Dear White Feminists, we need to talk about Emmeline

Emmeline Pankhurst has monopolised the suffragette story for over a century, never wobbling from the pedestal we place her on. But our relationship with her should not be this comfortable.

Emmeline Pankhurst rules the suffragette story with autocratic power. That’s fairly impressive considering she’s been dead for nearly 100 years.

It seems that in death, as in life, Emmeline has harnessed a legion of loyal followers; people who fail to look too closely into what she was about, maintaining a blinkered view on the battle for female franchise.

I’m not saying Emmeline wasn’t an extraordinary woman. She was an invincible PR machine, proven by her dominance in our discussions so many generations later.

She was also an incredible fundraiser. She could slip and slide through the pockets of the super wealthy, building a campaigning empire as she went. The fact she later channelled those same funds into the war effort seems to have escaped many people’s notice. In his book, The Pankhursts, Martin Pugh claims other financial wrong-doings too. But ho-hum…

My biggest misgiving about Emmeline Pankurst is what an autocrat she was. In 1907, she announced that the WSPU annual conference would be cancelled, members would lose their right to vote and future decisions would be made by a committee, who she would appoint. In short, she became a dictator.

The person we hail for women’s part in democracy, banned women from having any democratic power in her own organisation.

Ironic, huh?!

Emmeline’s power grab caused a significant split in the organisation. Many left in outrage, some going on to set up the Women’s Freedom League. They continued campaigning for the vote, but also opposed the war, stood as parliamentary candidates and campaigned for equal pay. Yet it’s unlikely any school child will be taught about them, because they couldn’t compete with the Pankhurst’s PR machine.

It isn’t just the Women’s Freedom League who’ve been elbowed out. The stories of the East London Federation of Suffragettes (ELFS) have also been kicked to the back of the room. This is no coincidence. The ELFS was primarily a working class organisation, with strong ties to trade unions and socialist movements. Emmeline did not like this at all. Her eldest daughter (and protégé) , Christabel, stated ‘a working women’s movement was of no value: working women were the weakest portion of the sex… Their lives were too hard, their education too meagre to equip them for the contest.’ During one large central London demonstration, working class women were forced to march at the back. This enraged suffragette Adelaide Knight, a disabled activist from Bethnal Green. She resigned her position, saying, ‘they have broken their promises to working women.’

If we allow one woman or one family to dominate a historical narrative, we fail to let other voices through. Most often those are the voices of poor women, disabled women and women of colour.

When historians like June Purvis argue that, we owe them the vote, my initial reaction is, do I? My family were Jewish refugees, who initially settled in Leeds, before moving to the East End a generation later. I don’t know a huge amount about them, but my great grandfather was probably illiterate. He died fairly young, and left my great grandmother a widow with several children to support. I don’t have any information on how she coped, but based on similar accounts, it was probably a massive struggle. There was no social security, or widows’ pension. If she managed to find work, she would have only earned a fraction of what a man could. When the 1918 People’s Representation Act passed, she most probably fell into the 40% of women who did not receive the vote.

Some people say that by 1918 Emmeline was burnt out, and that’s why she did not continue fighting for equal franchise. This overlooks the fact she had never campaigned for this. She only ever called for the vote on the same terms as men, which at the time excluded huge swathes of the working class community.

So excuse me for not bowing my head in respect to Emmeline, as the evidence does not suggest she was fighting for families like mine.

No hero is ever perfect. There is that awkward fact about Marie Stopes and eugenics; and oral history accounts claim Sylvia Pankhurst could be a bit of a monster. People are complex, and nobody is all good or bad. But we should discuss those bad bits, and feel a sense of unease. At the moment, our relationship with Emmeline is far too cosy and comfortable.

We must look critically at Emmeline, and be honest about who she was. When we do that we will allow other stories to come through. Otherwise women’s history will continue to be dominated by the voices of wealthy white women, failing to address the oppressions faced by other minority communities.

As part of International Women’s Day, the In Her Footsteps app is being relaunched with new content. It celebrates hidden histories of women activists in East London. It’s available for both Apple and Android devices, and can be downloaded now for free.