven by a change of heart within the Irish electorate, more than a change of composition.</p>
<p>It’s perhaps no surprise that religion was a strong predictor of support for both the moderate Irish Parliamentary Party and more radical Sinn Féin, since both were nationalist parties. Better agricultural land was associated with a lower Sinn Féin vote, suggesting perhaps that wealthier farmers may have disliked Sinn Féin’s more radical approach. And higher levels of women in work and female literacy were associated with higher turnout overall. </p>
<p>It is clear that the events between 1916 and 1918 led large numbers of people to abandon support for the Irish Parliamentary Party and back the more radical form of nationalism offered by Sinn Féin. Even without a change in the franchise, the election of 1918 would still have marked a turning point in Irish history.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107819/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alan de Bromhead has received funding from the British Academy and the ESRC. This work was supported by the British Academy (grant number SG15211)</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alan Fernihough has received funding from the British Academy and the ESRC. This work was supported by the British Academy (grant number SG15211)</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Enda Hargaden does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New research reveals that changes in attitudes led to Sinn Féin’s landslide victory – not the new surge of young voters.Alan de Bromhead, Lecturer in Economics, Queen's University BelfastAlan Fernihough, Lecturer in Economics, Queen's University BelfastEnda Hargaden, Assistant Professor of Economics, University of TennesseeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1059072018-11-21T12:14:36Z2018-11-21T12:14:36Z100 years since women won the right to be MPs – what it was like for the pioneers<p>When some women won the right to <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/100-years-of-votes-for-women-49248">vote</a> in Britain in February 1918, the question arose as to whether women could now stand in parliamentary elections. Nine months later, the <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/womenvote/parliamentary-collections/nancy-astor/parliament-qualification-of-women-act/">Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act</a> was passed on November 21 1918, enabling women over the age 21 to become MPs. </p>
<p>A century on, the UK parliament now has <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2017-40192060">208 women MPs</a>. But what was it like for the first women in the House of Commons 100 years ago? </p>
<p>Only women over the age of 30 who met a property qualification were granted the vote in 1918, therefore there are numerous examples of women standing for parliament when they could not vote themselves. </p>
<p>The path to entering parliament was not an easy one for women; political parties prioritised male candidates and finances hindered many women from standing. In all, 17 women stood in the 1918 general election across the political spectrum, but only one woman was successful, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-43176232">Constance Markievicz</a>. As she stood for Sinn Féin, she refused to take her seat over the issue of Irish independence. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246537/original/file-20181120-161627-1vro83f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246537/original/file-20181120-161627-1vro83f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246537/original/file-20181120-161627-1vro83f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246537/original/file-20181120-161627-1vro83f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246537/original/file-20181120-161627-1vro83f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=962&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246537/original/file-20181120-161627-1vro83f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=962&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246537/original/file-20181120-161627-1vro83f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=962&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nancy Astor’s 1919 election leaflet.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/womenvote/parliamentary-collections/nancy-astor/astor-campaign-leaflet/">Parliamentary Archives.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It wasn’t until the following year that the first woman MP to take her seat was elected when <a href="https://www.historyextra.com/period/modern/life-of-the-week-nancy-astor/">Nancy Astor</a> was elected in a Plymouth by-election in 1919 for the Conservative Party. She was persuaded to stand by her husband, who previously held the seat, when he was elevated to the House of Lords following the death of his father. Women MPs inheriting their seats from their husbands became a common pattern in the interwar period. For Astor, being the only woman MP was an isolating experience. In 1923, she <a href="https://archive.org/details/mytwocountries1954asto">remarked</a>: “Pioneers may be picturesque figures, but they are often rather lonely ones.” </p>
<h2>A masculine space</h2>
<p>Parliament was, and arguably still is, an inherently masculine space. The corridors were lined with paintings of white male politicians, the bars and smoking rooms remained closed to women, and the female restroom was a quarter of a mile walk from the debating chamber. Outside of the chamber, Astor confined herself to the Ladies Members Room. As more women entered parliament, they shared this space. It was nicknamed the <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/get-involved/vote-100/voice-and-vote/">“tomb”</a> as it was cramped and poorly furnished. </p>
<p>Despite Astor’s success, most MPs remained adamant that parliament was no place for women. Winston Churchill, although a personal friend of the Astors who dined regularly at their country house, refused to speak to Astor in parliament. He <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p01lfw2p">revealed</a> later on in life, that by ignoring her, he and other MPs “hoped to freeze her out.”</p>
<p>In 1921, Astor was joined by the Liberal <a href="https://www.suffrage-pioneers.net/the-list/margaret-wintringham/">Margaret Wintringham</a> following her success in a by-election in Louth. She also inherited her seat from her husband who had died while in office. Despite being in different parties, Astor and Wintringham became great friends, working together on issues related to women and children. In her maiden speech, Wintringham spoke during a debate on the economy and <a href="https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1921/nov/09/exchequer-bonds-and-external-debt#S5CV0148P0_19211109_HOC_300">said</a> she felt “rather like a new girl at school”. Women MPs continued to enter parliament in slow numbers. By 1929 there were only 14 women MPs, despite 69 women standing in the 1929 general election. </p>
<h2>Appearances scrutinised</h2>
<p>The press became fixated on the appearance of early women MPs. Astor insisted on wearing simple clothing as she wanted her politics to be remarked on and not her outfits. Other women MPs adopted this “parliamentary uniform”, although there were some exceptions. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/case-study-radical-politicians-in-the-north-east/introduction/">Ellen Wilkinson</a>, Labour MP for Middlesborough, elected in 1924, refused to conform to Astor’s dress code. Nicknamed “Red Ellen” for her socialist views and fiery red hair, she had a colourful sense of fashion. When criticised for this in the press, she <a href="http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/232e67de-d26f-4f96-a4cb-a65db3bb85da">remarked</a>: “Can’t a woman do her work just as well in a dress of bright colour?” </p>
<p><a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/remembering-jennie-lee-lioness-labour-founded-open-university/">Jennie Lee</a>, the Labour MP for North Lanarkshire was elected in a by-election in March 1929, aged 24. At the time, she could not vote herself, yet still became the youngest MP in the Commons. Lee created chaos when she wore an emerald green dress into parliament. One press report of the occasion <a href="http://www.open.ac.uk/library/library-resources/jennie-lee-collection">recounted</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The dress, which was of a clinging variety and of ankle length… took the Speaker’s breath away … She swept to her place … with all the assurance of a Bond-street mannequin. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Women MPs today <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39416554">continue to face</a> sexism, bullying and comments on their appearance, and in the digital age, receive frequent <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38736729">abuse online</a>. While Westminster now has a nursery and considerably more female toilets, its archaic traditions still dominate. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1065163044236525568"}"></div></p>
<p>A century later, the UK still doesn’t have equal representation in parliament, and only 32% of MPs are women. While campaigns and policies such as <a href="https://5050parliament.co.uk">50:50 Parliament</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/askhertostand?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Ehashtag">#AskHerToStand</a> and Labour’s all women short lists are increasing the number of women MPs, a recent report from the <a href="https://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/News/women-candidates-face-explicit-resistance-and-discrimination-within-political-parties">Fawcett Society</a> concluded that: “Women still experience multiple barriers to being selected as candidates simply because they are women.” </p>
