EMMELINE PANKHURST, BRITISH WOMEN GET THE VOTE

Today, The Grandma has been reading about Emmeline Pankhurst, the English political activist and suffragist.

Emmeline Pankhurst (née Goulden; 15 July 1858-14 June 1928) was an English political activist who organised the British suffragette movement and helped women win the right to vote. In 1999, Time named her as one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century, stating that she shaped an idea of objects for our time and shook society into a new pattern from which there could be no going back.

She was widely criticised for her militant tactics, and historians disagree about their effectiveness, but her work is recognised as a crucial element in achieving women's suffrage in the United Kingdom.

Born on Sloan Street in the Moss Side district of Manchester on 15 July 1858 to politically active parents, Pankhurst was introduced at the age of 14 to the women's suffrage movement. 

She founded and became involved with the Women's Franchise League, which advocated suffrage for both married and unmarried women. When that organisation broke apart, she tried to join the left-leaning Independent Labour Party through her friendship with socialist Keir Hardie but was initially refused membership by the local branch on account of her sex. While working as a Poor Law Guardian, she was shocked at the harsh conditions she encountered in Manchester's workhouses.

In 1903, Pankhurst founded the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), an all-women suffrage advocacy organisation dedicated to deeds, not words. The group identified as independent from -and often in opposition to- political parties. It became known for physical confrontations: its members smashed windows and assaulted police officers. Pankhurst, her daughters, and other WSPU activists received repeated prison sentences, where they staged hunger strikes to secure better conditions, and were often force-fed.

As Pankhurst's eldest daughter Christabel took leadership of the WSPU, antagonism between the group and the government grew. Eventually, the group adopted bombings and arson as a tactic, and more moderate organisations spoke out against the Pankhurst family.

More information: British Council

In 1913, several prominent individuals left the WSPU, among them Pankhurst's younger daughters, Adela and Sylvia. Emmeline was so furious that she gave [Adela] a ticket, £20, and a letter of introduction to a suffragette in Australia, and firmly insisted that she emigrate. Adela complied and the family rift was never healed. Sylvia became a socialist.

With the advent of the First World War, Emmeline and Christabel called an immediate halt to the militant terrorism in support of the British government's stand against the German Peril.

Emmeline organised and led a massive procession called the Women's Right to Serve demonstration to illustrate women's contribution to the war effort. Emmeline and Christabel urged women to aid industrial production and encouraged young men to fight. Some have suggested there is an ideological link between the feminist movement and the white feather movement.

In 1918, the Representation of the People Act granted votes to all men over the age of 21 and women over the age of 30. This discrepancy was intended to ensure that men did not become minority voters as a consequence of the huge number of deaths suffered during the First World War.

She transformed the WSPU machinery into the Women's Party, which was dedicated to promote women's equality in public life. In her later years, she became concerned with what she perceived as the menace posed by Bolshevism and joined the Conservative Party. She was selected as the Conservative candidate for Whitechapel and St Georges in 1927.

She died on 14 June 1928, only weeks before the Conservative government's Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928 extended the vote to all women over 21 years of age on 2 July 1928.

She was commemorated two years later with a statue in Victoria Tower Gardens, next to the Houses of Parliament.

More information: Iowa State University

You must make women count as much as men;
you must have an equal standard of morals;
and the only way to enforce that is through
giving women political power
so that you can get that equal moral standard
registered in the laws of the country.
It is the only way.

Emmeline Pankhurst

WOMAN SUFFRAGE PROCESSION IN WASHINGTON, D.C.

March, 8 is near and The Grandma has been reading about the first suffragist parade in Washington, D.C. known as the Woman Suffrage Procession in 1913.

The Woman Suffrage Procession in 1913, was the first suffragist parade in Washington, D.C.

It was also the first large, organized march on Washington for political purposes.

The procession was organized by the suffragists Alice Paul and Lucy Burns for the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA).

Planning for the event began in Washington in December 1912. The parade's purpose, stated in its official program, was to march in a spirit of protest against the present political organization of society, from which women are excluded.

Participation numbers vary between 5,000 and 10,000 marchers. Suffragists and supporters marched down Pennsylvania Avenue on Monday, March 3, 1913, the day before President Woodrow Wilson's inauguration. Paul had selected the venue and date to maximize publicity, but met resistance from the D.C. police department.

More information: National Park Service

The demonstration consisted of a procession with floats, bands, and various groups representing women at home, in school, and in the workplace. At the Treasury Building, a pageant of allegorical tableaux was acted out during the parade. The final act was a rally at the Memorial Continental Hall with prominent speakers, including Anna Howard Shaw and Helen Keller.

Prior to the event, the issue of black participation in the march threatened to cause a rift with delegations from Southern states. Some blacks did march with state delegations. A group from Howard University participated in the parade. It is often said that black women were segregated at the back of the parade, however, contemporaneous sources confirm they marched with their respective state delegations or professional groups.

More information: Social Welfare

During the procession, district police failed to keep the enormous crowd off the street, impeding the marchers' progress. Many participants were subjected to heckling from spectators, though there were also many supporters present. The marchers were finally assisted by citizens' groups and eventually the cavalry.

The police were subjected to a congressional inquiry due to security failures. The event premiered Paul's campaign to refocus the suffrage movement on obtaining a national constitutional amendment for woman's suffrage. Intended to pressure President Wilson to support an amendment, he resisted their demands for years afterward.

More information: Time

American suffragists Alice Paul and Lucy Burns spearheaded a drive to adopt a national strategy for women's suffrage in the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Paul and Burns had seen first-hand the effectiveness of militant activism while working for Emmeline Pankhurst in the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in Britain.

Their education included rallies, marches, and demonstrations, knowledge of which the two would put to work back in America. They already had first-hand experience with imprisonment as a backlash against suffrage activism. They had gone on hunger strikes and suffered force-feeding. They were not afraid to be provocative, even knowing the potential consequences. The procession would be their first foray into moving into militant mode on a national stage.

More information: Timeline

According to the media, the suffrage parade had become the primary draw over the inauguration itself. Special suffrage trains were hired to bring spectators from other cities, adding to the crowds in Washington. The novelty of the procession attracted enormous interest throughout the eastern U.S.

As the parade participants gathered near the Peace Monument around noon, the police began roping off part of the parade route. Even before the parade began, the ropes were badly stretched and coming loose in places. The procession drew such a crowd that President-elect Wilson was mystified about why there were no people to be seen when he arrived in town that day.

More information: The Atlantic

 We women of America tell you that
America is not a democracy.
Twenty million women
are denied the right to vote.

Alice Paul