3 Forgotten Suffragettes you HAVE to know about!

In 1918 women were finally given a portion of the vote; with the Representation of the People Act allowing women over 30 who were married to a property owner, were graduates in a  University Constituency or were a member of a Local Government Register (or at least married to one!) to vote in elections.

Getting to this partial step towards equality had been one loooooong fight. Thousands upon thousands of women fought for decades for the simple right of having a say in their own lives.

So, lets remember the badass brave ladies that history all too often forgets!

Note: For this post we’ll be focusing on 3 unsung Suffragettes, but if you’d like to check out some Suffragist articles, then just click here or here!

1. The fire starter: Kitty Marion 

Picture of Kitty Marion that was also used by Police for surveillance 

A former chorus girl, Kitty Marion was steadily climbing the ranks to become a headlining music hall act. But she quickly discovered that wasn’t going to happen unless she got on the casting couch.

Sounds familiar huh? 🤔

Kitty was appalled by just how disgustingly sexist the theatre industry was. But she wasn’t going to give in that easily.

Instead of walking away, she decided to fight; not just for her, but for every woman! She wanted women to be seen as equals, not as objects. In her mind that couldn’t happen until women had equal political power.

And so in 1908, Kitty joined the WSPU (Women’s Social and Political Union, commonly known as The Suffragettes) 

Now, to say Kitty was happy to use militant tactics for the cause, would be the understatement of the century.

Kitty during one of her many arrests 

Kitty was arrested a ton, for a whole litany of crimes, including window smashing, pulling fire alarms and Kitty’s personal favourite, arson.

She burned down Hurst race courses grand stand, an MPs house and several properties across Manchester and Liverpool.

Kitty actually kept a scrapbook, where much like her theatrical press cuttings, she popped news articles about her arson attacks; including several pieces on attacks where the culprit was never found…hmmm, I wonder who could have done those?!? 

Yeah, I don’t think we need Sherlock to crack this particular case…

Unsurprisingly for someone carrying out all of the arson, Kitty spent a lot of time in prison.

 

She regularly undertook hunger strikes, which led to her being force fed a record 242 times.

But Kitty was unwavering. Even setting fire to her cell after one force feeding (girl had a theme!)

I mean, look at the steely stare!

By 1915, the First World War was in full swing and the German born Kitty was seen as way to much of a threat to remain in the UK (to be fair, she was doing all of the arson..) so she was deported to America, where she could live a quiet life and stay out of trouble.

Obvs, Kitty immediately joined the US birth control movement.

She was part of the group that would go on to create Planned Parenthood and spent a lot of time on the streets raising awareness of birth control.

This led to Kitty receiving deaths threats and daily abuse. Her actions also meant she was arrested again and again and again!

We all know by this point, that Kitty refused to give up

In 1921 Kitty and Margaret Sanger set up America’s first birth control clinic. The police never stopped trying to close it.

Kitty continued campaigning until her old age, eventually dying in 1944, surrounded by her friends and fellow fighters.

 

2. The teenage tear away: Dora Thewlis

Dora had been working in a Huddersfield mill since she was just over 10.

Now to be blunt, being a mill worker was the worst. The hours were long, the pay shit and the safety negligible; with children and adults both working in hazardous conditions.

But, Dora was one smart cookie. She’d bring pouring through newspapers and chatting politics since she was just 7! All this parliamentary prose has made Dora determined to see change, but she knew this couldn’t happen when half the population couldn’t even vote!

So in her early teens, Dora became a founding member of her local WSPU branch.

Again, she is a teenager and founds a branch of a political organisation. Just. Wow. 

In February 1907, a 16 year old Dora hopped on a train with her fellow WSPU members and travelled from Manchester to London for a quick parliamentary protest road trip.

 

Dora’s ‘clog and shawl brigade’ were joined outside Parliament by WSPU groups from all over Britain.

They weren’t alone; an army of hundreds of policeman met the ladies head on and things quickly escalated.

Pretty quickly 75 suffragettes we’re arrested for trying to ‘rush’ the House of Commons; Dora was one of them.

Within hours of her arrest, Dora was the face of the suffrage movement. With this picture slap in the middle of the Daily Mirrors front page.

