Rise Up, Women! Book Summary - Rise Up, Women! Book explained in key points

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Rise Up, Women! summary

Name: Rise Up, Women!
Rating: 4.6 (12 reviews)
Author: Diane Atkinson

Diane Atkinson

The Remarkable Lives of the Suffragettes

4.6 (12 ratings)

22 mins

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Women's Stories Memoirs

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Rise Up, Women!
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What’s in it for me? A scintillating study of the suffragettes.

The struggle for equal suffrage – a vote for every citizen – took a long time in the United Kingdom. In fact, it took just under a century before the dream was realized. But inequality also defined the struggle itself. The idea that all men should be given the right to choose their representatives was, for many, a lot easier to accept than the notion that such rights should also apply to women.

That’s where the so-called “suffragettes” came in. Built around the Women’s Social and Political Union or WSPU, the movement was shaped and dominated by the charismatic Pankhurst family. Between the first years of the twentieth century and the First World War, the WSPU was Britain’s most committed and militant pro-suffrage organization.

From attacks on leading members of the governments of the day to smashing windows, burning letterboxes, occasional bombing sprees and massive marches, the suffragettes were committed to taking matters into their own hands and achieving equality in their country. The path they followed wasn’t an easy one: along the way, they faced astonishingly brutal repression at the hands of the state and its police force and gaolers. These blinks tell their story.

So read on to find out

why the suffrage movement believed there was no alternative to militant direct action;
who the Pankhursts were and why they were so prominent in the suffrage movement; and
how World War One changed societal attitudes concerning the role of women.

The Pankhurst family began advocating for women’s suffrage in early twentieth-century Britain.

Following voting reforms in 1832, around 800,000 property-owning men in the United Kingdom could vote. Women, however, remained disenfranchised. That struck some as deeply unfair. The English philosopher John Stuart Mill, for example, raised the issue in 1867, arguing that it was unjust that female taxpayers couldn’t elect their own representatives.

Yet little was done to change the situation. Even the socialist Labour party, which was otherwise committed to equality, kept silent. Its leaders feared that only wealthy women would be given the vote, boosting the Conservative and Liberal parties. By the turn of the twentieth century, the situation looked bleak for supporters of women’s suffrage.

Frustrated by this lack of progress, suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Sylvia decided to take matters into their own hands. In 1905, the duo began lobbying members of parliament or MPs directly, but their arguments mostly fell on deaf ears. One exception was John Slack, the Liberal MP for St Albans. Slack decided to raise the question of women’s suffrage in parliament and introduced a private members’ bill – a proposal to change the law.

The bill was filibustered. Opponents extended debates concerning other bills. By the time Slack’s proposal was raised for discussion, only 30 minutes remained. As it was announced, MPs laughed and clapped.

That was the moment the Pankhursts realized that they’d have to change their tactics. If they wanted to secure the vote for women, politely asking for change just wasn’t going to cut it. So what was the alternative? Well, they’d have to become a great deal more confrontational and shock people. Their organization – the Women’s Social and Political Union or WSPU – adopted a new motto to reflect this change in tactics: “Deeds not words.”

Christabel, another of Pankhurst’s daughters, and Annie Kenney, a mill worker from Oldham, led the way. They interrupted a Liberal rally in Manchester and waved a banner reading “Will you give votes for women?” As police officers led them away, Christabel spat at one of them, knowing it’d get her arrested.

Both were charged with obstruction while Christabel faced another charge of assault. When they refused to pay their fines, they were sentenced to several days in prison. That got people talking. Newspapers like the Times reported on the trial – the first WSPU event to ever feature in the national press!

Pankhurst and her daughters were charismatic – and controversial – leaders of the WSPU.

Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters had founded the WSPU in 1903. They would remain at the center of the movement throughout its existence, and it was their ideas which shaped its identity. Their strong belief in the effectiveness of deeds rather than words was reflected in its official motto. Even the organization’s colors – purple, white and green – were chosen by the Pankhursts. Their militancy and dedication would inspire women throughout the United Kingdom to fight for their right to vote.

So who were these radical women? Well, let’s start with Christabel. She led the WSPU alongside her mother and became such an icon of the cause that women wore brooches bearing her portrait. She had received a first class degree in law but wasn’t allowed to practice the profession because she was a woman. Then there was Sylvia. She had studied at Manchester Art School and the Royal College of Art. She put that background to use by designing many of the WSPU’s banners as well as its membership card.

