The true story of the suffragettes is far darker than you’d think

We’re taught that the suffragettes were heroes who gave us our freedom. The real story is far more complex, and at times darker than you’d think.

Emmeline Pankhurst led us on the road to equal franchise; Emily Wilding Davison gave her life to the cause; hundreds more endured imprisonment or force feeding to give us our freedoms. These are the stories we are told. As a young woman I held them up as inspiration and motivation for a more just and better world.

Yet as I have delved into archives I found a different picture. I discovered a movement led by autocratic rulers; the sidelining of working class women; and even differences about what they should be campaigning about.

In a new podcast series launching today, we’ll explore these differences in detail through the stories of three women from East London. This corner of the capital has long been a hot-bed of radical activism, yet many local working class women found themselves forced out of the suffrage movement. Initially they were told to march at the back of parades. This eventually escalated into shutting down all the East London branches of the WSPU. Working class women were seen as having “no value”. In the words of Christabel Pankhurst, “we want only the brightest and the best.”

The movement was often racist, most notably in the US where Susan B Anthony opposed black communities having the vote. They even attempted to ban black women from suffrage parades. The magnificent Ida B Wells was having none of that, and forced her way not just into the parade, but right to the front. The look of defiance on her face in this picture from that famous day is an inspiration.

There were also huge differences in opinion about what the movement should be campaigning for. East London suffragettes like Melvina Walker were frequently frustrated that women’s political activities were restricted to the vote and venereal disease. It’s a view I found in papers relating to other women of the period, including May Morris and Eleanor Marx, who felt women’s emancipation could only stem from economic freedom.

In the diaries of Eva Slawson, who we will be discovering in episode 2 of the podcast, she expresses frustration at these limitations too. She is also critical of militant tactics, saying of the death of Emily Wilding Davidson:

“I cannot express what a shock this news was to me — can such martyrdom and sacrifice really be necessary? Will it hasten the longed for result?”

After the 1918 People’s Representation Act, which gave some women the vote, the women’s movement fell apart. Without female franchise to bind them, their political differences became achingly apparent. It’s also notable that few of the leading suffragettes continued campaigning for wider female franchise. They had what they wanted; they were done.

Of course we must avoid looking at history through a modern lens, and see these people in the context of their era. Even the most radical were subjected to the prevailing attitudes of the age, and no hero is ever perfect.

Yet that is not a reason to gloss over these flaws. If we do not look at the women’s movements with a critical eye, how will we ever progress? We must celebrate what our fore-sisters did, but also discuss their faults. Only then can we do better.

Rebel Women: A podcast about history’s troublemakers, launches on 24th July. Subscribe where ever you get your podcasts http://eastlondonwomen.org.uk/podcast/