THE WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT IN BRITAIN, 1866-1928 The Women's Suffrage Movement in Britain, 1866-1928 Sophia A. van Wingerden palgrave macmillan ©Sophia A. van Wingerden 1999 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1999 978-0-333-66911-2 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Published by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin's Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. Outside North America ISBN 978-1-349-27495-6 ISBN 978-1-349-27493-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-27493-2 In North America ISBN 978-0-312-21853-9 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging. pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to confonm to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 98-49489 Transferred to digital printing 2002 To my grandmothers, Sophia Fox Kenamore and Johanna Wilhelmina Hendrika van Wingerden-Henkes Contents Chronology x Acknowledgements xx List of Abbreviations XXI Preface xxii 1 Introduction 1 The Ladies' Petition 2 The Legal Position of Women 4 John Stuart Mill's Amendment to the Representation of the People Act 1867 9 Votes by Accident 17 2 Early Years - 1870 to 1884 22 Parliamentary Progress 26 Discord and Division: Contagious Diseases and Voting Wives 31 Progress for Women in the 1870s 37 Women's Suffrage - Pro and Con 40 The Free Trade Hall Demonstration in Manchester 49 Extra Cargo - the Reform Bill of 1884 51 3 The 'Doldrums' - Women's Suffrage 1885-1904 55 The 1890s 63 4 'Deeds, not Words!' the Women's Social and Political Union 70 The Suffragettes and the Courts 77 An Increase in Militancy 85 VII viii Contents Political Prisoner Status and Forcible-Feeding 89 'The more they are imprisoned and punished the more they go on' 92 5 'Suffrage Ladies' and the 'Shrieking Sisterhood' 96 The Rift within the Lute 99 'If we were enfranchised, we should do much better' 101 Pretty Woman 105 6 Quakers, Actresses, Gymnasts and other Suffragists 108 The Anti-Suffragists - 'A man, it is commonly felt, ought to be a man, and a woman a woman' 114 7 Conciliation 118 Black Friday 123 The Conciliation Bill in 1911 125 The Coronation Procession 127 The Conciliation Bill in 1912 129 The Reform Bill in 1913 134 8 Descent into Chaos 136 Splits - the Pethick-Lawrences Leave 141 1913 - War is Declared 142 The NUWSS and Labour 145 The East London Federation of Suffragettes 149 The Year 1914 150 9 Patriots and Feminists 154 August 4, 1914 154 Contents IX Patriots or Feminists? The Impact of War on Feminist Ideology 158 The WSPU and the War 161 The ELFS and the War 163 Suffrage in Wartime 164 The Speaker's Conference - Suffrage Again 166 10 After the Vote was Won 172 NUWSS into NUSEC; WSPU into Women's Party 172 After the War was Won 176 The Cause 178 Notes 182 Bibliography 214 Index 224 Chronology 1792 Mary Wollstonecraft publishes A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. 1832 The Reform Act increases the male electorate to approximately 20 per cent of the adult male popula­ tion. 1832 August Mary Smith petitions Parliament for the vote. 1835 The Municipal Corporation Act uses the word male, not person, which denies women the right to vote they had technically been allowed to exercise in the older boroughs. 1847 Anne Knight, a Quaker, issues a leaflet in favor of women's suffrage. 1850 Lord Brougham's Act, 13 & 14 Vict., c.21, §4 states that, unless explicitly specified otherwise, the term 'man' in Parliamentary statutes applies to women and men equally. 1851 The Sheffield Association for Female Suffrage is formed and produces a suffrage petition, which is presented to the House of Lords. 1851 July Harriet Taylor Mill publishes 'The Enfranchisement of Women' in the Westminster Review. 1856 Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon et al., organize a committee to petition Parliament in favor of the Married Women's Property Bill. 1857 The Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Act authorizes divorce by the husband on a showing of adultery by the wife, and by the wife on a showing of adultery and cruelty by the husband. 1857 The Ladies Institute at Langham Place is founded. 1858 The Langham Place group founds The English Woman's Journal, later The Englishwoman's Review. 