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| A suffragist statue in Parliament Square would write Emmeline Pankhurst out of history | A suffragist statue in Parliament Square would write Emmeline Pankhurst out of history |
| (4 months later) | |
| Wed 27 Sep 2017 12.33 BST | |
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| As a historian and biographer of Emmeline Pankhurst, I receive emails each week asking me about the suffragettes from schoolgirls who know they are different to the suffragists. The suffragettes, led by the charismatic Pankhurst and her eldest daughter, Christabel, believed in direct action. They engaged in colourful, peaceful processions and ruses, as well as, from 1912, damage to property. This was in response to the refusal of the obdurate Liberal government of the day, headed by the staunch opponent of votes for women, Herbert Asquith, to enfranchise them. | As a historian and biographer of Emmeline Pankhurst, I receive emails each week asking me about the suffragettes from schoolgirls who know they are different to the suffragists. The suffragettes, led by the charismatic Pankhurst and her eldest daughter, Christabel, believed in direct action. They engaged in colourful, peaceful processions and ruses, as well as, from 1912, damage to property. This was in response to the refusal of the obdurate Liberal government of the day, headed by the staunch opponent of votes for women, Herbert Asquith, to enfranchise them. |
| The suffragists, under Millicent Garrett Fawcett, adopted constitutional, legal tactics, such as writing letters to MPs and peaceful demonstrations. Fawcett loudly condemned the actions of the militants, arguing that they were hindering the women’s cause. After Emily Wilding Davison was fatally injured at the 1913 Epsom Derby when she tried to grab the reins of the king’s horse, biographer David Rubinstein records that Fawcett made no public comment, publishing a tribute several years later in 1920. So the news that Westminster council has granted planning permission for a statue of the liberal feminist Fawcett in Parliament Square has not made me rejoice. | The suffragists, under Millicent Garrett Fawcett, adopted constitutional, legal tactics, such as writing letters to MPs and peaceful demonstrations. Fawcett loudly condemned the actions of the militants, arguing that they were hindering the women’s cause. After Emily Wilding Davison was fatally injured at the 1913 Epsom Derby when she tried to grab the reins of the king’s horse, biographer David Rubinstein records that Fawcett made no public comment, publishing a tribute several years later in 1920. So the news that Westminster council has granted planning permission for a statue of the liberal feminist Fawcett in Parliament Square has not made me rejoice. |
| When the feminist campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez launched a petition to “put a statue of a suffragette in Parliament Square to mark 100 years of female suffrage”, 84,734 people signed it. An open letter to the newly elected London mayor Sadiq Khan calling for “a statue of a suffragette” was signed by prominent women including JK Rowling and Emma Watson. But then it was announced that the proposed statue would not be of a suffragette after all, but of the suffragist Fawcett. | When the feminist campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez launched a petition to “put a statue of a suffragette in Parliament Square to mark 100 years of female suffrage”, 84,734 people signed it. An open letter to the newly elected London mayor Sadiq Khan calling for “a statue of a suffragette” was signed by prominent women including JK Rowling and Emma Watson. But then it was announced that the proposed statue would not be of a suffragette after all, but of the suffragist Fawcett. |
| The statue of Fawcett has the strong support of the Fawcett Society, as well as Helen Pankhurst, great-granddaughter of Emmeline, and Theresa May. But those of us who wanted to see a statue of a suffragette in Parliament Square are disappointed. | The statue of Fawcett has the strong support of the Fawcett Society, as well as Helen Pankhurst, great-granddaughter of Emmeline, and Theresa May. But those of us who wanted to see a statue of a suffragette in Parliament Square are disappointed. |
| It is wonderful that there will be a woman in that honoured space, but sad that Fawcett does not represent the diversity of the women’s suffrage movement. The constant cry of Fawcett supporters is that she was there at the beginning of the campaign for votes for women, in the 1860s, and at the end in 1928 when the equal franchise was granted. It is true there is already a statue of Pankhurst in Victoria Tower Gardens, and former Tory MP Neil Thorne is leading a campaign for a new one on Canning Green. Meanwhile another Pankhurst statue is due to be unveiled in Manchester in 2019. | It is wonderful that there will be a woman in that honoured space, but sad that Fawcett does not represent the diversity of the women’s suffrage movement. The constant cry of Fawcett supporters is that she was there at the beginning of the campaign for votes for women, in the 1860s, and at the end in 1928 when the equal franchise was granted. It is true there is already a statue of Pankhurst in Victoria Tower Gardens, and former Tory MP Neil Thorne is leading a campaign for a new one on Canning Green. Meanwhile another Pankhurst statue is due to be unveiled in Manchester in 2019. |
| But the 2018 centenary of the Representation of the People Act is a historic moment, and by erecting a statue only of Fawcett then, we are writing the radical Pankhurst out of history. Unlike Fawcett, who was comfortably off, after 1918 Pankhurst had to earn a living. The only job she was offered was lecturing for the Canadian government. When she returned to England in 1926, her health was poor due to the 13 imprisonments she had endured during the suffrage campaign, when she went on hunger, thirst and sleep strike. | But the 2018 centenary of the Representation of the People Act is a historic moment, and by erecting a statue only of Fawcett then, we are writing the radical Pankhurst out of history. Unlike Fawcett, who was comfortably off, after 1918 Pankhurst had to earn a living. The only job she was offered was lecturing for the Canadian government. When she returned to England in 1926, her health was poor due to the 13 imprisonments she had endured during the suffrage campaign, when she went on hunger, thirst and sleep strike. |
| She belongs in Parliament Square, and I am sorry that the idea for a statue of several figures including Fawcett and Pankhurst, intended to convey the richness of the women’s suffrage struggle, did not win more support. Instead, the public will end up with a statue of a woman few people have heard of. Some 52 names, including those of some suffragettes, are to be etched on the plinth. I hope the list will not include the name of Davison. She died after being trampled by a horse and does not belong under Fawcett’s feet. | She belongs in Parliament Square, and I am sorry that the idea for a statue of several figures including Fawcett and Pankhurst, intended to convey the richness of the women’s suffrage struggle, did not win more support. Instead, the public will end up with a statue of a woman few people have heard of. Some 52 names, including those of some suffragettes, are to be etched on the plinth. I hope the list will not include the name of Davison. She died after being trampled by a horse and does not belong under Fawcett’s feet. |
| • June Purvis is emerita professor of women’s and gender history at the University of Portsmouth and a biographer of Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst | • June Purvis is emerita professor of women’s and gender history at the University of Portsmouth and a biographer of Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst |
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