Recommended by Dr Duits.
Pankhurst’s autobiography is an account of her lifelong quest for women to have the vote – from the moment she was first awakened to the gender inequalities surrounding her (she movingly recounts overhearing her father lament ‘pity she wasn’t born a lad’) up until the outbreak of 1914 (when the struggle for women’s votes was put on hold).
Pankhurst died a mere four months after all women were granted equal voting rights with men, and although this book ‘ends’ before the struggle is over, one can feel her utter despair at how long it is taking her and her suffragettes to get successive governments to take notice of them. Pankhurst is at pains to point out that their so-called ‘militancy’, as perceived by the male dominated government and press, was just another manifestation of the discrimination faced by women.
As she points out in her foreword: ‘The militancy of men…has drenched the world with blood… The militancy of women has harmed no human life save the lives of those who fought the battle of righteousness.’ Pankhurst fought the good fight, and it is heart breaking to read about it.
Today, 6th February, is 100 years since the Representation of the People Act 1918 marked the first steps towards universal suffrage in the UK. If you'd like to find out more about the suffragettes and their fight to win women equal voting rights, you might be interested in the new exhibition at the Museum of London, which you can read about here, as well as Suffrage 18 - a season of events organised by the London School of Economics to commemorate the anniversary (see here).
If you're looking for further reading, you can also find Rachel Cooke's review of two new histories of the suffragette movement, Hearts and Minds by Jane Robinson, and Rise Up, Women! by Diane Atkinson here, or you might like to browse the blog's list of books about feminism, here.
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