<p>The first women MPs were pioneering and paved the way for future generations. A century later, the spotlight is on Westminster as the fight continues for equal representation and the challenge against the notion of parliament as “the old boys club”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105907/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lisa Berry-Waite receives funding from The Leverhulme Trust.</span></em></p>It’s 100 years since women won the right to be MPs, but what was Parliament like for women back then?Lisa Berry-Waite, PhD Candidate in History, University of ExeterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1019182018-08-24T08:48:59Z2018-08-24T08:48:59ZAdela Pankhurst: the forgotten sister who doesn’t fit neatly into suffragette history<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232885/original/file-20180821-149493-kg0gqq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The third Pankhurst sister Adela (left) with fellow suffragettes Jessie and Annie Kenney in 1910.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Suffragettes_Adela_Pankhurst,_Jessie_and_Annie_Kenney_1910.jpg">By Colonel Linley Blathwayt, via Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the centenary year of the 1918 Representation of the People Act, women’s struggle to obtain the right to vote in the UK has been strongly identified with its leading protagonists, the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2018/25/emmeline-pankhurst-making-of-a-militant">Pankhurst</a> family. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/pankhurst-sisters-the-bitter-divisions-behind-their-fight-for-womens-votes-91086">rifts</a> between Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia have become almost as famous as the <a href="https://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/the-role-of-british-women-in-the-twentieth-century/womens-social-and-political-union/">Women’s Social and Political Union</a> (WSPU), the organisation they founded in 1903. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232881/original/file-20180821-149469-4k0sgo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232881/original/file-20180821-149469-4k0sgo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=780&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232881/original/file-20180821-149469-4k0sgo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=780&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232881/original/file-20180821-149469-4k0sgo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=780&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232881/original/file-20180821-149469-4k0sgo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=980&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232881/original/file-20180821-149469-4k0sgo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=980&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232881/original/file-20180821-149469-4k0sgo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=980&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Adela Pankhurst, the youngest daughter of Emmeline.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pankhurst-adela.jpg">Wikimedia Commons.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, more often than not, Emmeline Pankhurst’s youngest daughter, Adela, is missing from the discussion. Adela was born in Manchester in 1885, the third Pankhurst daughter. She enjoyed a thoroughly genteel middle-class upbringing, like the rest of her siblings, and by the early 20th century, despite her mother’s objections, trained to be a teacher. In 1903, along with her mother and sisters, she helped to form the WSPU and the militant campaign for suffrage was born. </p>
<p>Like many campaigning women, Adela spent time in prison for the cause. She was one of several suffragettes arrested and imprisoned in Dundee in 1909. She was incarcerated for breaking the peace as she tried to disrupt a government meeting. Dundee Prison, controlled by the secretary for Scotland rather than the English Home Office minister, was one of the few to resist the new policy of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-42943816/suffragettes-the-truth-about-force-feeding">force feeding</a> hunger strikers. </p>
<p>Adela, unlike her mother and sister Christabel, spoke and wrote often against violent tactics and approved of a more co-operative relationship between the prisoners and prison staff. Later that same year, speaking on behalf of other suffragettes who had been released following a hunger-strike at the prison, Adela reported to the Edinburgh Evening Dispatch newspaper that the prison warders had “all showed great consideration and kindness”.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232909/original/file-20180821-149484-1wl6qni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232909/original/file-20180821-149484-1wl6qni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232909/original/file-20180821-149484-1wl6qni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232909/original/file-20180821-149484-1wl6qni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232909/original/file-20180821-149484-1wl6qni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232909/original/file-20180821-149484-1wl6qni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=589&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232909/original/file-20180821-149484-1wl6qni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=589&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232909/original/file-20180821-149484-1wl6qni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=589&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Adela Pankhurst’s letter to the governor of Dundee Prison.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Barry Godfrey.</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As testament to the good treatment she and the Scottish suffragettes had received at the hands of the authorities, she wrote personally to the governor of Dundee Prison inviting him and his staff to a nearby meeting where her mother was scheduled to speak.</p>
<p>As World War I approached, Adela and her sister Sylvia strongly disagreed with WSPU strategy which they considered unnecessarily violent. As punishment for breaking with the fold, in February of 1914, her mother gave Adela a one-way ticket to Australia (which already had female <a href="https://www.aec.gov.au/Elections/Australian_Electoral_History/wright.htm">suffrage</a>), where she remained politically active for the rest of her life.</p>
<h2>Militants? Martyrs? Myths?</h2>
<p>Her sisters and mother have become synonymous with the movement that won votes for women, and the Pankhurst family are rightly celebrated for their leading role in women’s suffrage, but Adela has all but <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/dec/24/wayward-suffragette-adela-pankhurst-and-her-remarkable-australian-life">disappeared</a> from history.</p>
<p>Adela’s disappearance from collective memory cannot simply be explained by her “banishment” to Australia. After all, her sister Sylvia lived and campaigned against colonialism in <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-36322972">Ethiopia</a> and remains one of the most famous faces of the suffrage movement. </p>
<p>The key to Adela’s fall from grace lies perhaps not in her contribution to the campaign for votes for women in the UK, but in the more controversial causes she gravitated towards once the battle was won. She <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/148270386?searchTerm=%22Motherhood%20Endowment%22%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20&searchLimits=l-state=Western+Australia%7C%7C%7Cl-decade=192%7C%7C%7Cl-year=1924%7C%7C%7Cl-month=4">denounced</a> contraception, abortion and even nursery schools for undermining maternal instincts and responsibilities. She campaigned heavily against Australian participation in World War I (the WSPU had suspended its activities, in order to support the war effort).</p>
<p>After dabbling in the newly emerged Australian Communist Party and subsequently rejecting the ideology, Adela’s politics shifted to the right, and she went on to be <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/pankhurst-adela-constantia-9275">associated</a> with the <a href="http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/fact-sheets/fs28.aspx">Australia First</a> movement, an anti-communist, anti-immigration political party. In the 1930s, Australia First was an anti-semitic and proto-fascist organisation which <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/2680185?searchTerm=%22adela%20Pankhurst%22%20AND%20%22Australia%20First%22%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20&searchLimits=">favoured an alliance</a> with Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. Due to her activities with Australia First, Adela was interned in a camp for political prisoners in March 1942 where she remained for several months.</p>
<p>She died in Australia in 1961, having had, seemingly, a very happy <a href="http://spartacus-educational.com/WpankhurstA.htm">family life</a> there. Yet despite being named alongside 58 others on a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-43868925%22%22">statue of Millicent Fawcett</a> recently unveiled in London, Adela Pankhurst has been largely ignored by popular histories of suffrage.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232908/original/file-20180821-149487-1ssnsx1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232908/original/file-20180821-149487-1ssnsx1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232908/original/file-20180821-149487-1ssnsx1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232908/original/file-20180821-149487-1ssnsx1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232908/original/file-20180821-149487-1ssnsx1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232908/original/file-20180821-149487-1ssnsx1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232908/original/file-20180821-149487-1ssnsx1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A statue of Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square, London.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">G. Ware.</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Acknowledging the huge debt that society owes to the Pankhursts and the women who campaigned with them to deliver universal suffrage does not mean that historians and researchers should “iron out” uncomfortable truths. It isn’t always easy to reconcile the reality of the suffragettes as people with the way society wants to remember the movement. </p>
<p>Women like Adela Pankhurst are difficult to place, problematic to commemorate, and often easier to just remove from our collective history. However, the very reasons that she has been partly erased from history are exactly the reasons why she should be included. When we fail to acknowledge that campaigns for social change are often riddled with contradictions, flawed heroes, arguments over strategy, and many false turns before success, we risk producing sanitised versions of history. The full story of Adela and the other Pankhursts reminds us that messier but more complete histories of such struggles are worth recording and commemorating.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101918/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Barry Godfrey receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lucy Williams does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Emmeline Pankhurst’s youngest daughter fought for women’s right to vote, but she’s more problematic to commemorate.Lucy Williams, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of LiverpoolBarry Godfrey, Professor of Social Justice, University of LiverpoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/915202018-02-08T15:17:31Z2018-02-08T15:17:31ZShould the suffragettes be pardoned? A legal expert discusses the options<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205528/original/file-20180208-180801-1loox47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The arrest of Flora Drummond, and Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst in 1908.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/132844921@N08/37573025544/in/photostream/">LSE Library</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>During the 100th anniversary of women over 30 being <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/100-years-of-votes-for-women-49248">given the vote</a> in the UK, there have been <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/suffragettes-including-leader-emmeline-pankhurst-should-be-pardoned-on-100th-anniversary-of-women-a3758876.html">calls</a> for women convicted of crimes committed while engaged in direct action as part of their campaign to be given pardons.</p>
