Saturday 20 December 2014

The wolves of fear are upon us - the Vote December 1914

Continuing in our series of suffragette advent postings from the Vote from 4th December 1914
this issue offers insight into wartime activity. During the war overtly political campaigning for the vote was suspended. There are  descriptions of aid for Belgian refugees, work in hospitals and food kitchens. However not all the articles are no-political  interestingly in 'Wednesdays at the suffrage club' there is an account of a speech by Mrs Tanner in which she raises the question of whether war work will help women get the vote after the war - stating that suffrage has never been granted as a reward for good conduct it was necessary for women to continue to safeguard their interests and protest against blunders- certainly in this issue there is significant coverage against measures to attempt to reimpose the contagious diseases act which would limit female freedom


The issue also has a very interesting article entitled Wolves from Pacifist Charlotte Despard which considers the nature of war and its links with  the militarisation of society. She refers to the war being upon them due to the blindness of peoples a state of affairs which could have been avoided. She also states that the ' very men who are acting as defenders' of the oppressed were a very short time ago due to fear of women's citizenship attempting 'to knock the fearlessness out of us' and in the long term calls upon women to engage with the peace making process to help form an international committee.


On a lighter note another article also discusses the creation of a girl scout movement in Mortimer which is seen as a viable alternative to the 'rococo' girl guides who have Victorian attitudes not in line with 'modern girls' and suffragettes.

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