1860 The Langham Place group founds the Society for Promoting the Employment of Women. 1865 The Kensington Ladies' Discussion Society is founded; after Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon leads a discussion on women's suffrage, a Women's Suffrage Committee is founded. x Chronology Xl 1866 June Emily Davies and Elizabeth Garrett Anderson bring the 'Ladies' Petition' to Parliament. 1866 June John Stuart Mill and Henry Fawcett present the Ladies' Petition to the House of Commons. 1867 The second Reform Act increases the male elec­ torate to approximately one-third of the adult male population. 1867 May John Stuart Mill proposes to amend the Reform Act by replacing the word 'man' by 'person'; his amendment is defeated by a majority of 123. 1867 July The London National Society for Women's Suf­ frage is formed. 1867 August The Manchester National Society for Women's Suffrage is founded. 1867 November A women's suffrage society is formed in Edin­ burgh. 1867 November The National Society for Women's Suffrage is formed to coordinate the activities and policy of the women's suffrage groups. 1867 November After her accidental inclusion in the voting register, Lily Maxwell votes for Jacob Bright. 1868 Women's suffrage societies are founded in Bristol and Birmingham. 1868 The Court of Common Pleas hears Chorlton v. Ling. 1868 April The Manchester National Society for Women's Suf­ frage holds the first ever public meeting on women's suffrage in the Free Trade Hall, Manchester. 1869 Jacob Bright's bill gives women the right to elect members to the municipal council in certain towns on the same terms as men; this right is extended to county councils in 1888 and to district councils in 1894. 1869 July The suffragists hold their first public meeting in London. 1869 November The General Election returns 90 friends of women's suffrage to Parliament. 1870 The Education Act enables women to elect mem­ bers to school boards and to sit on school boards. 1870 The first of the Married Women's Property Acts allows women to keep any property or earnings acquired after marriage. xii Chronology 1870-83 During this time, a women's suffrage bill is intro­ duced each year, with the exception of 1880, and defeated each year. 1872 The Ballot Act institutes the secret ballot for Parlia­ mentary elections. 1872 Regina v. Harrald determines that only unmarried women ratepayers can exercise the local municipal vote. 1872 January The London organization for suffrage splits over the question whether to support Josephine Butler's anti­ Contagious Diseases Acts campaign openly. 1873 May John Stuart Mill dies. 1874 The second of the Married Women's Property Acts allows the wife's creditors to reach the wife's property that went to the husband upon mar­ riage. 1878 The London organization reunites. 1878 June Anti-suffragists systematically canvass against a women's suffrage bill. 1880 February A series of Demonstrations of Women is begun in Manchester. 1882 The third of the Married Women's Property Acts creates the concept of separate property for hus­ bands and wives, allowing wives to hold all the property they had before and after marriage. 1883 The Contagious Diseases Acts are suspended. 1883 The Corrupt Practices Act outlaws payment for election campaign work. 1884 Gladstone's government introduces a Reform Bill to enfranchise agricultural workers. A women's suf­ frage amendment thereto is rejected. 1885 The Women's Council of the Primrose League is founded. 1886 The Women's Liberal Association and Women's Liberal Unionist Association are founded. 1886-1904 The House of Commons votes only twice on the issue of women's suffrage during these years. 1888 Parliament passes the Local Government Act, creat­ ing the County Councils. Chronology Xlii 1888 The Central Committee of the National Society for Women's Suffrage splits over the question of permit­ ting political groups to affiliate with the suffrage societies. 1888 The Women's Liberal Unionist Association is founded. 1889 The Women's Franchise League, which includes Emmeline Pankhurst and Josephine Butler, is formed. 1889 An appeal against women's suffrage, signed by 104 women, is published in the June issue of Nineteenth Century.