<p>The Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has gone so far as to promise that if his party wins power <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/feb/06/labour-pledges-posthumous-pardons-for-suffragettes">it will pardon those women</a> who had been “treated appallingly by society and the state” and whose convictions were “politically motivated”.</p>
<p>Just as many voices have been raised in opposition to the move, however. Feminist and campaigner <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/2018/02/dont-pardon-suffragettes-100-years-votes-corbyn-rudd">Caroline Criado-Perez wrote recently</a>: “They were the Nasty Women of the early 20th century. They don’t deserve to be whitewashed and made more palatable.”</p>
<h2>Correcting errors</h2>
<p>So how do pardons work? In a system governed by the rule of law, the extra-judicial power to pardon should be unnecessary. At times, however, it has provided a useful “safety valve” where the legal system had no means of correcting errors – remember the <a href="http://netk.net.au/CrimJustice/CriminalAppeals.pdf">Court of Criminal Appeal</a> was not established until 1907. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205534/original/file-20180208-180801-16sin8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205534/original/file-20180208-180801-16sin8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205534/original/file-20180208-180801-16sin8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=777&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205534/original/file-20180208-180801-16sin8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=777&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205534/original/file-20180208-180801-16sin8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=777&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205534/original/file-20180208-180801-16sin8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=977&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205534/original/file-20180208-180801-16sin8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=977&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205534/original/file-20180208-180801-16sin8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=977&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A suffragette is arrested outside Buckingham Palace in 1914.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/31363949@N02/7726529620">Leonard Bentley via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>It could be used where a mandatory death sentence was seen as too harsh, or if exculpatory evidence could not be used as part of a normal appeal for legal reasons. Posthumous pardons were <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8556721.stm">given to Timothy Evans</a> who had been wrongly executed for the murder of his wife and daughter at 10 Rillington Place. Derek Bentley <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/142351.stm">was also pardoned</a>. His was a more ambiguous case: he was hanged when his accomplice, who was too young to receive the death penalty, shot a police officer during a burglary. </p>
<p>The pardon has been used as a quick means of correcting administrative errors (such as a miscalculated release date from prison) or when a batch of convictions has been rendered unsafe – for example by faulty speed measuring equipment. Two <a href="https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/memo-shows-unease-among-british-officials-at-royal-pardon-for-iras-kelly-and-mcfarlane-34993993.html">IRA members</a> were pardoned quietly for some offences so that the Dutch authorities would agree to their extradition. </p>
<p>Pardons have also been used as a reward. In <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/1396040.stm">2002</a>, two men were pardoned for saving the life of a prison officer who was being attacked by a boar on the prison farm.</p>
<h2>Quality of mercy</h2>
<p>There has always been a political dimension to the <a href="https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/practice-points/the-royal-prerogative-of-mercy/5052062.article">Royal Prerogative of Mercy</a> – a power that has existed since at least the seventh century. A free pardon removes “all pains, penalties and punishments whatsoever that from the said conviction may ensue”. It does not eliminate the conviction though – only judges can do this. There are no legal criteria for its exercise. The Justice Secretary exercises the power on behalf of the Queen.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hundred-years-of-votes-for-women-how-far-weve-come-and-how-far-theres-still-to-go-91169">Hundred years of votes for women: how far we've come and how far there's still to go</a>
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<p>Pardons are also used as a means of “dealing with the past”. Historically, the reigning monarch could use the power to grant pardons after battles to promote reconciliation or to spare favoured subjects from punishment. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205537/original/file-20180208-180801-8ynkjw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205537/original/file-20180208-180801-8ynkjw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205537/original/file-20180208-180801-8ynkjw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205537/original/file-20180208-180801-8ynkjw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205537/original/file-20180208-180801-8ynkjw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205537/original/file-20180208-180801-8ynkjw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205537/original/file-20180208-180801-8ynkjw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Worthy of a pardon? Christabel Pankhurst in 1918.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Christabel_Pankhurst_1918.jpg">US Library of Congress</a></span>
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<p>There have been calls for pardons for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/aug/16/military.immigrationpolicy">soldiers executed for cowardice or desertion</a> during World War I. Alan Turing, famous for his work as the Enigma codebreaker at Bletchley Park in World War II received a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25495315">posthumous pardon in 2013</a>. He killed himself in 1954 following his conviction for gross indecency. The “Alan Turing Law” (part of the <a href="http://moderngov.staffordshire.gov.uk/documents/s94033/PCP%2026%2004%2017%20Policing%20Crime%20Act%20Appdx%201.pdf">Policing and Crime Act 2017</a>) provides pardons for men convicted of homosexual acts that are no longer criminal offences – in essence it was accepted that they should not have been convicted because the law itself was wrong.</p>
<h2>The Law’s an ass</h2>
<p>The use of the pardon is relatively straightforward in cases of wrongful conviction. With the soldiers, it could be argued that the convictions were unsafe because their mental states were not considered. There is a practical reason for removing the gross indecency convictions in that men were still suffering the effects of having a criminal record and the pardon was an official statement that the law itself had been wrong – it was a form of apology.</p>
<p>Quashing the convictions of the suffragettes is more problematic. Smashing windows and setting fire to letterboxes is still criminal conduct. The women’s suffrage movement <a href="https://theconversation.com/militant-suffragettes-morally-justified-or-just-terrorists-52743">split over direct action</a> and the majority of women did not break the law. Christabel Pankhurst wanted to be arrested – as she saw suffragette appearances in court and hunger strikes in prison as part of their campaign. They suffered physically – and undoubtedly many faced social or familial disapproval. </p>
<p>A blanket pardon, however, airbrushes a difficult debate about direct action and would posthumously remove a criminal record that many wore as a badge of honour.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91520/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hannah Quirk does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Justified or not, some of the suffragettes’ actions were still criminal. And many would consider a conviction a badge of honour.Hannah Quirk, Senior Lecturer in Criminal Law and Justice, University of ManchesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/912862018-02-06T17:03:03Z2018-02-06T17:03:03ZHundred years of votes for women – but they still remain on the fringes of Irish politics<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205069/original/file-20180206-14111-6mdian.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=50%2C548%2C1923%2C1484&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/lselibrary/26462606819/in/album-72157660822880401/">LSE library</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It has been 100 years since women’s enfranchisement and the election of an Irish woman – Sinn Féin’s <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/easterrising/profiles/po10.shtml">Constance Markievicz</a> – as the first female member of parliament. However, the level of political participation by women on the island of Ireland remains lower than in Britain.</p>
<p>Pioneering Irish suffragists, including Anna Haslam and Isabella Tod, were politicised in the 1860s by the campaign to repeal the <a href="https://www.historyireland.com/18th-19th-century-history/women-and-the-contagious-diseases-acts-1864-1886-11/">Contagious Diseases Acts</a>. This legislation allowed for compulsory medical examination and forcible treatment of prostitutes to decrease the incidence of sexually transmitted infections among soldiers.</p>
