Academic literature on the topic 'Suffragetten'

Antonia Meiners (Hg.): Die Suffragetten. Sie wollten wählen – und wurden ausgelacht. 176 S., Elisabeth Sandmann Verlag, München 2016 Hedwig Richter / Kerstin Wolff (Hg.): Frauenwahlrecht. Demokratisierung der Demokratie in Deutschland und Europa. 295 S., Verlag des Hamburger Instituts für Sozialforschung, Hamburg 2018 Unda Hörner: 1919 – Das Jahr der Frauen. 249 S., Ebersbach & Simon-Verlag, Berlin 2018

Zusammenfassung Seit fast 100 Jahren kämpft die feministische Bewegung für ein Equal Rights Amendment zur US-Verfassung. Getragen von einem neuen, aus Ablehnung der Trump-Administration heraus entfachten Momentum, erreichte das ERA im Januar 2020 die letzte der 38 benötigten bundesstaatlichen Ratifizierungen – und steht damit, so scheint es, seinem Ziel zum Greifen nah. Gleichzeitig jedoch hinterlässt Trump einen noch konservativer ausgerichteten Obersten Gerichtshof, der die über Jahrzehnte erarbeiteten Erfolge der Bewegung zunichtemachen könnte. Dieser Artikel liefert auf Basis journalistischer Interviews und Recherchen einen Überblick über die ERA-Bewegung, die mehrere Generationen an Frauen mobilisiert, empört und für ihre Rechte sensibilisiert hat; die zugleich Spalter und Katalysator für eine professionelle Frauenbewegung war. Neben den Kernforderungen der Bewegung und ihren aktuellen Akteurinnen beleuchtet dieser Artikel die zentralen Kritikpunkte, die das ERA noch immer von beiden Seiten des politischen Spektrums der USA anzieht, und gibt einen Ausblick zu seiner Zukunft.

Investigations into uses of humour associated with the militant suffrage campaign of the Women's Social and Political Union have been largely concerned with the satirizing of suffragettes. The uses that suffragettes themselves made of humour as a considered political tactic have been less considered. This paper explores three ways in which suffragettes turned humour to their advantage during their campaign: by deliberately adopting “silly” behaviours as a counterpoint to over-formal and male dominated Edwardian politics; by quick-witted retorts to hecklers who sought to disrupt suffragette meetings and finally as a means of venting private political dissent and alleviating some of the stresses of hectic political campaigning. The exploration of humour within the WSPU's work reveals some of the links between humour and social protest in the early twentieth century, and considers the extent to which its use in public political behaviour might be gendered.

ABSTRACTThis article analyses more than thirty demonstrations by suffragettes of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) connected with the Budget crisis of 1909, and challenges many of the established orthodoxies about suffragette militancy. Demonstrations did not represent spontaneous activity by the rank and file, but were carried out or at least led by WSPU employees or ‘professional’ militants, with several visible changes in tactics which indicate an organized campaign directed by the leadership. Damage to property, and the political violence which culminated in the terrorist tactics of 1912–14, did not begin as a response to wrongs done to the suffragettes, but because the leaders decided it was necessary. But these tactics were a counter-productive mistake which caused an adverse public reaction and justified the government in the introduction of forcible feeding. The WSPU was obliged to retreat in a humiliating reversal.

Feminism is an important part of nineteenth- and twentieth-century US political and social life. This article examines women's struggles for their rights and the impact of suffragette ideas on people of colour. The article looks at prominent nineteenth- and twentieth-century suffragettes with their actions and the results of the actions they came to as a result of the struggle. In addition to actions aimed at asserting their own rights, the article describes women's participation in the Civil War, 1861-1865, and in the First World War. This work explains the background to the emergence of major anti-discrimination movements such as Me Too and Black Lives Matter, among others, through an accepted methodology

