Votes for Women

Votes for women

Report: The Liberal Party and Women’s Suffrage Conference fringe meeting, 9 March 2018, with Krista Cowman and Jo Swinson MP; chair: Elizabeth Jewkes Report by Astrid Stevens

his year marks one hundred date in the history of women’s politi- rarer. Most women at this stage stood years since the Representa- cal involvement in Britain was related as independents, and even when a local Ttion of the People Act 1918 was not to women’s suffrage, but to the party began to endorse women candi- passed under Liberal Prime Minister capping of electioneering expenses dates, there were reservations. David Lloyd George, beginning the introduced by the Corrupt and Illegal As the pro-Liberal Liverpool Review enfranchisement of women. However, Practices Act in 1883. Election work of Politics argued: ‘Women have also while the vast majority of Liberal MPs increased because 60 per cent of adult been, in some cases, elected to School supported the change, this support was men now had the vote (and therefore Boards and other public bodies, and not unanimous. The party had been needed to be identified, registered and have discharged the functions associ- divided for many years over the issue, canvassed), and new constituencies ated with such with gentleness, intel- and the previous Asquith govern- had been created. More women were ligence and tact. However, while ment had obstructed reform. Oppo- drawn into the donkey work of elec- woman nobly plans to warm and com- nents argued both that politics was tions and campaigning. fort and command, maybe of the most not the ‘proper sphere of women’ and In 1884, the Conservative Party beneficent services as representatives that women, if enfranchised, would opened the Primrose League to of the Poor Law system to women and be more likely to vote Conservative. women, appealing to the values of children, petticoats and street-paving The divisions within the Liberal Party Empire, Queen and Country. For the politics are strangely incongruous. over votes for women, the stance taken Liberal Party, the independent wom- Neither in municipal administration by the Asquith government and the en’s Liberal associations across the nor in the conduct of affairs of local impacts on the party of the debates country united into a Women’s Lib- District Councils is the feminine ele- over women’s suffrage, were the sub- eral Federation in 1887, more specifi- ment countenanced.’ ject of the Liberal Democrat His- cally party-oriented than the Primrose Divisions over whether or not tory Group fringe meeting on Friday League. The Women’s Liberal Federa- women could be party candidates 9 March, 2018, at the spring Liberal tion prioritised political education, refected a deeper divide in the Wom- Democrat conference in Southport. aiming to enlist women’s sympathies en’s Liberal Associations over the ques- With Elizabeth Jewkes (vice-chair of on the side of Liberal principles. It tion of women’s suffrage. In 1889, the Liberal Democrat Women) in the chair, developed a wide range of educational Federation had voted down a motion speakers were Krista Cowman and Jo literature, and facilitated a network of to make suffrage part of its aims, by Swinson. skilled speakers, who promoted such 173 to 90 votes, because they felt it was Krista is professor of History at ideas as that politics was a womanly as too contentious, but the motion kept the University of Lincoln, where she well as a manly duty, and that women coming back, promoted by a progres- researches women’s political activ- should learn about politics to defend sive group on the National Execu- ism in the twentieth century; she was themselves against laws that interfered tive. Suffrage was finally adopted as also historical advisor for the 2015 film with their lives. At its peak in 1912, an objective of the Women’s Liberal Suffragette. Jo is deputy leader of the the Women’s Liberal Associations col- Federation in 1892 – the year in which Liberal Democrats, MP for East Dun- lectively represented 133,215 women Emmeline Pankhurst withdrew her bartonshire, a former government across 837 local branches. candidacy for the committee of the minister, and author of Equal Power: Increased political education and Executive because she had just joined And How You Can Make It Happen activism led Liberal women more the independent Labour Party. (which examines the extent of gender overtly into public life. By the end of The next problem was whether or inequality and how we could become a the nineteenth century, women did not suffrage should be a ‘test ques- truly gender-equal society). have local votes for some councils, as tion’, with Federation support with- Krista Cowman opened by discuss- well as for the Poor Law and School drawn from any candidate who openly ing women’s role in the Liberal Party Boards. Women’s candidacy for elec- opposed women’s suffrage. The issue at around the time when the women’s tion had been assured from the 1870s was contentious, and became even suffrage campaign was at its height, and proved in law, but women council- more controversial when the militant from the perspective of grass-roots lors were rare before 1919, and party- suffrage campaign kicked off. Dur- politics and women’s activism. A key endorsed women councillors even ing the election campaign of 1905–6,

