In
my last blog, I looked at the question of the British press’s “boycott” of the
suffragette movement. The piece was prompted by my reading of Clare Wright’s
You Daughters of Freedom: The Australians who won the vote and inspired the
world (Melbourne: Text Publishing, 2018). So in this blog, I’d like to
share some of my thoughts about the book.
Overall,
I very much enjoyed this book. The author’s style is direct, even forthright –
you are never in any doubt about where she stands on any of the issues raised!
It was fascinating to read about the suffrage campaign from an international
and colonial perspective. In addition, I particularly liked the biographical
approach which focussed on the stories of individual women such as Nellie
Martel, Dora Montefiore, Muriel Mattters and Vida Goldstein.
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| WSPU Leaders c 1906-7. Left to right: Flora Drummond, Christabel Pankhurst, Jessie Kenney, Nellie Martel, Emmeline Pankhurst, Charlotte Despard. |
At
times, though, I thought the prose a bit over the top and prone to exaggeration
– Vida Goldstein “was the dawn”, “Dora
had the opportunity to march in the front line of history. Literally.”, “the
core of the metropole was red hot, molten bullshit”, “The world” watches the
British suffrage movement, “The new wave of Australasian progressivism had come
crashing on to the old world’s crumbling shores”.
There’s
also the question of the “press boycott ruling out mainstream media coverage.”
The claim is repeated with the same aggrieved air as the WSPU’s own complaints
that the British press refused to report on their activities. However, the fact
that it suited the WSPU at other times to boast that thanks to them there no
longer was a boycott does suggest that it isn’t always a good idea to take the
WSPU’s propaganda at face value. (As mentioned above, I considered the question
of the press boycott in my last blog, The Suffragettes and the Press Boycott.)
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| Muriel Matters |
Sometimes, too, I couldn’t help feeling that the tendency to exaggeration resulted
in the replacement of one overarching myth of the British suffrage movement –
that it was all down to the Pankhursts – by another – that it was all down to
the Australian women.
Yet
the fact that the book raised these issues and gave me much to think about is a
measure of how much I enjoyed it. It opened up new perspectives; revealed some
shocking facts, chief of which was the White Australia policy; and told the
stories of women whose lives deserve greater attention than they have
previously received. And I could never accuse You Daughters of Freedom
of being boring! All in all it’s a great read.
Picture Credits
WSPU Leaders and Muriel Matters: Women's Library on Flickr, No Known Copyright Restrictions
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