Liverpool Women's Suffrage Society

Liverpool Women's Suffrage Society

1910 image of half a dozen ladies outside a suffrage campaign shop

Liverpool Women's Suffrage Society campaign shop for 1910 Kirkdale by-election
Abbreviation LWSS
Merged into Liverpool Women Citizen's Association
Formation January 1894
Founder Edith Bright
Lydia Allen Booth
Nessie Stewart-Brown
Type Suffrage Society
Key people
 Eleanor Rathbone

The Liverpool Women's Suffrage Society was a group set up in 1894 by Edith Bright, Lydia Allen Booth and Nessie Stewart-Brown to promote the enfranchisement of women. They held their first meeting in a Temperance Hall, with Millicent Fawcett, head of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, as their initial guest speaker. They set up headquarters in Liverpool's Lord Street. The group became affiliated with the Union in 1898. The Society focussed on meetings in cafes which would include talks, but also poetry and dance recitals and recruited from prominent members of society, distancing themselves from working class suffrage societies such as Women's Social and Political Union.

Eleanor Rathbone led the society as the secretary from 1897, especially in campaigning for the 1910 elections. They set up three campaign shops around Liverpool, asking men to vote for anyone who would support votes for women, but especially campaigning for Alexander Gordon Cameron. In 1911, Rathbone and Stewart-Brown set up a branch of the society for the education of women who would soon get the vote, and when the Society disagreed with the National Union, they merged with their branch to create the Liverpool Women's Citizens Association in 1919.

History

The Liverpool Women's Suffrage Society was set up in 1894, with their first meeting being held in January, at the Temperance Hall in Liverpool's Hardman Street.[1] It was first proposed just a month earlier by Emily Hornby at a public meeting and after a unanimous vote,[2] was founded by Edith Allan Bright, Lydia Allen Booth and Nessie Stewart-Brown[3] and initially had twenty four members.[2] The society set up headquarters aleat 6 Lord Street in Liverpool.[4] During the first meeting Millicent Fawcett, the head of National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, attended as a speaker.[5][6]

The society made sure to distinguish themselves from Women's Social and Political Union and the Independent Labour Party, and due to the milder nature of the group they became known as respectable "lady suffragists".[7] They focussed on recruiting more prestigious members of society,[8] leading to other enfranchised women (especially those in the working-class) joining the Women's Social and Political Union[9][10] and when it came to protests by the Union, the society actively distanced itself.[11] By the first Annual General Meeting, on 11 January 1895,[1] the membership had expanded to just seventy one.[2]

In 1896, the society affiliated with Central National Society for Women's Suffrage,[6] and by 1898 they had joined the amalgamated National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies.[12] Bright invited Christabel Pankhurst to speak in Liverpool in 12 February 1909, which resulted in a "phenomenal demand for membership cards".[13] Pankhurst stayed at Bright's house whilst in Liverpool.[14]

Goals

Liverpool Women's Suffrage Society was formed with the intention of fulfilling a number of goals. It hoped to educate women on why they should have the right to vote and convince men of the same.[15] It had links with Liberal MPs and intended to use these to pressure the government to allow women's suffrage.[16] In addition, the society tried to drum up support for their cause by holding small scale events, often with speakers at the Yamen Cafe in Liverpool's Bond Street.[16] The events would also include poetry, singing or performances of acting or ballet by the Blue Bird Theatre Company.[16]

The society would take part in wider suffrage demonstrations, for example in June 1908, it supported a National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies event in London's Hyde Park and in June 1910 an event by all the Liverpool suffrage organinsations at Liverpool's St Georges Hall[17] Eleanor Rathbone lead the society's campaigning in the 1910 Liverpool elections,[18] opening campaign shops on Smithdown Road, Bold Street and Stanley Road,[19] asking men to vote for anyone who would support votes for women, regardles of party.[20] They actively campaigned for the Labour candidate Alexander Gordon Cameron, although he did not win.[21]

Founders

Edith Bright, Lydia Allen Booth and Nessie Stewart-Brown – the three founders of the Liverpool Women's Suffrage Society