Journal of Liberal History 100 Autumn 2018 41 Votes for women

Christobel Pankhurst and Annie Ken- Party at elections, many women Lib- a recent proposal to the BBC for a story ney were arrested following their erals moved to the Women’s Citi- about prominent women throughout interruption of a Liberal Party meeting zens Associations, which aimed to history, which the BBC had dismissed in Manchester. Christobel campaigned keep women’s suffrage prominent in because they said it would be a ‘succes- in a by-election with the policy slo- the minds of women municipal vot- sion of kings’ mistresses’. Aside from gan ‘Keep the Liberal out’, and the ers by focusing on political education. the fêting of a few warrior women, Women’s Social and Political Union Between 1912 and 1914, sixty-four very often the stories of women have (WSPU) campaigned against any gov- local associations and 10,000 members not been told at all. Looking at our ernment candidate, regardless of that left the Women’s Liberal Federation. public infrastructure, the pages of our individual’s stance on suffrage. The After reduced activity during the history books, the people commemo- emergence of militancy in the suffrage First World War, the Federation and rated in statues and paintings, or the campaign coincided with the election the local associations ceased to be obituaries in the press, these are pre- of a Liberal government. separate auxiliary organisations, and dominantly male, and that sends out a Suffrage came to dominate the women were allowed to become equal very clear signal. If we think that his- agenda of local and national Women’s party members for the first time. In tory is gender-neutral and objective, Liberal Association meetings, and mil- 1927, the Liberal Party appointed an we are missing a point. itancy began to affect the Federation’s official women’s organiser, with a desk One argument suggests that men relationship with the Liberal Party. at headquarters. Of the six women have just been doing more things of Some, such as Nessie Stewart-Brown, who sat as Liberal MPs in the party’s significance, and that the imbalance were strong advocates for party loy- history, four of them (Margaret Win- will change with time. But Jo thinks alty, while one woman resigned from tringham, Vera Terrington, Hilda we shouldn’t kid ourselves that this is council saying ‘I’m tired of work- Runciman and Megan Lloyd George) the case. Who is deciding what is sig- ing for Liberals when Liberals will do were elected before 1929. Unfortu- nificant? Women have played unsung nothing for women’. nately, the party’s electoral fortunes roles throughout history, and in poli- The Federation finally split on the began to decline at precisely the point tics, but those stories have not been issue in 1913, and a Liberal Women’s when women got their equal position, told in the same way as for men. Some Suffrage Union was set up. Some with women in the Liberal Party who recent Hollywood films about wars in women joined that; others left the were really at ease with their position the twentieth century have been con- party altogether to move into the as women and as political activists. troversial because of the ‘whitewash- National Union of Women’s Suffrage Jo Swinson opened her presentation ing’ of history; we are not telling the Societies, many of them going into the by observing that history is largely stories properly if we do not recognise Labour Party after the war. When the written by men, and that this has the contribution made to the armed National Union of Women’s Suffrage always been the case. In the course of forces by people from all around the Societies decided to help the Labour researching her book, Jo had learned of Commonwealth, with all different Mothers of Liberty Women who built British Liberalism Even before they gained the right to vote and to stand for election, women played many key roles in the development of British Liberalism – as writers and thinkers, campaigners, political hostesses, organisers and, finally, as parliamentary candidates, MPs and peers.

The new edition of this booklet from the Liberal Democrat History Group contains the stories of the women who shaped British Liberalism – including Mary Wollstonecraft, Harriet Taylor Mill, the suffragist leader Millicent Garrett Fawcett, the first woman Liberal MP Margaret Wintringham, Violet Bonham Carter, Megan Lloyd George, Nancy Seear, Shirley Williams and many more. With a foreword by Jo Swinson MP.

Available at a special discounted rate for Journal of Liberal History subscribers: £5 instead of the normal £6. Order via our online shop (www.liberalhistory.org.uk/shop/) or by sending a cheque (to ‘Liberal Democrat History Group’) to LDHG, 54 Midmoor Road, London SW12 0EN (add £1.25 P&P).

