It’s only a matter of weeks before the latest Persephone
books hit the shelves, particularly exciting this time because of Constance
Maud’s ‘No Surrender’. It may be that I’m missing something obvious but it seems
to me that the battle for women’s suffrage is rather glossed over in popular
history. What I remember from school is the Pankhurst’s, from university a few
details about the contagious diseases act more Pankhurst’s and somewhere along
the line a mention of Millicent Garrett Fawcett. I definitely came away with
the impression that it was a middle class movement, that Emmeline and Christabel
Pankhurst got women the vote almost single handed, and that Emily Davison
should have known better.
I can’t remember how I came by ‘Votes for Women, The Virago
Book of Suffragettes’ but it was an eye opener which made me hunt out more
books which wasn’t as easy as I imagined it might be – everything had to come
from amazon; I had neither internet or computer at the time so it was more of
an effort than it sounds. As history goes this is really quite exciting stuff
filled with character, action, injustice, faith, betrayal, feuds, and scandal -
also it makes a nice change from The War (actually come to think of it either
War) so why isn’t it more popular? The edited highlights that I was taught hardly
do justice to the history.
There is a story, probably apocryphal, about Emily Davies,
Elizabeth Garrett, and Millicent Garret (Fawcett). Emily and Elizabeth were friends
and the tale goes that one night when Emily was staying with the Garrett’s the
two older girls and a much younger Millie were sat by the fire talking about
the women’s cause. Eventually Emily sums the matter up like this; she would
secure higher education for women - she went on to co-found Girton College,
Elizabeth would open up the medical profession – she became a doctor after a
long struggle - the second woman to have her name on the U.K. Medical Register,
the first to have qualified to do so in Britain. After that they decided that
Millie would have to get votes for women which arguably she did far more
towards than the Pankhurst’s and all their stunts.
I haven’t been able to find a biography of Millicent Garrett
Fawcett and do not understand why her name isn’t better known. It bothers me to
that the role that working woman played in demanding a vote isn’t celebrated
more. I was taught plenty about how perfectly foul conditions were for working
women in mills and factories across the country – long hours, low pay, harsh
conditions. I don’t remember being taught that a strengthening trade union
movement refused to admit female co-workers, or actively sought to keep women
out of better paid employment, or that the emergent Labour party turned its back
on working women.
So there you have it, some of the reasons why I’m really
quite excited by the prospect of having another piece of Suffragette literature
to add to a collection which fiction wise pretty much consists of H.G. Wells’ ‘Ann
Veronica’, a mention in E.F. Benson’s ‘Mrs Ames’, and Cicely Hamilton’s ‘William
- an Englishman’ (which is also a Persephone book). Any suggestion for more
would be gratefully received.
