Episode #10: Women and the vote

Image credits: Votes for Women Handbill, Women's Social and Political Union (1911) via Museum of London // Logo by 3Dperson // Sylvia Pankhurst: Self Portrait in Prison Dress (ca 1907) // Tin badge by Sylvia Pankhurst // Indian suffragettes in London

WOMEN AND THE VOTE Charlotte and Emma celebrate the 100th anniversary of some British women getting the vote by discussing the threat of violence, Victorian values and why suffrage might not be enough. Plus: why do centenaries turn historians into killjoys?

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EPISODE FOOTNOTES

• The Representation of the People Act of 1918 gave all men above the age of 21 the right to vote. Women had to be above the age of 30, and they also needed to own or occupy property worth more than £5;
• Here is a review by Dr Lauren Arrington of three recently published Constance Markievicz biographies. Dr Arrington's own book, Revolutionary Lives: Constance and Casimir Markievicz, was published by Princeton University Press in 2016. Follow her on Twitter @ArringtonLauren. Here's an article by Dr Mari Takayanagi on why Markievicz would have struggled to take her seat. Follow Mari on Twitter @satisfactory20;
• Below is a video on Nancy Astor, produced by the British Parliament. It stars Dr Jacqui Turner, who you can follow on Twitter @Jacqui1918;

• We spoke about Ellen Wilkinson in the second episode (Women's Bodies, Part II) - listen to that here. You should also read Dr Laura Beers' Red Ellen: The Life of Ellen Wilkinson, Socialist, Feminist, Internationalist (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2016). Read more about Dr Laura Beers' work and research here and follow her on Twitter at @Fiery_Particle;
• Here's a story about how Margaret Bondfield went from being a shopgirl to Britain's first female cabinet minister (she became an MP in 1921, and secretary of state for labour in 1931). It was written by Professor Pamela Cox, who is on Twitter @ProfPamelaCox. Read more about her work here;
• Mary Agnes Hamilton also featured in episode 2; her book is called Murder in the House of Commons. This is what it looks like at the Bodleian library;
• Here's a briefing paper from the House of Commons Library on the number of women who have been elected to the British Parliament. It says: "The total number of women to have been elected to the House since 1918 has now surpassed the current number of men sitting in the House of Commons, 442." Emma was looking at this list;
• Suffragette of suffragist? Here's Dr Fern Riddell's article in The Guardian on that. Read more about Fern's work here and follow her on Twitter @FernRiddell;
• Professor June Purvis has just published a Christabel Pankhurst biography; in 2002, she wrote one about Emmeline too.  Follow Professor Purvis on Twitter @ProfJunePurvis;
• A statue of Millicent Fawcett - made by Gillian Wearing - will be installed on Parliament Square in April;
• The Guardian has a story about the Pankhurst's rifts and why Sylvia is less remembered than Emmeline and Christabel. Read that here;
• The suffragette who threw a hatchet at Prime Minister Asquith in 1912 was called Mary Leigh. Read about the incident here. Later that same day, Mary Leigh, Gladys Evans, Lizzie Baker and Mabel Capper attempted to set fire to the Theatre Royal as Asquith visited it. There are more details about suffragette violence in this article by Dr Fern Riddell for the British Library.
• The hatchet-in-chrysanthemum incident features in Professor Carol Dyhouse's Girl Trouble: Panic and Progress in the History of Young Women (London: Zed Books, 2013). Read more about Professor Dyhouse here;
• In The ANC Underground in South Africa, 1950-1976 (London: First Forum Press, 2009), Raymond Suttner argues that women were vital for the survival of the ANC underground. Read more about Albertina Sisulu here;
• Professor Kathryn Hughes has written about gender roles in the 19th century for the British Library. Read more about Professor Hughes' work here;
• Here is Emily Wilding Davison's census form, stating her address as "Crypt of Westminster Hall". And here's a photo of the plaque put up by Tony Benn and Jeremy Corbyn in the broom cupboard;
• The 1911 census is available online at www.ukcensusonline.com/census/1911.php
• According to this newspaper report, Mary Richardson, who attacked the Rokeby Venus in in 1914, defended herself well at her trial. A few months later, Anne Hunt attacked John Everett Millais' portrait of Robert Carlyle, which is on display as part of the National Portrait Gallery's Votes for Women exhibition;
• Here's Theresa May's speech at the Vote 100 celebrations in Westminster Hall, 6 February 2018, in its entirety;
• This is a gruesome account written by Sylvia Pankhurst after she was force-fed in prison;
• Emma is meant to be writing a book about the social history of gender quotas in the selection of parliamentary candidates. If you can't wait for that, you should read this article by Professor Mona Lena Krook and Mary Nugent;
• The Edna O'Brien's quote - "The vote, I thought, means nothing to women, we should be armed." - is from Girls in their Married Bliss (London: Jonathan Cape, 1964);
• This is a very good article on Diane Abbott;
• Dr Richard Clarke published an article on 'Self-help, Saving and Suburbanization: The Birkbeck Freehold Land and Building Societies, Their Bank, and the London Mechanics' Institute 1851-1911' in 2015 - read that here; Rosie Campbell is a professor of politics at Birkbeck, University of London. Read more about Professor Campbell's work here and follow her on Twitter @profrosiecamp;
• Dr Sumita Mukherjee's book Indian Suffragettes: Female Identities and Transnational Networks will be published by Oxford University Press later this year. Read more about Dr Mukherjee here and follow her on Twitter @smukherjee_hist;
• Read more about Professor Krista Cowman here and follow her on Twitter @MistinguetteCat. Her book, Women of the Right Spirit: Paid Organiser of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) 1904-1918, was published by Manchester University Press in 2007. Professor Joan Sangster is a historian at Trent University. Follow her on Twitter @jisangster;
• The Inter-Parliamentary Union ranks the world's parliaments by the number of women holding seats. The top five at the moment are Rwanda (where 61.3% of the MPs are women), Bolivia (53.1%), Cuba (48.9%), Nicaragua (45.7%) and Sweden (43.7%). The UK's comes in at number 39 with 32%;
• Jocelyn Olcott is an associate professor of history at Duke University. Her book, International Women's Year: The Greatest Consciousness-Raising Event in History, was published by Oxford University Press in 2017. Read more about Professor Olcott here and follow her on Twitter @jocelyn_olcott;
• Charlotte was quoting from Kim Moore's poem Suffragette (read the whole poem here):

“And if you saw her hiding in the air ducts of Parliament
it was only to listen to the speeches.

And if she set fire to post boxes and burnt letters,
it was only certain envelopes she put pepper in.

And if she threw a rock or two, at one carriage
or another, they were, at least, wrapped in words:

rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God.”

• Alice Duer Miller's Are Women People is available on Project Gutenberg.

OUR RECOMMENDATIONS

• Charlotte recommends Sophie Collins' Who Is Mary Sue? (London: Faber & Faber, 2018). Follow Sophie on Twitter @hatefuldaughter;
• Emma recommends Seamus Heaney's District & Circle (also published by Faber & Faber, but in 2006). Follow the Seamus Heaney bot on Twitter @HeaneyDaily.

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