Women's Social and Political Union

Mary Gawthorpe resigned her co-editorship of The Freewoman after DM published there her explicit attack on the WSPU , A Militant Psychology. Gawthorpe had disagreed with Marsden's position for some time.

Rebecca West wrote on The Freewoman in a 1926 issue of the feminist weekly Time and Tide. She disagreed with Marsden's campaign against the WSPU as well as with her later philosophical turns, while...

Though some of DM 's activities and affiliations are unclear, studying and living in Manchester was a highly formative experience for her. By then the city had established strong ties with the labour and suffrage...

As editor and then contributing editor, DM published essays through which she explored her doctrine of radical individualism.Asked about the paper's stance on women's suffrage, she replied that it was Nowhere, since...

When she returned to the north after living in Colchester, DM became more actively involved with the formal suffrage movement, particularly the WSPU . Along with Rona Robinson , she was attracted to the ideals...

After this, DM 's role within the WSPU expanded markedly. She was a frequent public speaker and temporarily took over Mary Gawthorpe 's work as a Union organizer when Mary was ill. Her work was...

This image was both exploited and subverted to varying degrees by the press, the WSPU , and Marsden herself. From this point forward, Marsden became a significant force within the Union as a paid organizer...

Charges against the women were dropped owing to pressure from the University Chancellor, the Liberal writer and statesman Lord Morley (now a Viscount), whose speech they had interrupted and who was said to be appalled...

Continuing the pattern begun several months previously, Marsden received high praise from Union leaders while she also continued to come under their scrutiny. She was criticised within the movement for her apparent lack of financial...

DM moved frequently during her time with the WSPU . Finances were limited and she was in high demand in Manchester, London, and such smaller districts as Southport and Blackburn. Between November...

Gawthorpe was a former teacher from Leeds who had joined the WSPU at the age of thirteen and chosen activism in preference to marriage and family. She was a longtime suffragist and socialist, who called...

Following her split with the WSPU , DM considered joining the Women's Freedom League or the Fabian Society , but instead began to plan for a radical feminist journal that would stimulate discussion of diverse...

Through her regular journal essays and editorial decisions, Marsden not only questioned the methods and goals of established suffrage groups, primarily the WSPU , but also led discussion of such topics as auto-eroticism, monogamy...

DM was the major but not the sole driving force behind The Freewoman. The journal was launched with funds from Mary Gawthorpe , who also served for some time as its co-editor. Gawthorpe's tenure...

In one of her first major public appearances with the WSPU , DM spoke, along with leaders of the movement, at the group's rally at Heaton Park in Manchester, to mark Woman's Sunday.