<p>The Ladies National Association and <a href="https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/06cf0698-1f6f-3e61-b592-b3620ddbd825">National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts</a> marked the first political organisation of Irish women on gender issues. They were the forerunners of subsequent <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/century/century-women-and-the-vote/divisions-run-deep-1.553528">suffrage societies</a>, such as Tod’s North of Ireland Women’s Suffrage Committee (1872) and Haslam’s Irish Women’s Suffrage and Local Government Association (1876). Haslam had signed John Stuart Mill’s 1866 petition for female suffrage.</p>
<h2>Stuttering start</h2>
<p>Female education opportunities were greatly expanded in Ireland in the 1870s, which produced a generation of well-educated middle-class women. By the early 20th century, they were no longer satisfied to accept their status as second-class citizens.</p>
<p>Direct action in support of suffrage was introduced to Ireland in 1908 by the <a href="https://www.historyireland.com/20th-century-contemporary-history/irish-womens-franchise-league-and-irish-womens-workers-union/">Irish Women’s Franchise League</a>, founded in Dublin by Hanna and Francis Sheehy Skeffington and James and Margaret Cousins. They set up Ireland’s first women’s newspaper, The Irish Citizen, and organised protests similar to those of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Womens-Social-and-Political-Union">Women’s Social and Political Union</a> (WSPU), including attacks on government property. The WSPU only became active in Ulster in 1914 and its work was cut short by the outbreak of World War I. While female suffragists were imprisoned in Ireland, they were not subjected to such harsh treatment as force-feeding because Irish public and political opinion would not accept it.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205063/original/file-20180206-14093-1xdeq7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205063/original/file-20180206-14093-1xdeq7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=929&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205063/original/file-20180206-14093-1xdeq7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=929&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205063/original/file-20180206-14093-1xdeq7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=929&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205063/original/file-20180206-14093-1xdeq7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1167&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205063/original/file-20180206-14093-1xdeq7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1167&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205063/original/file-20180206-14093-1xdeq7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1167&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The bust of Constance Markiewicz in Dublin.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AThe_bust_of_Constance_Markiewicz_in_St_Stephen's_Green_in_Dublin.jpg">Wikepedia</a></span>
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<p>The Irish suffrage campaign played out against a period of great political upheaval. Nationalist campaigns for home rule and independence clashed with unionist efforts to retain Ireland’s integral position within the United Kingdom. Suffrage societies in Ireland were characterised by their political diversity. Unionist writer Edith Somerville was a founder member of the Munster Women’s Franchise League, along with <a href="http://centenaries.ucd.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/MacSwiney-Mary.pdf">Mary MacSwiney</a>, who would later emerge as one of the most hardline republicans during the Irish revolution.</p>
<p>Irish male political leaders were divided on the issue. Both <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/people/john_redmond">John Redmond</a> and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/people/edward_carson">Edward Carson</a>, the respective leaders of nationalism and unionism, opposed the idea on principle and for practical political reasons, fearing it would detract from resolving the “Irish question”. Some prominent individual unionists such as James Craig and nationalists like Willie Redmond supported votes for women, though.</p>
<p>Labour leaders like James Connolly were committed suffragists too, even if some in the trade union movement feared that the advancement of women would threaten male wage earners. Sinn Féin, which emerged as the strongest force in nationalist politics after 1916, recognised the potential of female voters. In 1918 it was the first Irish political party to run women candidates in a general election.</p>
<p>But Markievicz’s election for Sinn Féin didn’t herald a golden age for women in Irish parliamentary politics. In the 100 years since women won the vote, only 114 women in total have been elected to serve in Dáil Éireann, the lower house. In the Northern Ireland House of Commons (1921-1972), only 11 women were returned during its 51 years of operation. There was a 60-year gap before the Irish government had a second female minister after Markievicz, who held the post of minister for Labour in the alternative Irish administration from 1919-1921.</p>
<p>To this day, progress in women’s political representation is slow. Only 22% of members elected to Dáil Éireann in 2016 were women, compared the House of Commons (32%), Welsh assembly (42%) and Scottish Parliament (35%). Northern Ireland has higher female political participation, at 30% of the assembly membership, though at local government level this falls back to 25%.</p>
<h2>Quotas</h2>
<p>Political parties hold that there is a dearth of women willing to come forward to stand for election. However, the reality is that parties have only recently indicated that they are actually receptive to female candidates. This new openness has been accelerated in the Republic of Ireland with a <a href="http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2012/act/36/enactyed/en/html">new law</a> requiring parties to select at least 30% candidates of each sex, or suffer financial penalties. That quota will rise to 40% from 2023.</p>
<p>The effect of this quota – which applied during the 2016 general election – was to increase female candidacies by 90% and female members of parliament by 40% (from 25 in 2011 to 35). This is far from the equality envisaged by suffragists but at least reflects changes in social attitudes. The public now expects to see male and female candidates on the ballot paper. In the 2016 election, only one of the 40 multi-member constituencies had an all-male candidate slate.</p>
<p>There are some indications that the quota law, widely debated in the republic during its passage through parliament in 2011-12, affected the gender profile of candidates for the 2016 Northern Ireland assembly elections. The number of women candidates increased by 100% (from 38 in 2011 to 76), while the number of women Northern Ireland assembly members increased by 50% (from 20 in 2011 to 30). This progress consolidated in the snap 2017 election. Women’s candidacies rose to 31%, and their share of seats increased to 30%, even as the number of seats in the assembly decreased from 108 to 90. Just two of the 18 multi-member constituencies presented all-male ballots to the electorate.</p>
<p>A century after suffrage, the goal of gender equality in representative politics on the island of Ireland has advanced, but has not been achieved. The complexities of politics in both jurisdictions continue to challenge this goal, but the 2016 elections point to a defining moment, one that would have pleased the suffragists and gives hope to their sister campaigners today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91286/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marie Coleman receives funding from the Arts & Humanities Research Council</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yvonne Galligan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Ireland was quick to elect a woman member of parliament, but it’s been slow going thereafter.Marie Coleman, Senior Lecturer in Modern Irish History, Queen's University BelfastYvonne Galligan, Professor, School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics, Queen's University BelfastLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/912992018-02-06T16:31:44Z2018-02-06T16:31:44ZWhy feminism still matters to young people<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205114/original/file-20180206-88788-hlv1dr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/1015176685?src=HTQpzUEGr496s0fg9HGmog-1-2&size=huge_jpg">Shutterstock.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It has been 100 years since women won the right to vote in Britain. More accurately, it’s 90 years since <em>young</em> women were able to vote; 2018 actually celebrates 100 years since suffrage was given to women over 30. </p>
<p>Feminism <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14742837.2015.1077112">is held up</a> as one of the most successful social movements of the 20th century. But ten years ago, when Catherine Redfern and I were planning <a href="https://www.zedbooks.net/shop/book/reclaiming-the-f-word/">our book</a> on reclaiming feminism, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/jul/02/gender.women">some said</a> young people just weren’t interested in “the f word” anymore.</p>
<p>Back in the 1990s and early 2000s, young women were portrayed smashing glass ceilings in Louboutin heels, and feminism seemed rather outmoded. Many women thought of themselves as <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3594675?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">post-feminist</a>, feeling there was no need for feminism, since gender equality had been achieved. But this wasn’t really true, and a lot of the fear about calling yourself a feminist came from the negative stereotyping of feminists as bitter “<a href="https://feministkilljoys.com/">killjoys</a>”.</p>
<h2>It’s still needed</h2>
<p>Things have changed. Feminism is now less despised because it’s more obviously needed. Women in the UK have been living under a regime of austerity since the 2008 economic crisis. They have shouldered <a href="http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/SN06758">86% of the income loss</a> from changes to the tax and benefits systems since 2010, simply because they are more likely to be welfare recipients in the first place. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the resurgence of the far right has led to violence and harassment against ethnic minority women, with Muslim women <a href="https://www.tellmamauk.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/maybewearehated.pdf">bearing</a> the brunt of virulent Islamophobia. There is a stubborn gender pay gap (now <a href="https://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/Handlers/Download.ashx?IDMF=2aea3562-bfd8-414d-99be-86f81161dffd">14% for full-time workers</a>), and women pensioners in the UK face <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/justice/gender-equality/files/documents/150618_men_women_pensions_en.pdf">one of the worst gender income gaps in Europe</a>. </p>