This picture also went on to become popular anti-suffrage postcards

The newspapers dubbed her:

‘The baby suffragette’

When she appeared in court, the judge (here to be known as Captain Asshat) was equally condescending and flippant. Proclaiming to the court that he was sure the reason Dora was actually in London was to ‘entice’ men. Captain asshat then went onto ask:

‘Where is your mother?’

Sadly if captain Asshat was thinking Dora’s Mum would be pissed at her daughter, he was wrong! Dora’s Mum actually wrote to him saying just how proud she was of her headstrong and intelligent daughter!

Sadly, no matter how amazing this was, it didn’t help. 16 year old Dora was sent to prison.

Teenagers and horrifying prisons, not a great mix

Now, being in prison as a suffragette was hard, being in prison as a working class suffragette was HAAAAAAARD.

Dora was bullied by the guards and most probably experienced beatings in addition to the daily verbal harassment.

By the time she left, the teenagers spirit was crushed.

But that didn’t stop the Edwardian paparazzi hounding Dora as soon as she stepped off the train in Manchester!

They all wanted to know what the baby suffragette would do next.

Dora was not down with this!

She was done with the hierarchy treating her like a child whose views were a cutesy joke. Nearly 17, she shot back at journalists:

‘Don’t call me the ‘Baby Suffragette’, I am not a baby. In May next year I shall be 18. Surely for a girl, that is a good age?’ 

Yes Dora!!!

 

Dora continued campaigning; until in 1914 she decided to escape mill life; moving to Australia.

There she lived happily until a ripe old age, with her husband and children (who btw were all obvs educated in feminism and the need for equal rights for all!)

 

3. The wild woman: Leonora Cohen

Leonora Cohen grew up in a hard working family; just like Dora, she worked from an early age. eventually settling down with a nice man to pop out a few kids.

But this wasn’t the end of Leonora’s story! 

Leonora Cohen

You see Leonora had watched her mother struggle as a single Mum, had herself faced horrific working conditions as woman and was generally treated as a second class citizen. She watched as those around her just took this and that sparked something inside:

‘My mother would say ‘Leonora, if only we women had a say in things’, but we hadn’t. A drunken lout of a man opposite had a vote simply because he was a male. I vowed I’d try to change things.’

Can we please have more Leonoras in the world? 

In 1909 Leonora joined the WSPU, initially selling suffragette papers in the gutter (so she couldn’t get arrested for obstructing pavements)

But two years into her activism, Leonora decided to go all in. With her husband backing her all the way, she went big on militant actions!

Leonora attended more protests than ever before, she learned to give powerful speeches and ignore the masses of hate mail that followed them. She even went to Holloway Prison for stone throwing!

But it wasn’t enough. Leonora wanted to do something that would grab people’s attention.

And so she planned to break into the Crown Jewels

Well, this seems like a perfectly normal reaction…right? 

In 1913, Leonora walked into the Tower of London, a crowbar hidden under her coat.

Nobody noticed the slight woman…until she whipped out the crowbar and smashed through the glass protecting the Crown Jewels.

She was immediately tackled to the ground amid a shower of broken glass. But the damage was done.

Leonora had succeeded. Her act was front page news; the note she’d wrapped around the crowbar providing the words on everyone’s lips:

‘My Protest to the Government for its refusal to Enfranchise Women, but continues to torture women prisoners – Deeds Not Words. Votes for Women. 100 Years of Constitutional Petition, Resolutions, Meetings & Processions have Failed’

Seriously, Leonoras actions are even on a Blue Plaque, which in the UK is like some hall of fame shit!

Leonora continued her work after women were partly granted the vote in 1918.

She became the first female president of The Yorkshire Trade Councils, before becoming one of the UKs first women to take the bench, when she was made a magistrate in 1924.

Leonora stayed an active feminist right up until her death in 1978, at the grand old age of 105!

A 100 year old Leonora rapping suffrage on the front cover of The Radio Times, 1974

This was interesting, where can I find out more? 

Kitty Marion: Rather excitingly, there are actually two books on Kitty coming out this year! The first is Fern Riddells, Death in 10 Minutes, which is out in April. The second is Kitty’s unpublished autobiography (I know!) no date set for that yet, but keep an eye out.

Dora Thewlis & Leonora Cohen: There arnt any amazing books dedicated in full to either one of these ladies, but you should definitely check out Rebel Girls by Jill Liddington which features both, along with several other incredibly fascinating women.

