In
a series of events around the region, the Dreadnought South West project
commemorates the 1913 Suffrage Pilgrimage organised by the non-militant National
Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). Women’s franchise campaigners from
all over the country walked to London along six main routes, including one through
the south west starting at Land’s End. The Pilgrimage began on 18 June 1913 and
ended with a rally in Hyde Park on 26 July, where Mrs Millicent Garrett
Fawcett, president of the NUWSS, addressed the crowd.
I
was thrilled to be involved in some of the Dreadnought events here in Bristol.
Suffragette Walk
On
7 July ten of us braved the heat to walk around Clifton looking at sites
connected with the militant suffrage campaign in Bristol. In 1907 leading
suffragette Annie Kenney came to the city to launch a local branch of the Women’s
Social Political Union (WSPU), the militant organisation led by Mrs Emmeline
Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel. For the next few years the city was the setting
for countless meetings and rallies; local MPs were heckled; windows broken;
buildings burned; and the WSPU shop wrecked by anti-suffrage students.
Oxygen
A
new play specially written by Natalie McGrath, Oxygen formed the centrepiece of
Dreadnought’s tour across the south west. I saw it at the Trinity Centre in Bristol
on 11 July. While telling many women’s stories, the play focusses in particular
on the lives of two sisters, one a militant, the other a non-militant. The
complexity of the sisters’ relationship reflects the complexities of the campaign
for the vote, and illuminates the connections and distances between both branches
of the suffrage campaign. There’s also a real sense of the dilemma of
attempting to balance the personal and the political as friends and home take
second place to the cause: the young sister leaves the elder to take care of
their demanding father, the elder fails to respond to a call for help from a pregnant
friend.
The
play has a wide expressive range, moving from speeches to crowd scenes to private
encounters. The language is poetic and evocative, summoning up the spirit of
the suffrage campaigners in its use of key phrases of the time: shoulder to
shoulder, the common cause, dread[ing] nought. Our sympathy is engaged at a
deep and immediate level: in the recital of the names of the towns the women
pass through; in the prison scene (“We strike!”); in the beautiful songs; and
in the one-minute silence for Emily Wilding Davison.
Anger
and indignation about the oppression of women lie at the heart of the action.
We are reminded why women wanted the vote: to end sweated labour, the exploitation
of women, child poverty. In one of the most moving scenes, the women imagine
that in one hundred years these problems will all be solved. If there is still anyone
who thinks that feminism is no longer needed, then Oxygen is a reminder of how
much remains to be done – and how much women can do. It is a beautiful,
stunning piece with a fabulous cast. Ultimately, in spite of its often sombre tone,
it is (as the song 'Oxygen' has it) “Full of hope for us”.
Suffragette Militancy Panel
I
was joined at Bristol M Shed on 13 July by
June Hannam, Professor Emerita at the University of the West of England; Lois
Bibbings, Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Bristol; and Dawn Dyer of
the Local Studies Team at Bristol Central Library, with Wendy Larner of the University
of Bristol in the chair, to discuss the effectiveness and ethics of suffragette
militancy.
June reminded us of the varied types
of militancy – it was not just arson but included things like tax and census resistance
– and considered how women’s engagement in the campaign contributed to their
personal development (eg gaining confidence). Dawn described her involvement
with the 100 Women of Bristol booklet, and looked at images of militants – for
and against – on postcards, noting the violent misogyny of some of the “antis”.
Lois drew parallels between conscientious objectors and militants: both were
“gender dissidents” in the way they challenged traditional male and female
roles. Finally, I suggested that suffragette militancy was “an experiment that failed”
because in its attempt to adapt traditional forms of violence to its cause, it
could not live up to its ideal of not causing harm to anyone.
My
Suffrage Pilgrimage
And finally, my suffrage pilgrimage.
Why Aldeburgh? Because Millicent Garrett Fawcett, who greeted the suffrage pilgrims
in Hyde Park, was born in Aldeburgh in 1847. She had a long and varied career
campaigning for women’s rights in education, the welfare of working-class
women, and against child-abuse, as well as for women’s suffrage. She died in
1929.
Her sister Elizabeth Garrett
Anderson (born in London in 1836) was one of the first women to pursue a career
in medicine. She was for a time a member of the NUWSS, later joined the militant
WSPU (aged 72), but left when militancy escalated. She retired to Aldeburgh in
1902, where in 1908 she became England’s first woman mayor. She died in Alde House in Aldeburgh in 1917.
Elizabeth’s daughter, Louisa Garrett Anderson (1873-1943), stayed
in the WSPU and went to prison in 1912 after taking part in a window-smashing
raid.
For information about the Suffrage Pilgrimage and Dreadnought
South West see www.dreadnoughtsouthwest.org.uk