<p>The list goes on: gender-based violence is alarmingly high. <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/compendium/focusonviolentcrimeandsexualoffences/yearendingmarch2016/domesticabusesexualassaultandstalking">Crime statistics</a> show that one in four women, and one in seven men aged 16 to 59 have experience domestic abuse. The most harmful forms of abuse – sexual violence, especially – affect mostly women. Yet three-quarters of councils have cut funds to domestic violence services due to government budget cuts, and <a href="http://www.theweek.co.uk/checked-out/90364/the-truth-about-british-funding-for-women-s-refuges">a third of referrals</a> to refuges are now being turned away because of a lack of room.</p>
<h2>It’s gaining popularity</h2>
<p>These examples of gender inequality explain why more people are identifying as feminists – especially young women. A 2013 <a href="https://www.girlguiding.org.uk/globalassets/docs-and-resources/research-and-campaigns/girls-attitudes-survey-2013.pdf">Girlguiding survey</a> found that 35% of girls and young women aged 11 to 21 were happy to call themselves feminists. In 2017, this was the case for 43% of 18 to 34-year-old women, according to <a href="https://plan-uk.org/media-centre/young-people-more-likely-to-be-feminist-research">a poll</a> by Plan International, or <a href="http://www.elleuk.com/life-and-culture/culture/news/a37534/rejoice-over-two-thirds-of-young-british-women-identify-as-feminists-but-theres-still-work-to-do/">54% of 18 to 24-year-old</a> women, according to UM London. </p>
<p>Today’s feminist movement is more diverse than ever before. Feminism has become more attentive to the wider range of experiences of those oppressed by gender norms and stereotypes, including men, non-binary and trans people. </p>
<p>There’s also greater awareness of the way that racism, anti-religious hatred, disablism or homophobia work alongside sexism, creating complex forms of prejudice and oppression. It’s not so much that feminism has moved “beyond” sexism. Rather, a wider range of voices is now being counted as feminist. <a href="http://www.heforshe.org/en">The HeForShe campaign</a>, which encourages men to become advocates for gender equality, and <a href="http://www.muslimahmediawatch.org/about-2/">Muslimah Media Watch</a>, a forum where Muslim women critique how they are presented in the media and popular culture, are examples of this. </p>
<h2>It’s already happening</h2>
<p>If the current situation has anything positive to show, it’s that where there’s injustice, there’s also resistance. Young people are already challenging the forces feminist author <a href="http://www.bellhooksinstitute.com/">bell hooks</a> calls <a href="http://www.mediaed.org/transcripts/Bell-Hooks-Transcript.pdf">“white supremacist capitalist patriarchy”</a> with style and skill – they don’t need to be told how by older feminists. What’s crucial now is to recognise the work they are doing and draw even more people to the cause. </p>
<p>Campaigns such as #TimesUp in the US and <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-sofia-helin-and-swedens-metoo-movement-aim-to-change-the-script-on-sexism-90962">#tystnadtagning in Sweden</a> have used the star power of famous actors – many of whom are young women – to draw a line under sexual harassment and abuse in the workplace, across all industries. Yet even worldwide movements can start with the actions of a single person: activist Tarana Burke <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/17/us/me-too-tarana-burke-origin-trnd/index.html">has been credited</a> with starting the #metoo movement more than ten years ago, based on her experiences as a youth camp director for Just Be Inc. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"920067975016624128"}"></div></p>
<p>As these examples show, feminist activism takes many forms, from a single person signing a petition, to group protests on local issues such as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/sep/10/activists-demand-closure-yarls-wood-surround-centre-wall-noise">the campaign to close Yarl’s Wood detention centre in Bedfordshire</a>, right through to large-scale actions coordinated by women’s organisations, such as <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/womens-march-2018-latest-updates-protest-donald-trump-power-polls-feminism-washington-las-vegas-new-a8169781.html">Women’s March</a>. Feminist acts can be taken through formal political routes. For example, by lobbying a local member of parliament, or by informal means, such as sharing information about a topic on social media or boycotting a company known for exploiting women employees. </p>
<p>Individuals can make a difference by working for a women’s charity, becoming a local councillor or calling out sexual harassment wherever they encounter it. Even the conversations we have with our friends in our spare time can be a productive way to raise awareness about sexism.</p>
<p>There is no “right” form of activism and no one issue of greatest importance. A century ago, women’s rights activists weren’t all fighting for suffrage – some of them were working on other campaigns, such as equal access to university education, or a decent wage for working-class women. Nor did getting the vote solve other instances of gender injustice. So this 100-year anniversary is about much more than just “the vote”. Feminism is a movement for gender justice, and it needs to be fought by many different people, in many different ways.</p>
<p><em>This article has been corrected to reflect the fact that Tarana Burke started the #metoo movement based on her experiences as a youth camp director for Just Be Inc, not Brooklyn-based Girls for Gender Equity, of which she is now senior director.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91299/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kristin Aune does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s been 100 years since women over 30 won the right to vote in Britain. But that didn’t solve gender injustice – and young people today need feminism more than ever.Kristin Aune, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Trust, Peace & Social Relations, Coventry UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/911692018-02-05T14:14:37Z2018-02-05T14:14:37ZHundred years of votes for women: how far we’ve come and how far there’s still to go<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204845/original/file-20180205-19944-bxj9wt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/lselibrary/22301202314/in/album-72157660822880401/">World's Graphic Press Limited</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As we mark the centenary of women’s votes in the UK, it’s important to reflect both on the achievements of the women’s rights movements as well as the work that remains to be done. Despite the progress of the past 100 years, recent events, such as <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/075d679e-0033-11e8-9650-9c0ad2d7c5b5">the Presidents Club scandal</a>, highlight the deeply rooted nature of gender inequalities in modern society.</p>
<p>The gender pay gap persists and we’ve only recently come to talk about the pervasiveness of sexual harassment. It’s clear that to achieve meaningful equality there needs to be a fundamental shift in the way society views women’s contribution to politics and the economy. Recognising that society and the economy are, themselves, gendered is a starting point – as is acknowledging that different women have different experiences. This is the challenge for women’s rights activists in the 21st century: opening a space for dialogue, cohesion and solidarity through difference, where a diverse range of voices are provided equal status and legitimacy. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204850/original/file-20180205-19915-1flm2v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204850/original/file-20180205-19915-1flm2v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204850/original/file-20180205-19915-1flm2v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204850/original/file-20180205-19915-1flm2v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204850/original/file-20180205-19915-1flm2v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204850/original/file-20180205-19915-1flm2v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204850/original/file-20180205-19915-1flm2v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Pankhursts endure some intense mansplaining in the dock.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">LSE library</span></span>
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<p>The anniversary of the 1918 milestone is the perfect moment to think about this. After all, only <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jan/28/100-women-on-100-years-of-womens-vote-suffrage">some women</a> were given the right to vote back then. Gaining the right to vote represents entry into a political community; it’s supposed to pave the way to equal citizenship rights. Yet, in February 1918, while the vote was extended to all men, it was only given to women over the age of 30 who owned property. </p>
<p>By establishing a higher threshold for membership of this community, the law ultimately reinforced women’s status as second class citizens. Women would have to wait another ten years before achieving equal status with men, when parliament ratified <a href="http://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/womenvote/overview/thevote/">the 1928 Equal Franchise Act</a>. </p>
<h2>A new focus, an old problem</h2>
<p>The past century has seen the introduction of a number of legislative changes aimed at improving women’s position and standing in society, politics and the economy. It should not be assumed, however, that there have not been significant bumps in the road. Progress has been slow and continues to be rather uneven.</p>
<p>The end of World War II was a critical moment in the history of women’s participation in the political and economic life of the country. As a result of women’s contribution to the war effort, the public became more aware of women’s participation in the labour market. This helped to bolster the emergence of a transnational second wave feminist movement in the aftermath of the war. </p>
<p>Key demands of this movement were equal pay, equal treatment, maternity rights and reproductive rights. So in 100 years the debate has shifted to reflect women’s changing roles and expectations of society. From fighting for women’s right to vote, we now talk about women on boards and extending parental leave to serving <a href="https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/CDP-2018-0023">members of parliament</a>.</p>