 

 

 

 

Why Millicent Fawcett was the fucking best

Think votes for women and you think Pankhurst’s, you think fearless suffragettes risking everything, committing violent acts to win the day.

And you would be wrong. 

Well this is awkward

Ok fine, not entirely wrong, but you would only be seeing about 10% of the picture. Women’s suffrage was a fight that had been going on since the early Victorian period, decades before the suffragettes were formed – it’s a battle thats largely been forgotten, but thanks to some bad ass feminists & historians thats all changing!

So how do you get up to speed with this unsung era of history? Well theres no better place to start than Millicent Garrett Fawcett.

 

Feminist hero and Queen of fidly up-do’s

Millicent was born in 1846, one of the youngest of 10 (yep that’s right, 10!). She was raised right; taught to think for herself and pursue her passions.

When Millicent was 12 her older sister Elizabeth moved to London to study medicine (FYI- Elizabeth went on to become Britain’s first female doctor – you will soon learn that these sisters had badassery hardwired in their genes) it was whilst visiting Elizabeth in London that the young Millicent had her first brush with the women’s rights movement.

Elizabeth introduced her younger sister to Emily Davies, a fervent campaigner for women’s rights. Soon the two friends descended into talk of overcoming gender barriers in education (Emily) and medicine (Elizabeth) deciding that it was only after achieving equal rights in fields like these that women would be able to fight for the vote; then as if in an after thought the women turned to Millicent and Emily said:

You are younger than we are, Millie, so you must attend to that.”

Older sisters, right!

But attend to it Millie did. She threw herself into reading up on the law and female rights. She went to a talk given by radical MP John Stuart Mill in favour of women’s rights and became his ardent supporter…she did all this before she was 19, and she wasn’t done.

Now lets pause for a moment and think about what your life’s greatest achievement at 19 was. I’ll admit that working out jäger bombs do not a good evening make is an achievement. But it’s not got shit on 19 year old Millie.

Because In 1866 she delivered a petition to parliament calling for women to have the vote.

That’s right. At 19 Millicent kickstarted things, with the first official move in the loooong battle for equal votes.

Yup it’s both amazing and sickening   via giphy 

Having fired the opening shot, Millicent was keen to continue her campaign. She started writing and working at getting more politically active. Then in 1867 she met Henry Fawcett a radical liberal MP and scholar, the two had a lot in common and Millicent felt like she had met a kindred spirit. BUT Henry was a decade older than her and was also newly blind..not your stereotypical dreamboat.

Yet against everyone’s wishes the pair married with Millicent helping Henry come to terms with his new disability and he supporting her to find her feet in politics.

Henry and Millicent Fawcett 

As  part of Millicents’ effort to get womens’ right to vote into the public consciousness, she gave her first speech in 1869. She hated every moment of it.

Urgh public speaking! via giphy

But without any real mass media to spread the word on women’s suffrage she didn’t really have a choice. So Millicent fought through it, chucking herself in at the deep end she went on a speaking tour in 1871. She kept pushing through and eventually became one of England’s most popular and passionate public speakers.

Whilst overcoming her fears Millicent published several in depth political and economic books and founded Newham College, Cambridge – you know as you do. A boss at multitasking she also found time to give birth and raise a daughter, Philippa (who went on to become an acclaimed mathematician and educator btw) 

Everything was coming up Millicent, and she was fast becoming one of the most vocal proponents for women’s rights in the world; her husband, Henry one of the most loved and respected figures in British politics (not an easy feat being a liked politician!) it seemed nothing could stop this power couple.

And then Henry died. 

 

But Millicent persisted. Now a single mother, she buckled down on women’s rights. Soon becoming the clear figurehead for the movement in the U.K. Millicent fought for the campaign to seek more than the vote, fighting for women’s sexual rights, working rights and so much more.

In 1897 she helped form the NUWSS (The National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies- also known as the suffragists) bringing the majority of the countries women’s rights groups together and making their voice even louder. 

Though the Suffragists means were peaceful that didn’t mean Millicent couldn’t get militant.

