June Purvis

Emmeline Pankhurst: a biography

This biography of Emmeline Pankhurst draws upon new approaches to feminist biography to place her within the context of her family and friends.

The prison experiences of the suffragettes in Edwardian Britain

Abstract This article focuses in depth upon the prison experiences of the suffragettes in Edwardian Britain and challenges many of the assumptions that have commonly been made about women suffrage prisoners. Thus it is revealed that a number of the prisoners were poor and working-class women and not, as has been too readily assumed, bourgeois women. The assumption too that the women prisoners were single is challenged. Married women and mothers as well as spinsters, endured the harshness of prison life. Other differences between the women, such as disability and age, are also explored. Despite such differentiation, however, the women prisoners developed supportive networks, a culture of sharing and an emphasis upon the collectivity. Their courage, bravery and faith in the womens cause, especially when enduring the torture of forcible feeding and repeated imprisonments, should remain an inspiration to all feminists today.

Deeds, not words: The daily lives of militant suffragettes in Edwardian Britain

Abstract The Womens Social and Political Union (WSPU), founded in 1903 in Manchester, England, by Emmeline Pankhurst and her eldest daughter, Christabel, has attracted the attention of many scholars. This article explores a neglected theme in that history, namely the daily lives of WSPU militant suffragettes, both outside and inside prison. When discussing this theme, some contrasts and comparisons are also made with that vast number of WSPU members who were non-militant. Despite such differentiation among WSPU members, however, what was reiterated time and time again was their feeling of sisterhood. The bonds between all women, irrespective of any social and political differences, was pervasive in WSPU rhetoric and helped forged a sense of collectivity among WSPU members. Such a message has a relevance for all feminists today.

A “pair of … infernal queens”? 1 a reassessment of the dominant representations of emmeline and christabel pankhurst, first wave feminists in edwardian britain

Abstract This article reassesses the dominant representations of two First Wave feminists in Edwardian Britain, Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst, who founded the womens Social and Political Union (WSPU) on 10 October 1903 with the expressed aim of fighting for the right of women to enfranchisement on the same terms as it was, or may be, granted to men. Both women, it is argued, have been represented by historians mainly in a negative light which, at best, ignores their women-centred approach to politics and, at worst, misrepresents their views. However, if we are to understand these women as feminists then we must examine their own rationale for their actions which is in wide divergence with the views expressed by historians. As women-identified women, Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst were forerunners of some of the ideas articulated by radical feminists in the Second Wave of feminism in the West in the 1970s. In this article, this theme is illustrated through focusing on two key areas – the world-view...

Using Primary Sources When Researching Women's History from a Feminist Perspective

ABSTRACT This article discusses some of the methodological problems encountered when researching womens history from a feminist perspective. Three main categories of primary sources are identified ‐ official texts, which includes state, bureaucratic, institutional and legal texts, official reports of societies and institutions, memoranda and official letters; published commentary and reporting, which includes novels, films, photographs, advertisements, the writings of key political, social and literary figures, and newspapers; personal texts, which includes letters, diaries, autobiographies and life histories. Two main forms of analysis are described, descriptive analysis and perspective analysis. The strengths and weaknesses of each category of text for both forms of analysis are explored in relation to illustrative examples from Victorian and Edwardian England. [1] This article is based on a talk I was invited to give by Chris Pole and Professor Robert Burgess for the Economic and Social Science Resear...

Remembering Emily Wilding Davison (1872–1913)

This editorial reflects on the life of Emily Wilding Davison (1872–1913), a suffragette in Edwardian Britain, who died on 8 June 1913 after running on to the race course at the Derby, four days earlier, and trying to grab the reins of the Kings horse, Anmer. Rather than seeing her as a suicidal fanatic, it is suggested that she was a sensible, level-headed, religious woman, a risk-taker who probably did not intend to die.

What Was Margaret Thatcher's Legacy for Women?

This article considers the legacy for women of Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013), Britains first and to date only woman prime minister. It is suggested that although Thatcher had to struggle against many of the sexist prejudices of her day to achieve her political ambitions, she was no feminist. The hard ladder up which she had climbed was drawn up and not extended to other women. Yet for some women, such as the Spice Girls, she was the pioneer of their ideology of girl power. Overall, it is concluded that Thatcher was a polarising figure whose legacy is one of much divisiveness, in which the divisions between women is only one of many strands.

Gendering the Historiography of the Suffragette Movement in Edwardian Britain: some reflections

The historiography of the British womens suffrage campaign is contested ground. This article, written by a feminist historian, contributes to the debate by offering some reflections on the writing of the history of the suffragette movement in Edwardian Britain during the twenty years or so that it has been the focus of her research. In particular, it critiques the gendered ‘masculinist’ approaches to the writing of the suffragette pasts and discusses some of the public and private debates that the author has been engaged in, when challenging such perspectives.

Emmeline Pankhurst: suffragette leader and single parent in Edwardian England

This article explores the life of Emmeline Pankhurst (1858–1928), the suffragette leader in Edwardian Britain, as a single parent, especially in regard to her youngest surviving child, Harry. After her husband’s death in 1898, Emmeline Pankhurst became an impoverished single parent with four dependent children to support—seventeen‐year‐old Christabel, sixteen‐year‐old Sylvia, thirteen‐year‐old Adela, and eight‐year‐old Harry. Five years later she founded and led the Women’s Social and Political Union, a militant women‐only organisation that campaigned for the parliamentary vote for women, and became a feminist public figure. The conflicts that she faced between her public duty to a cause she passionately believed in and her private role as a single parent are discussed.

Writing suffragette history: the contending autobiographical narratives of the pankhursts

Abstract On 10 October 1903 Emmeline Pankhurst founded the Womens Social and Political Union (WSPU), an organisation that was to become the most notorious of the groupings campaigning for the parliamentary vote for women in Edwardian England. Their militant campaign was led by Emmeline and her eldest daughter, Christabel, the WSPUs Chief Organiser, the two younger Pankhurst daughters, Sylvia and Adela, also becaming active in the movement. While all four women wrote accounts of the campaign, the focus here is on the published autobiographical narratives of the three elder Pankhurst women – Emmelines My Own Story (1914), Sylvias The Suffragette Movement (1931) and Christabels Unshackled (1959). In particular, the ways in which these women presented themselves and each other, and how they related the story of their private family relationships as mother, daughters and siblings, is explored