<p>But while the focus of debates has changed, gender continues to be a structure of power that underpins both society and the economy. Women remain largely underrepresented in the British parliament and in other positions of power. Focusing simply on access – that is, legal equality – has achieved some change, but has not resulted in a more equal society. Arguably, this approach has failed to address how gender, as a structure of power, shapes every aspect of life.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204848/original/file-20180205-19918-kghgq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204848/original/file-20180205-19918-kghgq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204848/original/file-20180205-19918-kghgq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204848/original/file-20180205-19918-kghgq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204848/original/file-20180205-19918-kghgq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204848/original/file-20180205-19918-kghgq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204848/original/file-20180205-19918-kghgq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The imbalance persists.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/lselibrary/22505248287/in/album-72157660822880401/">LSE library.</a></span>
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<p>The persistence of the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42580194">gender pay gap</a> shows that gender equality policies are not enough to address how the labour market is actually structured. Gender segregation of the labour market, coupled with women’s care burden, continue to result in unequal outcomes and reproduce gender inequalities, despite the good will of governments.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, recent surveys have found that women MPs are regularly subjected to <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41237836">online abuse and threats</a> – and the situation is significantly worse for black and minority women MPs. Addressing the widespread abuse women receive when engaging in political debate needs to become a marker for democracy.</p>
<h2>Forward together</h2>
<p>The road ahead is therefore still long. Our starting point now needs to be that gender is a process, not a variable. It interacts with other structures of power, such as class and race, to hold women back. This is a more useful way to understand the challenges facing women’s rights activists in the 21st century.</p>
<p>Intersectional feminism provides an important opening for this and future discussions. By recognising race, class, gender, sexuality, disability and legal status as <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/668238/pdf">“interlocking systems of oppression”</a>, we can think about what is required to build a more inclusive society based on the principle of solidarity.</p>
<p>In order to achieve lasting change, women’s rights activism has to promote a form of representation that focuses women’s multiple voices. Perhaps most importantly, it has to be based on a politics of solidarity between individuals and communities with diverse experiences. It has to pay homage to the achievements of 100 years of feminist activism while recognising that there is plenty more work to do to achieve a more inclusive and equal society.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91169/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roberta Guerrina does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Not everyone won the vote in 1918, and not everyone is living their best life now.Roberta Guerrina, Professor of Politics, University of SurreyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/911962018-02-05T14:07:11Z2018-02-05T14:07:11ZWomen’s votes: six amazing facts from around the world<p>On February 6, 1918, British women – (<a href="http://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/womenvote/case-study-the-right-to-vote/the-right-to-vote/birmingham-and-the-equal-franchise/1918-representation-of-the-people-act/">well, the wealthy ones over 30</a>) – were given the right to vote. And since the 1960s, women have been voting in British national elections at basically <a href="http://www.britishelectionstudy.com/bes-findings/women-men-and-the-2017-general-election-by-jane-green-and-chris-prosser/#.WnepW4e7LIU%E2%80%8B">the same rate as men</a>. But how is the rest of the world doing? Here’s a snapshot. </p>
<h2>1. Ecuador: transgender friendly (at voting booths)</h2>
<p>In Ecuador, men and women vote separately. The country was in the headlines last year when it decided to allow transgender people to choose the male or female line, according to the gender with which they identify. Diane Rodriguez, a transgender woman, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ecuador-election-transgender/ecuador-transgender-people-vote-for-first-time-according-to-chosen-gender-idUSKBN15Y0SN">described</a> the harassment she would face in the male line and her relief that she could now vote without discrimination. </p>
<h2>2. Vatican City: only place women can’t vote</h2>
<p>The only election held in Vatican City is when <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-21412589">cardinals vote for a new pope</a>. Women cannot be cardinals (despite the hope a few years ago that Pope Francis might appoint <a href="http://time.com/3729904/francis-women/">female cardinals</a>) and so this is an exclusively male electorate.</p>
<p>That said, the majority of Vatican City’s approximately 800 residents, including men, are excluded from this vote.</p>
<h2>3. Saudi Arabia: latest place to let women vote</h2>
<p>Saudi Arabia is the most recent country to grant women the vote. In 2015, they were given the right to take part in <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/12/11/saudi-arabia-landmark-elections-women">municipal elections</a>.</p>
<p>Although this marked significant progress for Saudi women, <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2016/07/16/boxed/women-and-saudi-arabias-male-guardianship-system">a system of male guardianship</a> makes it difficult in practice for women to vote. Saudi women are unable to drive themselves to the polling booths (though from June 2018 women will be <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/26/saudi-arabia-allow-women-drive/">granted driving permits</a>). It’s therefore no surprise that <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/12/analysis-women-voting-saudi-arabia-151213055435453.html">less than 10%</a> of Saudi’s voters in the 2015 elections were women.</p>
<h2>4. Pakistan: one of the biggest gender gaps</h2>
<p>Female participation in Pakistani elections is among the <a href="https://www.idea.int/sites/default/files/publications/voter-turnout-trends-around-the-world.pdf">lowest in the world</a>. Statistics from Pakistan’s <a href="http://iknowpolitics.org/sites/default/files/vawe-interior%5B-web-rev_dec.pdf">2013 elections</a> showed that turnout for women voters was less than 10% in nearly 800 polling stations. In some areas, female voter turnout was as low as 3%. Although Pakistani women were given the vote in 1956, community and religious leaders in some of the most conservative parts of the country prevent women from voting.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/may/04/pakistan-women-right-to-vote">Leaflets were circulated</a> in the 2013 elections warning men not to allow female family members to vote because it was “un-Islamic.” These practices <a href="http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/blog/2015/6/25/There-is-no-honor-in-barring-women-from-voting.html">continued in 2015 local elections</a>.</p>
<h2>5. Sexual violence against women on the rise</h2>
<p>Human Rights Watch published <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/12/14/kenya-sexual-violence-marred-elections">a report in 2017</a> which documented the sexual violence against women in Kenya’s 2017 elections. These incidents were unfortunately representative of a growing rise in violence against women in elections. A recent <a href="http://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/library/publications/2017/preventingvaw-in-elections.pdf?la=en&vs=2640">United Nations report</a> documents how women are increasingly victims of politically motivated rape and other forms of sexual violence, preventing them from participating freely in elections.</p>
<h2>6. China: women voters vastly outnumbered by men</h2>
<p>In 2017, more than 2,000 delegates attended the 19th Congress of the Communist Party of China in order to plan a five-year strategy. These powerful delegates were elected but only Party members were able to vote – and <a href="http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2017-06/30/content_29952238.htm">74% of those members are male</a>.</p>
<p>Despite the gender imbalance, that means that nearly 23m women voters participated. The voter turnout among Party members was <a href="http://en.people.cn/n3/2017/1005/c90000-9276846.html">a staggering 99.2%</a>. By comparison, the turnout for the British 2017 General Election was <a href="http://www.ukpolitical.info/Turnout45.htm">a measly 68.7%</a>, with <a href="http://www.britishelectionstudy.com/bes-findings/women-men-and-the-2017-general-election-by-jane-green-and-chris-prosser/#.Wneproe7LIU">slightly more women voting than men</a>.</p>
<p>A century on from votes for British women, progress has clearly been made around the world. The majority of the sexist laws that prevented women from voting have been repealed. However, there are still significant practical or cultural barriers that prevent female electoral participation. </p>
<p>Multiple international initiatives, <a href="http://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/leadership-and-political-participation">including the United Nations programme on women’s political participation</a>, focus on removing barriers so women can vote. Such barriers are complex and multi-dimensional but include illiteracy (<a href="https://unstats.un.org/unsd/gender/worldswomen.html">nearly two-thirds of the world’s illiterate adults are women</a>) and childcare responsibilities which prevent women from leaving the home. Much more needs to be done before every woman can have a meaningful say about the way their nation is run.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91196/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebecca Wright does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Saudi Arabia is the most recent country to grant women the vote. Pakistan has some serious work to do. And Vatican City really needs to get with the programme.Rebecca Wright, Barrister and Human Rights Lecturer, Sheffield Hallam UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/910932018-02-05T12:42:41Z2018-02-05T12:42:41ZHow 17,000 petitions helped deliver votes for women<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204816/original/file-20180205-19918-1foijgt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/lselibrary/39253760154/">LSE library</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the 50 years before women gained the vote in 1918, almost 17,000 petitions for women’s suffrage were sent to the House of Commons, containing over 3.3m signatures. Other petitions were sent to the House of Lords, the king, and the prime minister.</p>