ABSTRACTSince 1985 the shipwreck site and related artifacts from the steamship SS Xantho (1872) have been key elements in the Western Australian Museum Maritime Archaeology Department’s research, exhibition, and outreach programs. This article describes a continually evolving, often intuitive, synergy between archaeological fieldwork and analyses, as well as museum interpretations and public engagement that have characterized the Steamships to Suffragettes exhibit conducted as part of a museum in vivo situation. This project has centered on themes locating the SS Xantho within a network of temporal, social, and biographical linkages, including associations between the ship’s engine and a visionary engineer (John Penn), a controversial entrepreneur (Charles Broadhurst), a feminist (Eliza Broadhurst), and a suffragette (Kitty Broadhust), as well as to Aboriginal and “Malay” divers and artists. Achieved with few funds, the project may be a valuable case study at a time when funds allocated to museums and archaeological units are rapidly diminishing.

2013 marked the centenary celebration of the suffragettes’ fight for the right to vote in parliamentary elections in Norway. The article “Breaking the Waves: Tuning into Queer History with FRANK’s Voluspå” analyses the Norwegian queer feminist platform FRANK’s response to the centenary, which included the artist book Voluspå (2013) and the exhibition Marie Høeg Meets Klara Lidén (2013–14), where photographs by the Norwegian suffragette and photographer Marie Høeg (1866-1949) were brought in dialogue with Swedish contemporary artist Klara Lidén. Through an analysis of FRANK’s “performative historiography,” the article discusses the value of revisiting one of feminist history’s most central narrative figures: the wave metaphor. With inspiration from feminist theorists including Clare Hemmings, Ednie Kaeh Garrison, and Tina Campt, the article suggests the importance of recalibrating the wave metaphor from an oceanic to an auditive register, as this opens up for a model of historical engagement attuned to the politics of affective dissonances and resonances across time and place.

This article approaches the struggles for enfranchisement within a perspective of a public sphere as conceptualized by Jürgen Habermas and Nancy Fraser. It focuses on one Danish suffragette organisation and its membership magazine, Kvindevalgret (1908-1915), as an exemplification of a type of opinion-forming public. In so doing the article is informed by the assumption that this type of public is a central democratic arena in which the process of deliberation has intrinsic value. The case demonstrates how participants in such a public can use a public arena as a means of politicising their situation, of democratic learning and of constructing political identities – in this case as mature, capable female voters. This was a controversial identity formation in the historical period of strong Conservative forces. The suffragettes’ in the debate were inspired by the contemporary philosophy of John Stuart Mill, in particular his liberal and utilitarian thinking on women as mature adults and as contributors to society’s well being.

Canadian historians have underplayed the extent to which theproject of suffrage and first wave feminism was transnational in scope. The suffrage movement in British Columbia provides a good example of the global interconnections of the movement. While BC suffragists were relatively uninterested in pan-Canadian campaigns they explicitly situated provincial suffrage within three transnational relationships: the ‘frontier’ myth of the Western United States, radical direct action by suffragettes in the United Kingdom, and the rise of modern China. By the second decade of the 20thcentury, increasingly confident women’s suffrage societies hosted international visits and contributed to global print culture, both of which consolidated a sense of being part of a modern, international and unstoppable movement. BC suffragists were attuned to American suffrage campaigns in California, Oregon and Washington, which granted female suffrage after referenda and situated political rights for settler women in the context of Western progress narratives. The emphasis on progress and modernity intersected with growing connections to non-Western countries, complicating racialized arguments for settler women’s rights to vote. BC suffragists were particularly impressed by the role of feminism in Chinese political reform and came to understand Chinese women as symbolizing modernity, progress, and equality. Finally, the militant direct action in the British suffrage movement played a critical role in how BC suffragists imagined the role of tactical political violence. They were in close contact with the militant WSPU, hosted debates on the meaning of direct action, and argued that suffragettes were heroes fighting for a just cause. They pragmatically used media fascination with suffragette violence for political purposes by reserving the possibility that unmet demands for political equality might lead to Canadian conflict in the future.

