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
Cultural formation Christabel Pankhurst
There is some suggestion that CP may have had lesbian relationships. She excited devotion among her female followers, and at least one—novelist Elizabeth Robins —admitted to falling in love with her. CP also spent much...
Dedications Sylvia Pankhurst
SP reflected on her life and the lives of others during the First World War in The Home Front: a Mirror to Life in England During the First World War, published this year and...
Employer Dora Marsden
By this time Marsden was earning an annual salary of £108. She resigned from the Union after one of its central committees (which included Christabel Pankhurst , Emmeline Pankhurst , and Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence ) refused...
Friends, Associates Evelyn Sharp
Others with whom she shared this or that memorable experience were the Meynells (Wilfrid , Alice , and Viola ), Clarence Rook and his wife, and Henry W. Nevinson , whom she eventually married...
Friends, Associates Constance Lytton
Mary Neal , a leader in the folk-dance revival and joint founder with Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence of the Esperance Club for working girls, invited CL to holiday with herself and some of the girls in autumn...
Friends, Associates Gladys Henrietta Schütze
Through her early mentor W. Pett RidgeGHS met various literary men: W. W. Jacobs , Barry Pain , Jerome K. Jerome , Hugh Walpole , and Ernest Temple Thurston . Pett Ridge (P...
Friends, Associates Constance Lytton
From two days after her stroke until September 1918 she had the joy of a perfect nurse,Nurse Oram .
Lytton, Constance. Letters of Constance Lytton. Editor Balfour, Elizabeth Edith, Countess of, Heinemann, 1925.
236-7
That summer CL realised that we loved each other, and no mistake. From that...
Friends, Associates Dora Marsden
During the 1920s DM 's primary focus was her writing, which she continued mainly in isolation and under much mental and physical stress. However, she was assisted in this by Harriet Shaw Weaver and Sylvia Beach
Friends, Associates Mary Gawthorpe
During her time with the WSPU, MG worked with Christabel Pankhurst (who was twenty-four when Gawthorpe first met her, before she had yet met Isabella Ford ), whom, like Ethel Snowden , she knew from...
Friends, Associates Mary Gawthorpe
MG 's correspondents included Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence , Alice Paul , Elizabeth Gurley Flynn , Elizabeth Robins , Helena Swanwick , Henry Nevinson , Havelock Ellis , John Galsworthy , Victor Gollancz , A. R. Orage
Friends, Associates Emmeline Pankhurst
Keir Hardie , a dear friend of EP 's after her husband's death, introduced her to Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence , a crucial figure in the revivification of the suffrage movement. Her home in Clement's Inn, in...
Literary responses Sylvia Pankhurst
Save the Mothers was well reviewed. George Bernard Shaw responded enthusiastically to the book, and Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence expressed her pleasure at its positive reception. Vera Brittain also praised it, favourably comparing SP 's activism for...
Occupation Maude Royden
Though unable to attend, she had served on the British Committee for the Congress in April of this year. Of the 180 British women who had planned to attend, only three were able to go:...
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 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, 1933.
144-5

Timeline

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

National or international item

Summer 1906

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.
Holton, Sandra Stanley. “Women and the Vote”. Women’s History: Britain, 1850-1945, edited by June Purvis and June Purvis, University College London, 1995, pp. 277-05.
291
Garner, Les. Stepping Stones to Women’s Liberty: Feminist Ideas in the Women’s Suffrage Movement, 1900-1918. Heinemann Educational, 1984.
45

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 .
Hume, Leslie Parker. The National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, 1897-1914. Garland, 1982.
30
Holton, Sandra Stanley. Suffrage Days: Stories from the Women’s Suffrage Movement. Routledge, 1996.
127
Holton, Sandra Stanley. Suffrage Days: Stories from the Women’s Suffrage Movement. Routledge, 1996.
126-7

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.
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
25
King, Elspeth. “The Scottish Women’s Suffrage Movement”. Out of Bounds: Women in Scottish Society 1800-1945, edited by Esther Breitenbach and Eleanor Gordon, Edinburgh University Press, 1992, pp. 121-50.
139

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...

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.
Tickner, Lisa. The Spectacle of Women: Imagery of the Suffrage Campaign, 1907-1914. University of Chicago Press, 1988.
91-4, 96-7

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.
Raitt, Suzanne. May Sinclair: A Modern Victorian. Clarendon Press, 2000.
112 and n14

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.
Holton, Sandra Stanley. “Women and the Vote”. Women’s History: Britain, 1850-1945, edited by June Purvis and June Purvis, University College London, 1995, pp. 277-05.
294
Tickner, Lisa. The Spectacle of Women: Imagery of the Suffrage Campaign, 1907-1914. University of Chicago Press, 1988.
133
Hume, Leslie Parker. The National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, 1897-1914. Garland, 1982.
135
Frye, Kate Parry. Campaigning for the Vote: Kate Parry Frye’s Suffrage Diary. Editor Crawford, Elizabeth, Francis Boutle Publishers, 2013.
98-100

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

Building item

25 May 1912

The Irish Citizen, a suffrage newspaper jointly edited by Francis Sheehy Skeffington and James Cousins , began weekly publication in London.
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
33
Owens, Rosemary Cullen. Smashing Times: A History of the Irish Women’s Suffrage Movement 1889-1922. Attic, 1984.
46

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.
Norquay, Glenda. Voices and Votes: A Literary Anthology of the Women’s Suffrage Campaign. Manchester University Press, 1995.
xii
Holton, Sandra Stanley. “Women and the Vote”. Women’s History: Britain, 1850-1945, edited by June Purvis and June Purvis, University College London, 1995, pp. 277-05.
295
John, Angela V. Evelyn Sharp: Rebel Woman, 1869–1955. Manchester University Press, 2009.
76

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.
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
25

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

Building item

July 1920

The Irish Citizen ended publication after a British soldier wrecked the press.
Owens, Rosemary Cullen. Smashing Times: A History of the Irish Women’s Suffrage Movement 1889-1922. Attic, 1984.
129
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
33

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.
“July 6, 1928, Celebrating full women’s suffrage”. Guardian Weekly, 6 July 2007, p. 20.
20

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, 1987.
54
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
54

Texts

Pethick-Lawrence, Emmeline. “Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, from The New CrusadeLiterature of the Womens 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.