THE BIRMINGHAM WOMEN WHO FOUGHT FOR THE VOTE:
Birmingham was at forefront of battle for women’s votes a century ago
VOTES for women. It’s a phrase that should not need an explanation today. For why wouldn’t women be allowed a vote?
The Representation of the People Act passed a century ago on Tuesday – and changed Britain forever, and for the better.
It’s something we all take for granted now – universal suffrage, votes for men, votes for women, and lest we forget, votes for the “lower classes”.
The 1918 Act extended the vote to women over 30 (though it would be another decade before all women gained the vote on a parity with men) and all men over the age of 21.
And the suffragette campaigners of Birmingham played a major part in striking that long-awaited blow for equality and democracy.
The city had a reputation as a hotbed for political activism and had been a breeding ground for the various reform movements which, during the 19th century, had already extended the vote and other political rights.
A key unit of the national Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) – the militant suffragette group led by Emmeline Pankhurst – was based in Ethel Street, off New Street, in Birmingham city centre.
Its members became active around the factory gates of the great industrial city, where increasing numbers of hard-working women were wondering why they did not have the same voting rights as their male colleagues.
As the campaign grew – along with the disruptive militancy – activists found themselves locked up in Winson Green prison where their tactic of going on hunger strike was brutally ended in 1909 by the introduction of force-feeding.
The suffragettes disrupted a public meeting with Prime Minister Herbert Asquith at Bingley Hall.
One climbed onto a roof as he travelled to the hall and hurled slate tiles down to the ground.
Five of the campaigners were arrested, including Evlyn Burkitt, from Wellington Road, Perry Barr, and jailed, later going on hunger strike.
It was then that the Home Office decreed that ‘artificial feeding’ be introduced. Descriptions of spoons, then a nasal tubes being used to force feed activist Mary Leigh followed.
The Birmingham WSPU continued to hold protests outside.
Ms Leigh later gave a graphic account of her treatment in a WSPU publication: “On Saturday afternoon the wardress forced me onto the bed and two doctors came in.
“While I was held down a nasal tube was inserted.
“It is two yards long, with a funnel at the end; there is a glass junction in the middle to see if the liquid is passing.
“The end is put up the right and left nostril on alternative days.
“The sensation is most painful – the drums of the ears seem to be bursting and there is a horrible pain in the throat and the breast.
“The tube is pushed down 20 inches.
“I am on the bed pinned down by wardresses, one doctor holds the funnel end, and the other doctor forces the other end up the nostrils.
“The one holding the funnel end pours the liquid down – about a pint of milk... egg and milk is sometimes used.”
The activism and campaigning, by the WSPU and the less militant National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, which included the Birmingham Women’s Suffrage Society (BWSS), continued. But no progress was being made. The BWSS took part in a national march, called the pilgrimage, from Carlisle to London in July 1913 – joining the procession at Great King Street, Hockley, as they travelled through the city with banners.
Their law-abiding campaign also became tied to the Labour Party.
But the WSPU suffragettes carried on with their more extreme action.
In April 1913, they were accused of setting fire to a boathouse in Handsworth Park and it was reported that a plan to torch the Old Grammar School at Kings Norton was called off when the activists saw the building’s beauty.
A campaigner called Nellie Hall was arrested for throwing a brick at Asquith’s car during one of the PM’s visits to Birmingham.
Fires at properties in Solihull, Perry Barr and Selly Park, cricket pavilions at Smethwick and Harborne, Bromford Bridge racecourse and rail stations in Northfield and Hagley Road were all attributed to the suffragettes.
Northfield Library was burned down in 1914 and a bomb exploded at Moor Hall Green.
Birmingham Cathedral was among churches vandalised with graffiti bearing suffragette slogans such as ‘votes for women’.
The frenzy of activity was only halted by the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.
While many are celebrating the centenary this week, Birmingham historian Carl Chinn argues that we should wait another ten years.
He said: “The vote was only given to women over 30 in 1918.
“It was another ten years before there was full political equality with men. So perhaps we should wait.”
He highlighted campaigners such as Emma Sproson, a leading figure in another group, the Women’s Freedom League who went on to become Wolverhampton’s first female councillor.
He also pointed to Catherine Osler, a member of the wealthy Edgbaston-based family of glass manufacturers, who was a leading voice in the BWSS who broadened the campaign to workers.
She encouraged organisers to go around factories recruiting women to the cause.
“It is also really important that we do not forget the role of working class women in the movement,” said Prof Chinn.
“For some, it was just a middle class movement, they were not interested in giving the vote to working women.
“But those women in the factories had to campaign and do their hard day’s work.”
It is also really important that we do not forget the role of working class women in the movement Prof Carl Chinn