Denna uppsats ämnar finna de faktorer som drev före detta suffragetter till att ansluta sig till den fascistiska organisationen British Union of Fascists (BUF), samt redogöra för organisationens syn på kvinnors och kvinnors roll i samhället.  BUF grundades 1932 och var den största och mest framstående fascistiska gruppen i Storbritannien under mellankrigstiden. I samband med att organisationen nådde sin höjd i mitten av 1930-talet blev den ökänd för sina våldsamma möten och konfrontationer med politiska motståndare. De våldsamma metoderna som fascisterna använde skulle alienera dem från den breda brittiska politiken. När BUF proklamerade sitt stöd för Adolf Hitlers Nazityskland kom organisationen att fördömas av både den brittiska allmänheten och de etablerade partierna. British Union of Fascists skulle motsätta sig andra världskriget och uppmanade regeringen att förbjuda organisationen och arresterade många högtuppsatta medlemmar 1940. Fascismen var känd för att ha en patriarkal, traditionalistisk och reaktionär syn på kön och kvinnor. Men trots detta lyckades organisationen attrahera tidigare suffragetter. Så hur kunde de som tidigare kämpat för jämställdhet gå med i en rörelse som motsatte sig jämställdhet? Vilken syn hade BUF på kvinnan och kvinnorollen? För att svara på detta har jag studerat och analyserat ideologisk text skrivna av organisationens grundare och ledare Oswald Mosley samt andra fascistiska medlemmar. Jag har också använt mig av tillgänglig forskning från etablerade professorer och historiker för att nå en slutsats.   Resultatet visar att British Union of Fascists hade en mycket traditionalistisk och reaktionär syn på kvinnan och kvinnorollen. Svaghet betraktades och beskrivs som feminint och manlighet betraktades och beskrivs som styrka. BUF ansåg att kvinnan rent naturligt föredrog hemmet framför arbete och att moderskapet var kvinnans högsta kallelse i livet. Fascisterna betraktade kvinnors framgångar i kampen för jämställdhet som samhällets degeneration och förfall. Resultaten visar även att det fanns många faktorer som drev de tidigare suffragetterna till British Union of Fascists. Vilka faktorer som var avgörande beror på suffragetten i fråga. I min forskning har jag hittat tre exempel på tidigare suffragetter som gick med i BUF. Dessa var Norah Dacre Fox, Mary Sophia Allen och Mary Richardson. De faktorer som fick Norah Dacre Fox att ansluta sig till BUF var primärt möjligheten för sig och sin partner att få politiska karriärer. Fox hävdade att BUF var suffragettrörelsens arvtagare men jag har inte hittat några bevis för att detta var en primär faktor som fick henne att gå med i organisationen. De faktorer som fick Mary Sophia Allen att gå med i BUF var sannolikt krigsutbrottet 1939. Allen var sedan tidigare en beundrare av Adolf Hitler vilket troligtvis fick henne att motsätta sig ett krig mot dennes regim. Hon tjänstgjorde även under första världskriget och var troligtvis väl medveten om krigets fasor, något som kan ha bidragit till att hon motsatte sig ett nytt krig. De faktorer som fick Mary Richardson att gå med BUF var att hon ansåg att organisation och fascismen som ideologi var det enda som kunde rädda landet från stagnation. Richardson såg också mycket i BUF som påminde henne om suffragettrörelsen, och som en militant suffragett i sin ungdom kan BUFs militarism och paramilitära aktioner ha varit attraktiva. Det är därför troligt att de faktorer som fick Richardson att gå med i fascisterna var en kombination mellan att tro på dem som en politisk kraft såväl som deras militanta tillvägagångssätt. Richardson lämnade organisationen efter interna bråk och kom att anklaga organisationen för att i själva verket motarbeta kvinnors rättigheter. Strävan efter jämlikhet kan därför mycket väl ha varit en bidragande faktor till att hon anslöt sig till fascisterna, men jag har inte hittat några bevis som uttryckligen pekar på detta.
This essay revolves around the fascist organization British Union of Fascists (BUF) and their view on women and women’s role in society. It also examines former suffragettes who joined the organization, with the goal of establishing which factors contributed to them seeking membership in the organization.  Founded in 1932, the BUF was the largest and most prominent fascist group in the United Kingdom during the interwar period. Reaching its peak in the mid-1930s, the organization would become infamous for violent rallies and clashes with political opponents. The violent methods of the fascists would alienate them from mainstream British politics. And the organization would be condemned by both the British political establishment and British public after pleading their allegiance to Adolf Hitlers Nazi Germany. The British Union of Fascists would oppose the second world war, prompting the government to ban the organization and arresting numerous high-ranking members in 1940. Fascism was known for having a patriarchal, traditionalist and reactionary view on gender and women. But despite this fact, the organization managed to attract former suffragettes. So how come that those who fought for equality between the sexes would join a movement that opposed the same? How did British Union of Fascists view women and the female role?  To answer this, I have studied, and analysed ideological text written by the organizations founder and leader Oswald Mosley, alongside other fascist members. I have also used available research by established professors and historians to reach a valid conclusion.    The result shows that the British Union of Fascists had a highly traditional and reactionary view on women. Weakness was viewed and described as feminine, while masculinity was viewed and described as strength. The group regarded the home as women’s natural habitat, and childbirth as their highest calling in life. The fascists viewed women’s recent achievements in the struggle for equality as the degeneration and downfall of society.  The results also shows that there were numerous factors that drove the former suffragettes, each depending on the suffragette in question. In my research I have found three examples of former suffragettes who joined the BUF. These were Norah Dacre Fox, Mary Sophia Allen and Mary Richardson. The factors that made Norah Dacre Fox join the BUF was primarily the possibility of herself and her partner to gain political careers through the organization. Fox did argue that she viewed the BUF as successors to the suffragette movement, but I have not found any evidence that proves that this was a primary factor for her joining the BUF. The factors that made Mary Sophia Allen join the BUF were most likely the outbreak of the second world war. She was an admirer of Adolf Hitler which probably made her oppose a war against his regime. She also served during the first world war, something that might have contributed to her opposing a new war due the horrors of warfare. Mary Richardson joined the BUF because she believed that the organization and the ideology of fascism were needed to save to country from its downfall. Richardson also saw a lot in the BUF that remined her of the suffragette movement, and as a militant suffragette in her youth the BUFs militarism and paramilitary actions might have been attractive. It is therefore likely that the factors that made Richardson join the fascists were a combination between agreeing with their views on the degeneration of British society as well as their militant actions. Richardson did leave the organization after a falling-out with its leader, and she would accuse the group of working against women’s rights. The pursuit of equality might very well have been a contributing factor for joining, but I have not found any evidence that explicitly points to this.