She had an active role in the Personal Rights Association who sought to shed light on men with, er, nefarious intentions when it came to young women. Once throwing flour at a seemingly untouchable Army General who had been sexually harassing a maid; Millicent then pinned a sign to his back which outlined his deeds and sent him packing down a crowded street of onlookers (because seriously, fuck that guy)

A witness said Millicent ‘had no pity and would have cashiered him if she could’

But it wasn’t just women’s rights that concerned Millicent. In 1900 NUWSS member Emily Hobhouse traveled to South Africa and shone light on the treatment of the Boer People who were at war with England (The Boer War)

The Boer People were being sent to concentration camps (never not a good time to to remember that the British invented them!) and their land overturned and scorched. This quickly became a hot topic in Parliament with all around liberal bae David Lloyd George declaiming the British military’s actions as an extermination of a people.

Believing Hobhouses’ claims to be vastly exaggerated, The British Government created a commission of women with the purpose of travelling to South Africa and reporting back on the camps. Millicent was made head of the commission, which was met with criticism…as Millicent was in favour of the camps

 

Yes, I’ll admit this is pretty awkward, but bear with me!

Millicent went out expecting to find the conditions in the camp slightly grim but with the people well fed, clothed and sheltered. This was not what she was met with.

To say the conditions in the camps were grim would be a gross understatement (emphasis on the gross). Disease and famine were widespread and by the end of the war of those in the camps 1 in 4 had died.

Despite a (pretty darn racist) government release defending the camps; The Fawcett Commission backed up Hobhouses claims and made their damning evidence very public knowledge. The Boer War ended in 1902, the camps quickly removed. 

But it wasn’t all good news. Back in England the women’s rights movement hit a wall.

The Suffragists arguably had most MPs persuaded that votes for women was the right thing to do, but as anyone who has spent 5 minutes in Parliament will tell you – just because MPs know it’s right…doesn’t mean they will do it. And so from 1901-1914 the Liberal government refused to do anything around women’s votes.

Yeah don’t try and look for logic in that bullshittery             via giphy 

 

In this climate the suffragettes were born. With the WSPU (The Women’s Social and Political Union) forming in 1903. The suffragettes were a much smaller movement than the Suffragists (by a David and Goliath level comparison) but their violent methods caught the eye of the media and they stayed in the headlines for much of the decade 

 

Yet Millicent maintained that the NUWSS wouldn’t enter the violent fray, intent on keeping the dialogue with politicians open; saying:

‘I can never feel that setting fire to houses and churches and litter boxes and destroying valuable pictures really helps to convince people that women ought to be enfranchised.’

Then in 1914 England entered the First World War and the suffrage movement met a cross roads. Should they halt their actions and support the war effort, or continue none the less? The WSPU agreed to halt activity, with the government releasing all imprisoned suffragettes the movement threw themselves fully into recruiting soldiers.

BUT the NUWSS disagreed with the war. Millicent was torn; to publicly call for peace would lead to a public outcry against the suffragists; horrific considering the fight for the vote hadn’t actually been won – but to do like the WSPU and drive recruitment would splinter the party.

 

In the end Millicent opted to stay neutral, not calling for peace, but not actively speaking out for the war. It meant she lost some face within the party and the NUWSS lost some members, but crucially it ensured the public remained on side and lines with politicians open. 

Throughout the war women from all over the country took up the job roles men had left behind. Both the NUWSS and the WSPU were key to this work effort, which did far more than help the British military…it showed on a practical level that women were just as capable as men on every level.

And so in 1916 Millicent wrote to the Prime-minister urging him to take into account the tremendous daily work being carried by women and reconsider the vote.

And this time he did.

In 1918 women over 30 who were householders or wives of householders were granted the vote.

A year later, now in her 70s, Millicent stepped down from her role leading the NUWSS. But of course, her fight was not over. As she always campaigned for women’s rights, calling for equal access in the fields of civil service and law and fighting for better divorce rights for women.

In 1928 Parliament granted women the same voting rights as men.

Millicent was one of the only original suffrage campaigners to see their decades long campaign win out. After over 60 years of campaigning, she watched the bill be carried out in Parliament.

Forgotten for decades, Millicent’s story is finally getting the attention it deserves and in 2018, she will become the first woman with a statue in Parliament square. 

Contagious Diseases Act – The most vital chapter in women’s history you’ve never heard of

 

The Contagious Diseases Act (here by shortened to the CD Acts because as important as it is…it’s one hell of a mouthful) came about in part due to the rapid rise of prostitution in Victorian England. Prostitution was the fourth largest occupation for working women* and it grew along with the boom of the British Empire.