<p>Most people know about the famous examples of suffragette activity, such as window breaking and street demonstrations. By contrast, petitions show a different side of the campaign: the patient, behind the scenes activity that helped deliver votes for women. </p>
<p>The suffrage campaign was, itself, founded by a <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/womenvote/parliamentary-collections/1866-suffrage-petition/collecting-the-signatures/">petition</a> signed by over 1,500 women, including leading activists <a href="https://victoriancommons.wordpress.com/2016/06/07/the-first-humble-beginnings-of-an-agitation-the-womens-suffrage-petition-of-7-june-1866/">Barbara Bodichon and Emily Davies</a>. This was presented to the House of Commons by the liberal philosopher <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/womenvote/parliamentary-collections/1866-suffrage-petition/john-stuart-mill/">John Stuart Mill</a> on June 7 1866. </p>
<p>As the right to vote was linked to property, the petition claimed that propertied women had a right to the franchise. Though a limited demand that did not include married women (who could not own property at this time), the petition provided a rallying point for a new movement. </p>
<p>While women (and the majority of men) could not vote at this time, <a href="https://www.dur.ac.uk/history/research/research_projects/petitionsandpeople/">all British subjects had the right to petition</a>. Petitioning was one of the few political rights women possessed and had proved an effective strategy in earlier campaigns. Women had been active both as petitioners and canvassers who collected signatures in the movement for the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=rgeFAgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=women+against+slavery&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiI0tjJ6ITZAhVCYlAKHdpoAJwQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=petitioning&f=false">abolition of slavery</a>, for example. So when suffrage bills were debated in parliament in the 1870s and 1880s, the National Society for Women’s Suffrage encouraged petitions in support.</p>
<p>The architect of the movement’s petitioning strategy was the Manchester feminist <a href="https://radicalmanchester.wordpress.com/2010/03/05/lydia-becker-1827-1890-the-fight-for-votes-for-women/">Lydia Becker</a>. In Ireland, the Dublin Women’s Suffrage Association, led by <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/century/century-women-and-the-vote/standing-up-for-women-in-politics-1.553520">Anna Haslam</a>, orchestrated petitioning activity.</p>
<p>Petitions were a good way of raising public awareness, getting media coverage and keeping suffrage on the political agenda. For example, in the 1890s, campaigners organised a <a href="http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/petitions-committee/petition-of-the-month/the-1896-womens-suffrage-petition-/">“special appeal”</a> for the vote, signed by 257,000 women. This was one of the largest petitions of the 19th century. The appeal was displayed to MPs in a special exhibition in May 1896.</p>
<p>At the January 1910 general election, suffragists organised petitions from male voters in many constituencies. This was an attempt to use petitions to hold an <a href="http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/petitions-committee/petition-of-the-month/the-1910-the-1910-petitions-on-womens-suffrage/">unofficial referendum</a> on women’s suffrage. During the 1913 <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/the-womens-blog-with-jane-martinson/2013/jul/11/join-great-suffrage-pilgrimage">“pilgrimage”</a>, which saw women gradually descend on <a href="http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/pilgrimage-map.jpg">London after starting from different locations</a>, pilgrims sent petitions along their way.</p>
<h2>Patience and results</h2>
<p>The groups fighting for women’s suffrage did not, however, see eye to eye on the role petitions should play. Suffragette leaders Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst believed that petitioning a parliament of men was a waste of time. The failure of traditional constitutional tactics showed that new, militant methods of campaigning were necessary.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204799/original/file-20180205-19925-i8f34h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204799/original/file-20180205-19925-i8f34h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204799/original/file-20180205-19925-i8f34h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=813&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204799/original/file-20180205-19925-i8f34h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=813&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204799/original/file-20180205-19925-i8f34h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=813&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204799/original/file-20180205-19925-i8f34h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1021&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204799/original/file-20180205-19925-i8f34h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1021&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204799/original/file-20180205-19925-i8f34h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1021&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Emmeline Pankhurst is arrested in London.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AMrs_Emmeline_Pankhurst%2C_Leader_of_the_Women's_Suffragette_movement%2C_is_arrested_outside_Buckingham_Palace_while_trying_to_present_a_petition_to_King_George_V_in_May_1914._Q81486.jpg">Wikipedia</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>But suffragettes never entirely abandoned petitioning. In May 1914 Emmeline Pankhurst was arrested on her way to presenting a petition to the king, generating one of the <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mrs_Emmeline_Pankhurst,_Leader_of_the_Women%27s_Suffragette_movement,_is_arrested_outside_Buckingham_Palace_while_trying_to_present_a_petition_to_King_George_V_in_May_1914._Q81486.jpg">iconic suffrage images</a>. </p>
<p>At a time when women were excluded from parliament and voting, petitions were a way to directly engage with male politicians. For Irish suffragists, petitioning allowed them to challenge the British Parliament as well as supporting the wider campaign. Women asserted their right to citizenship through petitions, while petitioning demonstrated their capacity for political participation. </p>
<p>Many of the petitions called for the right to vote to be extended to women on the same terms “as it is, or may be” given to men. But suffrage petitions addressed other issues too. For example, the 1902 petition signed by women undergraduates argued that the vote was the only way to ensure the equal educational status of women. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204805/original/file-20180205-19915-1xc7nbi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204805/original/file-20180205-19915-1xc7nbi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204805/original/file-20180205-19915-1xc7nbi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204805/original/file-20180205-19915-1xc7nbi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204805/original/file-20180205-19915-1xc7nbi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204805/original/file-20180205-19915-1xc7nbi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204805/original/file-20180205-19915-1xc7nbi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204805/original/file-20180205-19915-1xc7nbi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Men fought for the cause too.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/lselibrary/23185471083/in/album-72157660822880401/">LSE library</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In response to anti-suffragist claims that women didn’t want the vote, petitions showed that there was in fact popular support for suffrage. They came from <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/lselibrary/23185471083/in/album-72157660822880401/">men</a> and women and became a way to organise and mobilise a broad, diverse, popular coalition for women’s suffrage. Petitions came from all over the UK and from different types of people, such as women university students in 1902, or women farmers in 1883. Getting people to sign petitions was a first step to recruiting them as active members of the movement. Suffragists preferred to work at local level, gradually spreading their message through the process of <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/lselibrary/26550633856">gathering signatures</a>. </p>
<h2>The modern petition</h2>
<p>These days, e-petitioning has emerged as a popular form of political engagement. Critics complain that the lack of impact of e-petitions shows that they are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/30/unsubscribe-avaaz-change-38-degrees-pointless-e-petitions">pointless</a>. Others have argued that e-petitions encourage a lazy, disengaged <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/aug/12/clicktivism-ruining-leftist-activism">clicktivism</a> in the place of real, active political engagement. </p>
<p>But as the history of suffrage petitioning shows us, focusing on the lack of immediate results misses the point of petitioning. The majority of petitions throughout history have been unsuccessful. Petitioning has remained a popular form of political activity because of the numerous advantages it has, even if authorities reject or ignore the demands of petitioners. Petitions keep a topic on the political agenda even when politicians would rather avoid the issue. Petitioning raises public awareness and attracts media coverage. Petitions identify support and channel it behind a national campaign, and can act as a first step for further activity on an issue. </p>
