Suffragettes’ Fight for the Vote: Early 20th Century Activism
Suffragettes was the name given to members of women’s organizations in the early 20th century who fought for their right to vote in public elections. The term refers in particular to the members of the Women’s Social and Political Union, a women-only movement founded by Emmeline Pankhurst. This group engaged in direct actions and civil disobedience, including chaining themselves to railings, smashing windows, and setting fire to postboxes and empty buildings. They also set bombs in order to damage churches and property and even broke into the Houses of Parliament. In exchange, they were attacked and sexually assaulted during battles with the police. When imprisoned, they continued reacting against repression by going on hunger strikes, to which the government responded by force-feeding them.
The ‘Baby Suffragette’: Dora Thewlis
One of the most important events was the imprisonment of Dora Thewlis, a teenage mill worker who supported the cause at the age of 16. She became known as the “Baby Suffragette” during a mission to break into the Houses of Parliament. This event made the front page of the Daily Mirror, featuring a photo of Dora Thewlis struggling against two police officers who were holding her.
Emily Davison’s Sacrifice at the 1913 Epsom Derby
Another well-known event was the death of Emily Davison, who ran in front of the King’s horse at the 1913 Epsom Derby in order to put a scarf on him that said, “Vote for Women.” This event made headlines around the world.
Virginia Woolf on Patriarchy and Women’s Limited Roles
However, men, as stated in Virginia Woolf’s Three Guineas, have been able to influence people’s thoughts and actions due to their involvement in every area of public life. They had almost exclusive access to and control over education, law, the diplomatic service, the stock exchange, and the civil service. Women’s access to these areas was very limited, making it exhausting and even humiliating for them to achieve the vote. They were even relegated to insignificant positions in the Church and had no access to the Armed Forces whatsoever. While they could write articles and send letters to the press, the decision of what was printed was in men’s hands. This further excluded them and placed them under the dominant role of men in a patriarchal society.
The patriarchy Woolf discusses not only states the political leadership, moral authority, control of property, and social privilege of men over women but also explains this dominance through the innate natural difference between males and females. This dominance can even be seen through language, where “mankind” is used to refer to both genders and “woman” is used to express that females are a complement to men. Thus, men are the ones who speak in representation of women in a patriarchal society.
Social Construction of Gender Differences
Virginia Woolf claims that this differentiation between genders is a social construction and not a natural outcome of innate differences. This socially constructed difference is clearly observed even through signifying practices—that is, how within a given context, things are made to mean, which are culturally influenced. One example is dress, which was, and is, used to express the social position of genders. For instance, the two police officers holding Dora are showing their authority as men over women, since women could not be police officers at the time. Dora, dressed in the clothes women wore, challenges the socially constructed idea that women cannot be quarrelsome too.
E. P. Thompson and the Making of the English Working Class
E. P. Thompson was a historian with a Marxist background whose interest in political radicalism set him apart from other authors. Like Richard Hoggart, he followed culturalism, a perspective that stresses human agency, or the active production of culture and not its passive consumption. His book, The Making of the English Working Class, embodies this term. In it, he traces the development of the English working class between the years 1780 and 1832, roughly the time encompassed by the Industrial Revolution. The book can be seen as a rescue operation of the members, especially radical ones, of the working class lost in a history dominated by the deeds of monarchs, military leaders, statesmen, and politicians.
“Other Histories”: The Working Class as Active Agents
These “other histories,” with the working class as active agents, challenge traditional narratives. Thompson’s technique involves tracing key moments of radical conflict, analyzing resistance, and political struggle. Some important events in radical working-class agency include:
- The popular revolts that influenced the English Jacobin agitation at the end of the 18th century.
- The particular experience of industrial workers gaining insight into industrial discipline through Methodism and the Methodist Church (the poor law).
- The story of plebeian radicalism in relation to working-class consciousness and politics, such as Luddism.
Chartism is an honorable mention since, despite being outside the limits of The Making of the English Working Class, it provides an idea of what was lacking in Britain before, during, and after its existence.
The Working Class: Identity, Consciousness, and Conflict
The key point is that Thompson puts the working class at the center of historical change as an active agent, rejecting the notion of them being simple pawns. The emergence of the working class is seen as an active process, and the working class as a product of active struggle. It is not a definition or a structure but something that happens. The working class is not isolated because it exists in relation to other classes. Their existence is one of antagonism, or an opposition between the ruling classes or capitalists (the exploiters) and the rest (the exploited). This conflict and each class’s uniqueness emphasize working-class identity and the fact that the classes are not simple but complex.
Experience, Culture, and the Growth of Political Consciousness
The working class is the translation of experience into culture, which leads to class consciousness and a sense of belonging, awareness, and handling of these experiences. All in all, experience consolidates identity, and Thompson links it to a growth of political consciousness too. Between 1780 and 1832, the working class felt an identity of interests amongst themselves and against their employers or rulers.
Working-Class Radicalism and the Rise of Corresponding Societies
Thompson also paid close attention to working-class radicalism, or the working class as a “revolting class.” First, we should examine the term “radical,” which refers to roots, being at the grass level, which refers to the lowest class. The term also applies to a social movement performed by laborers, usually carried out by revolts and riots. Of course, they faced repression. Working-class radicalism and corresponding societies go hand in hand, since Thompson describes them to give historical substance to the rise of working-class radicalism. At the end of the 18th century, working men began clubs and societies like the London Corresponding Society, which channeled radical ideas. However, its institutionalization and organization of the working class posed threats to the ruling class. By the start of the 19th century, the London Corresponding Society and Thomas Paine’s The Rights of Man, a key book in political radicalism, were banned but circulated in secret. Moreover, a Combination Acts prohibited mass meetings. The reactions against repressions continued to contribute to the gain of consciousness and motivate non-conformist ideas.
Thompson’s Conclusion: A Consolidated Working Class
Thompson’s conclusion was that, despite the strength in the unity of the monarchy, church, and upper classes, by the 1830s, the working class had been consolidated and was a force. Its demands and rebellions entailed repression, but the confrontations helped to consolidate the ruling and working classes even more.