The society was founded by three ladies. Edith Bright, who served on the executive committee of Liverpool Ladies Union of Workers among Women and Girls.[3] Bright was involved in a number of other feminist causes such as Mothers Union & National Union of Women Workers and was a driving force for a Liverpool branch of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies.[22] Her husband, Allen Bright, was a Liverpool lawyer, shipping merchant & Liberal MP.[3] Lydia Allen Booth (née Butler)[23] was an American lady who was also on the executive committee of Liverpool Ladies Union of Workers among Women and Girls.[5] Nessie Stewart-Brown was president of Liverpool Womens Liberal Association,[1] as well as working with Bright in the Mothers Union & National Union of Women Workers.[22]

Secretaries

Liverpool Women's Citizen Association

Sensing they were close to achieving suffrage, Rathbone & Stewart-Bright created Municipal Women's Association in 1911 as a branch of the Liverpool Women's Suffrage Society. The Association's aim was to increase awareness of the vote for women, encourage discussion amongst potential women voters as well as teaching women what to do when they had the vote.[28] Soon after, in 1912, the Liverpool Women Suffrage Society disagreed with the route that the National Union Women's Suffrage Societies was taking, with their Election Fighting Fund, and instead started to merge with Municipal Women's Association to become the Liverpool Women's Citizen's Association.[6] The outbreak of World War I changed the focus of groups to help with the national emergency and in 1919 the two groups fully merged. By 1921 they had 12 branches.[4]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Helmond (1992), p. 21.
  2. 1 2 3 "Liverpool Women's Suffrage Society: First annual meeting: Progress of the movement". Liverpool Mercury. 12 January 1895. p. 6.
  3. 1 2 3 Helmond (1992), pp. 19–20.
  4. 1 2 Helmond (1992), p. 86.
  5. 1 2 Helmond (1992), p. 20.
  6. 1 2 3 Crawford, Elizabeth (2013). The Women's Suffrage Movement in Britain and Ireland: A Regional Survey. Routledge. p. 17. ISBN 9781136010545. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
  7. ↑ Cowman (2004), p. 73.
  8. ↑ Cowman (2004), p. 76.
  9. ↑ Gupta, Kat (2015). Representation of the British Suffrage Movement. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 21. ISBN 9781472570901. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
  10. ↑ Cowman (2004), p. 81.
  11. ↑ Pedersen, Susan (2004). Eleanor Rathbone and the Politics of Conscience (Illustrated ed.). Yale University Press. p. 118. ISBN 9780300102451. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
  12. ↑ "National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies". The Nursing Record & Hospital World: 440. 27 November 1897. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
  13. ↑ Helmond (1992), p. 37.
  14. ↑ Joannou, Maroula (1998). The Women's Suffrage Movement: New Feminist Perspectives (Illustrated ed.). Manchester: Manchester University Press. p. 43. ISBN 9780719048609. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
  15. ↑ Helmond (1992), pp. 28–29.
  16. 1 2 3 Helmond (1992), p. 30.
  17. ↑ Helmond (1992), pp. 30–31.
  18. ↑ Helmond (1992), p. 47.
  19. ↑ Crawford, Elizabeth (2013). The Women's Suffrage Movement in Britain and Ireland: A Regional Survey. Routledge. p. 26. ISBN 9781136010545. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
  20. ↑ Helmond (1992), p. 48.
  21. ↑ Helmond (1992), pp. 50–51.
  22. 1 2 Cowman (2004), pp. 68–69.
  23. ↑ "Booth, Alfred (1834–1914)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/46642. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  24. ↑ Crawford, Elizabeth (2013). The Women's Suffrage Movement in Britain and Ireland: A Regional Survey. Routledge. p. 26. ISBN 9781136010545. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
  25. ↑ Minault, Gail (1989). The Extended Family: Women and Political Participation in India and Pakistan. Chanakyai Publications. p. 112. ISBN 9788170010548. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
  26. ↑ Cook, Chris; Stevenson, John (2014). A History of British Elections since 1689. Routledge. ISBN 9781317693000. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
  27. ↑ Crawford, Elizabeth (2003). The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866–1928. Routledge. p. 350. ISBN 9781135434021. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
  28. ↑ Cowman (2004), p. 74.

Sources

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