Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence

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Standard Name: Pethick-Lawrence, Emmeline
Birth Name: Emmeline Pethick
Married Name: Emmeline Lawrence
Used Form: Emmeline Pethick Lawrence
Militant suffragist EPL launched and co-edited the weekly journal Votes for Women with her husband, Frederick Pethick-Lawrence , in 1907. The journal began as the official publication of the militant suffrage organisation, the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) , but in 1912 the Pethick-Lawrences distanced themselves from the WSPU and began to publish it independently. During the first half of the twentieth century EPL published a number of suffragist pamphlets, many of them printed versions of speeches she had previously delivered. Speeches she gave in her own defence at the conspiracy trial of 1912 were published in 1913. From 1908 to 1950, she wrote many letters to the editor on a wide variety of national and international political topics. Her autobiography, 1938, largely focuses on the militant suffrage movement and the involvement in it of herself and her husband, as well as on her pacifist activities after World War One.
Photograph of a painting of Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence. She is depicted from the shoulders up, wearing a dark jacket over a pale, choker-necked shirt. Her dark, luxuriant hair is pinned on top of her head. Her expression is serene.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Travel Constance Lytton
CL embraced the suffrage cause on meeting Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence and Annie and Jessie Kenney at a holiday for working girls of the Esperance Club , at the Green Lady Hostel in Littlehampton, Sussex.
Lytton, Constance. Prisons and Prisoners. Heinemann.
9-18
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Constance Lytton
Between the accounts of her first experience of arrest and of her first sojourn in prison comes an interlude of contact with and comfort from her sisters. Though she goes into some detail about how...
Textual Production Evelyn Sharp
In March 1912 when Emmeline and Frederick Pethick-Lawrence were arrested, ES became, almost at a moment's notice, acting editor (officially assistant editor) of Votes for Women, the official organ of the WSPU . She...
Textual Production Vera Brittain
In 1963 VB published an account of the struggle for women's suffrage (as well as many other topics) in her Pethick-Lawrence : A Portrait, a biography of a male suffragist who, with his wife...
Textual Production Christabel Pankhurst
Christabel wrote her account in the 1930s, after the appearance of Sylvia Pankhurst 's The Suffragette Movement, but resisted appeals to publish it. The manuscript got as far as the publisher's before she decided...
Residence Christabel Pankhurst
CP settled in London, at the home of the Pethick-Lawrences in Clement's Inn, shortly after Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence began working as the WSPU treasurer.
Castle, Barbara. Sylvia and Christabel Pankhurst. Penguin.
50-2
Mitchell, David J. The Fighting Pankhursts: A Study in Tenacity. MacMillan.
30
Reception Olive Schreiner
The book was a particular delight to women readers, but its popularity extended to people of both genders and all classes. Lady Constance Lytton later recalled that her father and the artist George Frederic Watts
politics Dora Marsden
Christabel and Emmeline Pankhurst , Mary Gawthorpe , and Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence also spoke at this event.
politics Evelyn Sharp
ES spent a night in a police-station cell en route for another sojourn in Holloway , having been arrested along with Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence and Lady Sybil Smith outside the House of Commons .
Sharp, Evelyn. Unfinished Adventure. John Lane, Bodley Head.
144-5
politics Dora Marsden
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...
politics Evelyn Sharp
The Union had been founded in August 1874. This year's annual conference coincided with a court appearance of Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence , Annie Cobden-Sanderson , and others (following their arrest on 23 October), and was therefore...
politics Evelyn Sharp
She later wrote that she was less able to endure her two weeks in prison with equanimity than were most of the more than three hundred suffragists arrested with her.
Sharp, Evelyn. Unfinished Adventure. John Lane, Bodley Head.
140-3
She was instrumental in...
politics Stella Benson
SB had been a moderate until the death of the Derby Martyr, Emily Wilding Davison , in 1913. After this she became more militant. When she moved to London in May 1914, she called...
politics Ethel Sidgwick
The Congress, held from 28 April to 1 May, attracted 1,200 women from twelve countries, both warring and neutral, to discuss means of achieving peace. Others meeting with the delegates on the subsequent peace tour...
politics Charlotte Despard
Lady Constance Lytton recorded how CD (whose leadership qualities she warmly admired) was committed to Holloway Prison early in 1909. She described the meeting there between Despard and Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence , when the two women's...