<p>The suffrage movement also suggests that petitioning is most effective when it is embedded within, rather than divorced from, other forms of political activity, such as such as public meetings, demonstrations, or elections.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91093/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henry Miller receives funding from the Leverhulme Trust. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span><a href="mailto:ciara.e.stewart@durham.ac.uk">ciara.e.stewart@durham.ac.uk</a> receives funding from the Leverhulme Trust. </span></em></p>The women’s suffrage campaign shows the advantages of petitioning, even when demands are rejected.Henry Miller, Senior Research Fellow, Leverhulme Trust Rethinking Petitions project, Durham UniversityCiara Stewart, PhD candidate, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/910862018-02-05T12:04:04Z2018-02-05T12:04:04ZPankhurst sisters: the bitter divisions behind their fight for women’s votes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204395/original/file-20180201-123826-tjc6hc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Emmeline, Christabel and Sylvia Pankhurst: a family at war with itself.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ABritain_Before_the_First_World_War_Q81490.jpg">Imperial War Museum/Wikipedia</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Emmeline Pankhurst, her eldest daughter Christabel and some local socialist women founded, in 1903, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Womens-Social-and-Political-Union">Women’s Social and Political Union</a> (WSPU). Their goal was to campaign for the parliamentary vote for women.</p>
<p>The women-only WSPU, whose members were called “suffragettes”, became the most notorious of the various groupings campaigning for the vote – and the name “Pankhurst” synonymous with the suffrage struggle.</p>
<p>Emmeline Pankhurst, the inspirational leader of the WSPU, and Christabel, its key strategist, worked closely together during the suffrage campaign, always putting the women’s vote first. Both were charismatic figures and powerful orators who, with their cry of “Rise up women!”, roused thousands of women to demand their democratic right.</p>
<p>Yet the story about the suffragette campaign is not just a story about first wave feminism. It’s also a tale about family rifts and differing strands of feminism. </p>
<p>The dominant narrative about Pankhurst family life and the suffragette campaign is Sylvia Pankhurst’s book <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Suffragette-Movement-Intimate-Account-Persons/dp/1446510433">The Suffragette Movement</a>, first published in 1931 and then republished in paperback in 1977. Written from a socialist feminist perspective, it reflects on her unhappy childhood when her sister Christabel was recognised as their mother’s favourite and also on her disagreements with her relatives about WSPU tactics.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204398/original/file-20180201-123843-qqwhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204398/original/file-20180201-123843-qqwhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=790&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204398/original/file-20180201-123843-qqwhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=790&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204398/original/file-20180201-123843-qqwhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=790&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204398/original/file-20180201-123843-qqwhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=993&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204398/original/file-20180201-123843-qqwhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=993&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204398/original/file-20180201-123843-qqwhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=993&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Sylvia Pankhurst: dominant narrative of a movement.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ASylvia-Pankhurst_1.jpg">Wikipedia</a></span>
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<p>The three Pankhurst women were all members of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/from-the-archive-blog/2011/may/17/guardian190-independent-labour-party-foundation">Independent Labour Party</a> (ILP) but Emmeline and Christabel became disillusioned with the way the ILP never gave priority to the women’s issue, despite its claim to support gender equality. When they resigned from the ILP in 1907, Sylvia was deeply upset. She wanted to link the WSPU to the socialist movement. Sylvia subsequently portrayed her sister in The Suffragette Movement as an evil Svengali who led their easily swayed mother away from the true path of socialism. She labelled separatist feminist Christabel a Tory.</p>
<p>The ideological differences between the Pankhurst women didn’t end there. Sylvia sought to fuse her feminism and socialism by forming, in 1913, a working-class grouping in the East End of London. Her <a href="https://www.eastlondonsuffragettes.com/">East London Federation of the Suffragettes</a>, although formally linked to the WSPU, followed its own independent line. It would not attack the Labour party nor Labour parliamentary candidates unsympathetic to women’s suffrage. Such a policy was too much for her mother and Christabel to stomach. In early 1914, Sylvia was expelled from the WSPU, a bruising encounter that she describes in great detail in The Suffragette Movement. She painted the WSPU as elitist and unattractive to working-class and socialist women.</p>
<h2>Rethinking Christabel</h2>
<p>Sylvia’s book, written as a rejected daughter and an angry socialist, was readily welcomed in the 1970s by left-leaning feminist historians who were influential in developing women’s history in the UK. The Suffragette Movement became the standard reading of events, accepted uncritically and rarely questioned. But there are other stories to tell.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204396/original/file-20180201-123826-1j619ss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204396/original/file-20180201-123826-1j619ss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204396/original/file-20180201-123826-1j619ss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=813&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204396/original/file-20180201-123826-1j619ss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=813&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204396/original/file-20180201-123826-1j619ss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=813&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204396/original/file-20180201-123826-1j619ss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1021&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204396/original/file-20180201-123826-1j619ss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1021&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204396/original/file-20180201-123826-1j619ss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1021&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Christabel Pankhurst: flying the flag for women’s votes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AChristabel_Pankhurst%2C_1909._(22524148738).jpg">Wikipedia</a></span>
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<p>In my most recent book, <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Christabel-Pankhurst-Biography-Womens-History/dp/0815371497">Christabel Pankhurst: a biography</a>, I contend that Christabel was not a Tory, as Sylvia claims. She was a feminist who believed that the subordinate status of women in Edwardian society was due to the power of men (including socialist men). Consequently she saw the separatist, women-only WSPU as an important vehicle for women to foster a sense of sisterhood. It would enable them to stand on their own two feet and articulate their demands.</p>
<p>Christabel was a forerunner of “radical feminism”, a category of feminist thought that became pronounced in the second wave of the women’s movement in Western Europe and the US from the late 1960s. Thus, like second wave feminists who came after her, Christabel emphasised the power of men in a male-defined world and the importance of a women-only movement as a means for raising women’s consciousness. She prioritised the commonalities that all women share despite their differences, and believed in putting women first rather than considerations of social class, political affiliation or socialism.</p>
<p>Expressions of this feminist perspective can be found in many of the articles Christabel published during the suffrage campaign and in her own memoir, <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Unshackled-Story-Vote-Womens-Voices/dp/0091728851">Unshackled: the Story of How We Won the Vote</a>, which first appeared in 1959, one year after her death. Unshackled, with its matter-of-fact prose, was no literary match for Sylvia’s The Suffragette Movement. Nonetheless, Christabel wrote with passion and determination about her wish to free women from the stigma of inferiority that the denial of the vote embodied. She emphasised the uniting of all women as “one independent force” as the key reason why the formal link between the ILP and the WSPU was broken, at least at central level. Further in Unshackled, Christabel understated her own importance and emphasised the valiant role of her mother, to whom she was devoted.</p>
<p>Negotiating around these memoirs, when I was researching for biographies of both <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Emmeline-Pankhurst-Biography-Womens-History/dp/0415325935">Emmeline</a> and Christabel, was not easy. But from consulting a wide range of primary sources, a number of themes became clear. Emmeline Pankhurst was never the weak leader that Sylvia portrayed. Strong, passionate fiery and determined, she endured 13 imprisonments during the turbulent years of the suffragette campaign. And the charming, witty Christabel, with her wish to attract women of all political persuasions into the WSPU was not a Tory. Nor did the WSPU fail to attract working-class women and socialist women.</p>
<p>The twists and turns of the strong-minded Pankhurst women have fascinated people for many years, perhaps because it is within this family that we find the strands of thinking that have divided feminists in the past, and still do so today. But their memoirs also raise important issues about how rivalry among sisters can shape the stories they tell.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91086/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>June Purvis received financial support from the Centre for European and International Studies at the University of Portsmouth and the British Academy's Small Grant Scheme for Emmeline Pankhurst: a biography (Routledge, 2002) and Christabel Pankhurst: a biography (Routledge, 2018). She has edited 14 collections including Women's History Britain, 1850-1945 (UCL Press, 1995), The Women's Suffrage Movement: new feminist perspectives (with Maroula Joannou, 1998 & 2009), Votes for Women (with Sandra S Holton, Routledge 2000) and Women's Activism: Global Perspectives from the 1890s to the Present (with Francesac de Haan et al, Routledge,2013). </span></em></p>Sylvia Pankhurst’s book is the dominant narrative of the time, but was she unfair to her sister Christabel?June Purvis, Emeritus Professor of Women's and Gender History, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.