This thesis examines women's bodies in public spaces, as represented in texts produced by and about British suffragettes active in the militant campaign for women's enfranchisement (1905- 14). The texts under discussion here include suffragette fiction, autobiography, history and journalism. This thesis argues that these suffragette representations, in which the specificities of women's bodies are central, constitute not only a contestation of the political domain but a reconfiguration of the public sphere. Drawing on the work of Jurgen Habermas and recent feminist critiques of liberal political theory, it is further argued that the emphasis on bodily performance in suffragette tactics implicitly critiqued the grounding assumptions of the modern liberal state such as the privileging of disembodied reason. This thesis also proposes that, concomitant with this refiguring of the political domain, the performative tactics of the suffragette campaign constructed a distinctive suffragette subjectivity. Drawing on the notion of Michel Foucault that subjectivity is located in specific discursive practices, it is argued that the suffragette performances of dissent need to be understood as acts of self-formation by suffragettes. Through a range of practices where the emphasis was consistently on political agency and bodily specificity (from fashion and processions to arson and hunger-striking), suffragette protest constituted the women as subjects within "the sphere of political communication" (Habermas 1989 8). In suffragette texts, it will be seen, representations of protesting suffragette bodies are central to this construction of a suffragette subjectivity, but are also sites of struggle, as the issue of whether this subjectivity is located in peformance or interiority is explored.