This bombastic empire expansion led to thriving new trading routes and soon British sailors were bringing home ships chock full of tea, textiles and Venereal Disease. Yup you have to take the bad with the good and one of the prices for this exciting new empire? An exciting new STI! Sailors picked up VD from their travels and then spread it back in Britain when they arrived home after a long time at sea and in need of some company…

The disease spread quickly and became an epidemic. Parliament needed to do something to control the situation and fast! So in 1864 they covertly passed The Contagious Disease Bill.

The bill allowed for any person suspected of being a ‘common prostitute’ to be forced into submitting to an internal genital exam by a male doctor.

The law only pertained to women.

The examination was humiliating and painful. It would later be described as ‘surgical rape’. Countless female sex workers found themselves subject to this ordeal.

 

The situation was further worsened as there didn’t need to be any evidence for a woman to be accused and therefore internally examined. This resulted in many women who were not sex workers having to undergo the examination- with both the accusation and their examination now public knowledge these women found their reputations destroyed – they became ‘ruined women’ and their chances for a hopeful future were vastly diminished.

Parliament renewed the CD Acts in 1866 and again in 1869. Increasing the penalty for not submitting to a genital exam to 3-6 months in prison with the possibility of hard labour. This was later raised to 6-9 months to help the women ‘become clean’.

Throughout the acts frequent revisions hardly any of the public knew about it – though it effected 50% of the population, it remained a secret. That was all about to change.

Elizabeth Wolstenholme

In 1869 a meeting about the bill was held Bristol’s Royal Hotel. At this meeting was Woman’s Suffrage Campaigner, Elizabeth Wolstenholme. She was shocked to hear about the CD acts, which had now been in effect for almost 5 years.

Elizabeth saw the CD acts as a violation of woman’s rights and made it her mission to raise public awareness. After leaving the meeting Elizabeth contacted her friend Josephine Butler and asked for her help. Butler was a social reformer and women’s rights campaigner who had previous experience working with and campaigning for the rights of women working as prostitutes.

Josephine Butler

Butler and Wolstenholme toured the country giving speeches about the act- to say this is shocking would be a huge understatement, a woman talking openly in public about sex in the Victorian era was shocking and seen as deeply concerning. Yet the speeches worked. The women sparked something and people started talking and when people started talking they became outraged.

Soon Butler and Wolstenholme formed the Ladies National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts (LNA for short) and in doing so arguably became two of the first publically known feminists. Though women before them had previously fought against slavery and war, this was the first time in British history that women were fighting for all women’s rights and women’s sexual rights at that.

In 1869 the fledgling LNA published a petition with 124 signatures calling for a repeal of the CD acts. Two years later in 1871 they produced another petition calling for the repeal – when it was handed in to The House of Commons it had to be laid on the floor as there was not a table that was large enough to hold it. Groundbreaking doesn’t even cover it.

The LNA worked tirelessly over many years to end the CD acts, but that wasn’t all Butler and Wolstenholme did – in fact from the start of The Contagious Diseases Act to its end both women did an extraordinary amount:

• 1865 – Elizabeth Wolstenholme along with 11 other women formed the Kensington Society, a discussion group which would lead to the birth of the suffrage movement in Britain.

• 1867 – Josephine Butler becomes chair of The North of England Council for the Higher Education of Women. A council both women work on.

• 1868 – Both Butler and Wolstenholme join the Married Women’s Property Committee which sought to allow wives the right to buy, own and sell property.

• 1875 – Butler tours Europe, giving speeches about sexual rights for women. This creates the International Abolitionist Movement, a group whose aim was to prevent international trafficking and stop state regulation of the sex trade.

• 1882 – Married Women’s Property Act allows married women to retain property following campaigning by both Butler and Wolstenholme.

• 1885 – Josephine Butler succeeded in campaigning for the age of consent to be raised from 13-16, helping to lower the rate of child prostitution.

• 1886 – Wolstenholme’s campaign to improve women’s right to custody following divorce succeeds with the Guardianship of Infants Act

In 1886 The Contagious Diseases Act is finally repealed.

 

*Though a reliable estimate of the actual amount of women working in this field does not exist, we can see that throughout the 1840’s and 50’s the number of women working in prostitution was rapidly growing.