Timeline

: The Women's Social and Political Union moved...

National or international item

Summer1906

The Women's Social and Political Union moved its headquarters to London; this relocation was emblematic of its shift away from its Independent Labour Party and working-class origins.

23 October 1906: During a demonstration at the opening of...

National or international item

23 October 1906

During a demonstration at the opening of Parliament , eleven Women's Social and Political Union supporters were for the first time arrested and imprisoned: for two months in Holloway .

October 1907: Votes for Women, the official organ of the...

Building item

October 1907

Votes for Women, the official organ of the Women's Social and Political Union , began publication in London.

October 1907: Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst and Emmeline...

National or international item

October 1907

Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst and Emmeline and Frederick Pethick-Lawrence , wanting to maintain control over the Women's Social and Political Union agenda, removed by fiat dissident members of the executive and cancelled the forthcoming annual conference.

March 1908: Mary Louisa Gordon, who had qualified as...

Building item

March 1908

Mary Louisa Gordon , who had qualified as both a physician and a midwife and had practised medicine in London since 1900, was appointed the first female prison inspector in Britain.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

21 June 1908: The Women's Social and Political Union organised...

National or international item

21 June 1908

The Women's Social and Political Union organised a Woman's Sunday which involved (according to the Times estimate) between 250,000 and 500,000 people, mostly women. The WSPU called it Britain's largest-ever political meeting.

Early December 1908: A meeting of suffragists at the Albert Hall...

Building item

Early December 1908

A meeting of suffragists at the Albert Hall was marred by violence from both sides: a woman struck a steward in the face with a whip, and women were roughly handled.

28 March 1912: The Conciliation Bill (on suffrage) was defeated...

National or international item

28 March 1912

The Conciliation Bill (on suffrage) was defeated in a House of Commons vote, after passing its second reading (the previous year) with a huge majority.

25 May 1912: The Irish Citizen, a suffrage newspaper jointly...

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25 May 1912

The Irish Citizen, a suffrage newspaper jointly edited by Francis Sheehy Skeffington and James Cousins , began weekly publication in London.

6 February 1914: The United Suffragists was established as...

National or international item

6 February 1914

The United Suffragists was established as a new organisation open to men and women, militant and non-militant members.

Early August 1914: In response to the support for Britain's...

National or international item

Early August 1914

In response to the support for Britain's war effort pledged by Millicent Garrett Fawcett and other National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies Executive Committee members, several leading members of the Union resigned to form the...

February 1918: Votes for Women, an organ of the Women's...

Building item

February 1918

Votes for Women, an organ of the Women's Social and Political Union , ceased publication in London.

July 1920: The Irish Citizen ended publication after...

Building item

July 1920

The Irish Citizen ended publication after a British soldier wrecked the press.

6 July 1928: Four days after the Representation of the...

Building item

6 July 1928

Four days after the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act received the royal assent, a celebratory breakfast was held at the Hotel Cecil in London.

September 1938: The Woman's National Newspaper began publishing...

Writing climate item

September 1938

The Woman's National Newspaper began publishing in London; it had claimed to be the first independent newspaper in the world owned and controlled entirely by women.
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press.
54

Texts

Pethick-Lawrence, Emmeline. “Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, from <span data-tei-ns-tag="tei_title" data-tei-title-lvl=‘m’>The New Crusade</span&gt”;. Literature of the Women’s Suffrage Campaign in England, edited by Carolyn Christensen Nelson, Broadview, 2004, pp. 65-70.
Pethick-Lawrence, Emmeline. My Part in a Changing World. Victor Gollancz, 1938.
Pethick-Lawrence, Emmeline. My Part in a Changing World. Hyperion, 1976.
Pethick-Lawrence, Emmeline. The Meaning of the Woman’s Movement. Woman’s Press.
Pethick-Lawrence, Emmeline. The New Crusade. National Women’s Social and Political Union.
Pethick-Lawrence, Frederick William, and Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, editors. Votes for Women. Reformer’s Press.
Pethick-Lawrence, Emmeline. Why Women Want the Vote. Woman’s Press.
Pethick-Lawrence, Emmeline. Women as Race Builders. National Women’s Social and Political Union.
Pethick-Lawrence, Emmeline. “Working Girls’ Clubs”. University and Social Settlements, edited by Will Reason, Methuen, 1898.