42 Journal of Liberal History 100 Autumn 2018 Votes for women types of coloured skin. It is the same When men are appointed to the posi- stopped the party from adopting such with women. tion of Lord Chancellor without hav- shortlists. But after the decision had The Liberal History Group has pro- ing a background of legal experience, been made, she was disappointed to duced pamphlets to make sure that few objections are raised – but when find that quite a few of the men who those stories have been told about Liz Truss was appointed, this was sud- had argued against all-women short- women in our party. But a recent denly an issue. lists were also not prepared to con- Twitter exchange highlighted that an Jo recalled being shocked in 2005 tribute to alternative efforts aimed at article on the party website outlining by reading of the overt sexism expe- getting women more involved, such as the history of the party didn’t mention rienced in the House of Commons by training, mentoring, getting women Kirsty Williams (our current serving women MPs. Many had been elected to stand for parliament, or encourag- government minister) nor key by- in 1997 (when the number of women ing them to speak at conference. Krista election winners, and that few women MPs exceeded one hundred for the commented that women’s lives tend to were mentioned there at all. first time). Eight years on, the sex- get struck from the historical record, A hundred years ago, women got ism seemed less overt than it had been and that there are large numbers of the right to vote. But legal rights in the 1990s. But Jo and her fellow politically active women whose sto- are only the beginning of creating a women MPs concluded that there is no ries we just don’t know – even for some change within society, because atti- meritocracy, and no sense of putting very prominent women politicians: tudes take much longer to change. It is people with the right talents into the ‘People can, mainly, name Nancy understandable that when women were most effective positions. Reshuffles are Astor at a push, but they struggle to given the vote, there was a unit set up more haphazard, based on who has the name Margaret Wintringham (who in the party specifically to campaign to ear of the leader and where the politi- was the second woman, and the first them, and to find the ‘woman aspect’ cal power is, so they are quite hard to British woman, elected), and there are to every bill. No doubt if we get votes navigate. And this leads to women numbers of these pioneering women at 16, we’ll do the same: ‘How do we being overlooked, time and again. who just never figure.’ appeal to 16- and 17-year-olds, and When the Liberal Democrats were in Asked whether the methods used what are the youth issues?’ government, we didn’t appoint a sin- by the suffrage campaign a hundred A hundred years on, there is still gle woman to Cabinet, despite hav- years ago still apply today, Krista said much discussion about women’s ing plenty to choose from. That kind that rights are very rarely given by the issues. There are some women’s issues of message does tell you something. privileged and the powerful, so you (for example, period poverty affects We weren’t even appointing women can’t just expect that things will get women and girls more than it does to Cabinet in the same proportion as better; you have to organise to make men), but there are similarly some in the parliamentary party. And a lot things better. And sometimes rights men’s issues which have been over- of politics is done in informal circles of have to be taken. Pardoning the suf- looked in parliament. We should be advisers, who can be more homogene- fragettes now (as some have called for) thinking about men’s issues and wom- ous than even a parliamentary party would be wrong, because it was a very en’s issues, but we don’t – we generally in terms of gender, race and opinion. deliberate political choice that those think there are issues, and then there ‘Group-think’ is no better for political women made, and they knew what are women’s issues. We were in that decision-making than it is for business they were doing. The campaign for mindset when women got the vote, decision-making. a pardon, well meaning though it is, and we still are. Men’s issues have not A hundred years on from the suf- takes all the fire out of the suffragettes’ been championed by MPs because for fragettes and suffragists, much work is actions. Jo agreed, adding that it would many men, gender is invisible. But if needed to unpick more than a century also be better to campaign for some- you are a woman experiencing gender of assumptions, stereotypes and pigeon- thing that would result in improve- inequality on a regular basis, then it holing of women’s issues and women’s ment in the lives of women today. isn’t invisible. committees. Looking at the challenges From the women’s suffrage campaign, For a long time in politics, certain of history shows where we’ve come Jo picked disobedience as something we subjects were deemed appropriate for from, but also helps us to recognise how could learn from. We should remem- women to speak about, such as health far we have to go in the future. ber that the suffragettes were hated by or education, and these would be the A comment from the foor raised many, including many women; they ones given to women ministers. We the point that, despite a limited num- were beaten, groped, and force-fed in a have never had a woman as Chancellor, ber of women in the party being active way that we now recognise as torture. nor as Defence Secretary. When the in senior formal posts, a large num- When you speak out for equality, and post of Defence Secretary last became ber have been staggeringly infuential. for people to have rights that they are vacant, despite there being a very well- This reminded Jo of the 2001 confer- not currently afforded, it feels uncom- qualified woman who had been jun- ence debate on all-women shortlists, fortable, and it attracts vitriol, but that ior minister in the Department for the when a group opposed to the idea had doesn’t mean that you’re wrong. Push- Ministry of Defence, the position went concluded that spokespeople against ing the boundaries of the rules is neces- to somebody without that background such shortlists needed to be women in sary in order to provoke change. And or experience, who was deemed more the party, and not men. Jo herself sum- you need to remember that misrepre- appropriate because he was a bloke. mated the amendment that ultimately sentation of your efforts in the press is