Women’s protests in prison led to brutal treatment.

The WSPU soon settled on imprisonment as the most effective means of raising the organization’s public profile. The experiences of the women who were jailed for their activism merely confirmed what they’d believed all along. Even as prisoners, women weren’t treated the same way as men.

In the nineteenth century, political prisoners were allowed to wear their own clothes, read books, write letters and freely associate with one another. When the suffragettes ended up behind bars, they found that such perks were for men only. They were treated as common criminals. That meant wearing prison garb, scrubbing floors and experiencing solitary confinement.

Suffragettes saw criminal damage as an effective way of inciting arrest and gaining publicity.

In 1906, suffragettes took stones wrapped in WSPU petitions and threw them through the windows of the British Treasury, Home Office and Privy Council. It was the first example of what would become an increasingly common strategy: criminal damage designed to raise the movement’s public profile.

It was a crude tactic, and plenty of the WSPU’s genteel members found the act almost painful. But they pressed on nonetheless – after all, breaking windows was a great deal less painful than being beaten up by the police on the frontlines of protests!

Violence wasn’t a one-way street, and suffragettes were just as likely to be on the receiving end.

As we’ve seen, the suffrage movement faced stiff opposition from the get-go. From force-feeding to attacks on militants by members of the public, much of the repression was violent. On other occasions, the police resorted to brutal tactics in their battle against the movement.

While it was never an official WSPU policy, some pro-suffrage militants also resorted to physical attacks against their opponents. Take Mary Leigh, the first woman to be force-fed in prison. In 1912, she threw a hatchet through the window of Prime Minister Herbert Asquith’s carriage in Dublin. Then there was Emily Davison. In the same year, she attacked Reverend Forbes Jackson with a horsewhip after mistaking him for David Lloyd George!

Emily Davison’s infamous suicide was met with mixed reactions within the movement.

Even if you don’t know much about the suffragettes, you’ll probably have come across the name of Emily Davison – the woman who died after throwing herself in front of the king’s horse at the Derby in 1913 while holding a banner featuring the colors of the suffrage struggle. So who exactly was Davison?

Well, in a word, a maverick. Davison was among the most radical militants in the movement, as her résumé suggests. She was one of the first women to set fire to public postboxes, a common tactic from which the WSPU was careful to distance itself. Her first arson attack came in December 1911 when she lit a kerosene-soaked package and put it into a postbox on Fleet Street in London. She was arrested three days later after burning down another three postboxes.

The First World War changed both the movement and society’s attitude toward women.

The outbreak of war in Europe in 1914 changed the way people thought about themselves and society. The suffragettes were no different, and there was plenty of debate within the movement about which position it should take on the conflict.

Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst belonged to the pro-war camp. The duo became increasingly jingoistic over time. The Suffragette, the WSPU magazine edited by Christabel, reflected this. It condemned the Germans and was even renamed Britannia in 1917 to showcase its patriotism. There were reports of WSPU members handing white feathers – a symbol of cowardice – to men not wearing a uniform. Emmeline Pankhurst meanwhile called for a truce during the war period, and all suffragette prisoners were released within ten days.

The 1918 Representation of the People Act was the first step on the path to full suffrage for women.

On 6 February 1918, the Representation of the People Act was passed into law. Although it fell short of granting women full equality, it was nonetheless a milestone in the struggle for suffrage. Christabel Pankhurst believed the law had been rushed through parliament for one simple reason: the fear that the suffragettes would return to their pre-war militancy.

So what did the law actually say? Well, it gave women over 30 a vote on the condition that either they or their husbands were householders or rented property worth £5 per year. Women who had graduated from a British university or held a comparable qualification were also given the vote.

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What is Rise Up, Women! about?

Rise Up, Women! (2018) tells the remarkable story of the militant women’s suffrage movement in the United Kingdom. Full of fascinating insights into the women at the heart of the struggle for equality, these blinks illuminate one of the twentieth century’s first great civil rights revolutions.

Best quote from Rise Up, Women!

The term suffragette was coined by the Daily Mail in 1906 to demean the suffrage movement.

—Diane Atkinson

Who should read Rise Up, Women!?

History buffs
Feminists
Activists

About the Author

Diane Atkinson is a writer who regularly lectures on the suffragettes. A consultant on the 2015 film Suffragette, she has also worked with many documentary makers. Her previous books include Suffragettes in Pictures, Funny Girls and Elsie and Mairi Go to War.

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Biography & Memoir

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