Journal of Liberal History 100 Autumn 2018 43 Votes for women a deliberate tactic, either conscious or could not become lawyers, architects, women). Representation continues to culturally embedded, to make you look magistrates or jurors, and it was not be an issue, with only a third of Liberal stupid and your ideas ridiculous. until the ’70s that women got equal Democrat MPs being women (approxi- Another question asked about the pay. Jo highlighted the slow progress mately the average in the House of experience of women in other politi- towards eliminating other inequali- Commons), and only the Conservative cal parties, in the immediate aftermath ties: rape within marriage was recog- Party ever having elected a woman of 1918. Krista explained how the Con- nised only in 1991, and even today it leader. ‘It’s absolutely spot on that a servative Party did exactly the same takes Wera Hobhouse’s current bill in History Group meeting considers his- thing constitutionally as the Liberal order to make upskirting an offence. tory, but also follows that through to Party, allowing women to become full Jo agreed that Margaret Wintring- what the lessons are for today.’ and equal members of the party, but ham’s primary issues were still cur- keeping their separate organisation. rent. On the topic of equal pay, Jo was Astrid Stevens works in the software indus- However, the Conservative Party’s previously responsible for securing try, but has also been a technical author organisation was much smaller than the the government agreement to bring in and freelance writer. Her leisure interest Women’s Liberal Federation. The Prim- gender pay gap reporting, and she sees in history has been pursued through stud- rose League was on its way out by 1918, votes at 16 as today’s ongoing battle for ies with the Open University and Dundee looking and feeling very Victorian, but equal suffrage (although not specific to University. the Women’s Tariff Reform Associa- tion and the Conservative and Unionist Women’s Franchise Association meant that the Conservatives had large groups of women who were already organ- ised, and they appointed a women’s Reviews organiser (with a desk at central office) round about 1920. The position in the Diane Atkinson, Rise Up Women! The Remarkable Lives of the Labour Party was different, because until reforms during the First World Suffragettes (Bloomsbury, 2018); Jane Robinson, Hearts and War, membership of the party had been Minds: The Untold Story of the Great Pilgrimage and How Women through affiliate organisations and it had not been possible to join the Labour Won the Vote (Doubleday, 2018) Party as an individual member. Larger, Review by Krista Cowman male unions therefore tended to be rep- resented rather than women, although ebruary 2018 marked 100 years this book, which goes beyond a formal there were associated groups such as the since the Representation of the organisational history of the largest Women’s Co-op Guild and the Railway FPeople Act finally gave parlia- militant society, the Women’s Social Women’s Guild. Once individual mem- mentary votes to some British women. and Political Union. Her approach is bership was allowed, greater numbers The centenary has been marked in more of a collective biography, mak- of women joined, but even then their numerous ways – television and ing full use of the wealth of recently activism within the party was limited radio programmes, statues, local and digitised material also released to mark by union involvement and the block national exhibitions, a multi-site par- the centenary. The impact of these vote. Despite that, the Labour Party ticipatory artwork – ‘Processions’ – in sources on the field cannot be under- had appointed a women’s organiser by the UK’s four political capitals and a estimated. When Atkinson began suf- 1918. So the Liberal Party was slower relisting of several listed buildings to frage research in the 1990s, revealing to appoint an organiser than the other emphasise their suffrage connections. the names of the elusive tier of activ- parties, but had potentially the largest Unsurprisingly there has also been a ists below the national leadership was group at the end of the war. publishing boom bringing new inter- a painfully lengthy process. The local In summing up, Krista commented pretations of the suffrage campaign. reports columns of the WSPU’s weekly that although the world was very These two books, published as part journals Votes for Women and The Suf- different a century ago, with many of the centenary events, present dif- fragette had to be scanned on microfilm changes over the course of the inter- ferent facets of Edwardian women’s or crumbling hard copy, and extracted vening decades, we are still fighting struggle for the vote. Diane Atkin- names cross-checked in the local press. some of the same challenges today. son’s Rise up Women! is a formidable Searching the non-digitised census In the 1920s, Margaret Wintring- work, cramming a wealth of detail required an address (often not avail- ham’s main interests in the House of over almost 700 pages. Atkinson’s sym- able) and the 100-year closure rule was Commons were equal pay, equal suf- pathies lie unapologetically with the outside the timeline of the militant frage, and the broader participation of famboyant suffragettes whose eclectic campaign. The digitisation of local and women in public life – and with the militancy spanned the decade before suffrage newspapers, of birth, death, exception of equal suffrage, we are still the First World War. A suffrage histo- marriage and divorce records and of talking about those topics now. Krista rian of thirty years experience, Atkin- the census has transformed grass-roots pointed out that before 1919 women son was excellently placed to write suffrage research, bringing many more

44 Journal of Liberal History 100 Autumn 2018