Free Daily Headlines :

  • COVID-19
  • Vaccine Info
  • Money
  • Politics
  • Education
  • Health
  • Justice
  • More
    • Environment
    • Economic Development
    • Gaming
    • Investigations
    • Social Services
    • TRANSPORTATION
  • Opinion
    • CT Viewpoints
    • CT Artpoints
DONATE
Reflecting Connecticut’s Reality.
    COVID-19
    Vaccine Info
    Money
    Politics
    Education
    Health
    Justice
    More
    Environment
    Economic Development
    Gaming
    Investigations
    Social Services
    TRANSPORTATION
    Opinion
    CT Viewpoints
    CT Artpoints

LET�S GET SOCIAL

Show your love for great stories and out standing journalism
CT VIEWPOINTS -- opinions from around Connecticut

Connecticut’s intersection with women’s suffrage

  • CT Viewpoints
  • by Steve Thornton
  • November 13, 2015
  • View as "Clean Read" "Exit Clean Read"

On Nov. 13, two historical events in the women’s movement will intersect. First is the new film Suffragette which chronicles the British campaign to win the vote for women, led in large measure by Emmeline Pankhurst. The second is a talk by Pankhurst to a Hartford audience in 1913. Her presentation is considered one of the century’s most significant speeches.

Both the fictional portrayal and the actual speech challenge us to look at how much women have achieved, and how far there is to go. Pankhurst had worked in the suffrage movement for 35 years by the time she first appeared in Connecticut.  She visited Hartford four times from 1909 to 1916. But it was Nov. 13, 1913 when she delivered what has become known as her famous “Freedom or Death” speech at Parson’s Theater.

To Emmeline Pankhurst and her militant sisterhood of suffragists, the liberation of women could only be achieved by civil war.  She told her Hartford audience “I come to you tonight not to advocate suffrage, but as a soldier.  I am a dangerous woman, with a sentence of penal servitude hanging over my head.  I do not look very much like a soldier or a convict but I am both.”

Emmeline Pankhurst 1858-1929.

Emmeline Pankhurst 1858-1929.

This was no idle allusion. Under Pankhurst’s leadership, the suffrage movement adopted a distinctly radical strategy.  English women burned down the country homes of the rich. They harassed businessmen on the street. They placed bricks in their handbags. They destroyed golf courses, poured acid in mailboxes, and cut the telegraph wires of stock brokers.  In one memorable event, they enlisted supportive male dock workers to charge the Prime Minister’s office, wreaking havoc along London’s Downing Street.

“In our civil war people have suffered,” she declared, “but you cannot make omelettes without breaking eggs; you cannot have civil war without damage to something. It does not matter to the practical suffragist whether she alienates sympathy that was never of any use to her.”

On stage with Katharine Houghton Hepburn and other prominent suffragists, Pankhurst described the harsh plight of women in stark economic and social terms.  Working women earned the poverty wage of $2 a week on average.  Wives had no right to their husband’s property and no legal say in the upbringing of their children.  Divorce was a “scandalous stigma.” Girls were marriageable at 12 years old. Violent assaults on women by men rarely received significant penalties.  The vote, she insisted, was the first step toward political and economic equality.

Emmeline Pankhurst and her cohorts spent long periods of time in jail for their suffrage activities.  Once imprisoned, they went on hunger strikes until their physical health failed, forcing the authorities to release them– and re-arrest them when they recovered. When she returned to England after her 1913 American fundraising tour, Pankhurst fully expected to be imprisoned for an earlier conviction, and she was.

British suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst (1858 - 1928), being jeered by a crowd in New York. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

CTMIRROR.ORG

British suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst (1858 – 1928), being jeered by a crowd in New York. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

Feminist writer Germaine Greer has analyzed how Pankhurst considered property violence — and martyrdom– as necessary weapons in the struggle.  Greer points out that just months before the Hartford speech, an English suffragist died after throwing herself in front of the horse owned by King George V during a race. Pankhurst did not refer to this extraordinary sacrifice, but the implication was clear.  “The government of England,” Pankhurst told Hartford, “has to face this alternative: either women are to be killed or women are to have the vote.”

In 1918 some English women finally won the franchise, if they were over 30 and were property owners or wives of property owners. In 1928, all women could vote when they reached 21 years of age. Emmeline Pankhurst died a short while after the victory.

Connecticut women won the vote in 1920.  Our state has its own early feminist heroines who linked political oppression to economic injustice.  Local women like Dr. Emily Pierson, Edna Purtell, Mary Townsend Seymour and Josephine Bennett were labor organizers as well as suffragists.  They, too, deserve recognition for their pioneering efforts, and maybe a movie of their own.

Steve Thornton is a writer of people’s history and a retired union organizer. The full text of Emmeline Pankhurst’s 1913 Hartford speech can be found at his website, ShoeleatherHistoryProject.com.

Sign up for CT Mirror's free daily news summary.

Free to Read. Not Free to Produce.

The Connecticut Mirror is a nonprofit newsroom. 90% of our revenue comes from people like you. If you value our reporting please consider making a donation. You'll enjoy reading CT Mirror even more knowing you helped make it happen.

YES, I'LL DONATE TODAY

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

SEE WHAT READERS SAID

RELATED STORIES
One step Connecticut can take to address our maternal mortality crisis
by Myechia Minter-Jordan, MD

Uncertainty. Fear. Worry. These are just a few of the thoughts and emotions that run through the minds of almost every expecting parent. And for many expecting Black parents, those feelings can be more acute. That’s because for far too many, having a child is a life and death struggle.

Connecticut lawmakers on aid in dying: two decades of delay, deferral, obstruction
by Paul Bluestein, MD

Very soon, members of the Connecticut House and Senate will be voting on HB6425, - the Medical Aid in Dying bill. More than 20 years ago, Oregon implemented its Death with Dignity Act. Since then, Washington, Vermont, California, Montana, Colorado, Maine, Washington DC, Hawaii and most recently New Mexico have passed legislation authorizing medical aid in dying for terminally ill adults. But not Connecticut.

The intersection of race, class and gender in America’s childcare system: The class edition
by Georgia Goldburn

When Michelle Obama declared that she wanted to become “Mom in Chief,” she spoke to a sentiment shared by many women, i.e. the desire to be the primary caregiver of their young children in their early years. Not unexpectedly, Mrs. Obama was derided for making that choice, highlighting how society stands ready to indict women […]

A 71-year-old white woman has a request of the police
by Maggie Goodwin

Please officer, begin to look at every traffic stop and nonviolent police intervention as one where you will meet me, a white-haired 71-year-old retired social worker.

A progressive income tax to re-align Connecticut’s moral compass
by Ezra Kaprov

Redistribution of wealth and property is a fundamental and missing pillar of the hope for multi-racial democracy in the United States.

Support Our Work

Show your love for great stories and outstanding journalism.

$
Select One
  • Monthly
  • Yearly
  • Once
Artpoint painter
CT ViewpointsCT Artpoints
Opinion One step Connecticut can take to address our maternal mortality crisis
by Myechia Minter-Jordan, MD

Uncertainty. Fear. Worry. These are just a few of the thoughts and emotions that run through the minds of almost every expecting parent. And for many expecting Black parents, those feelings can be more acute. That’s because for far too many, having a child is a life and death struggle.

Opinion Connecticut lawmakers on aid in dying: two decades of delay, deferral, obstruction
by Paul Bluestein, MD

Very soon, members of the Connecticut House and Senate will be voting on HB6425, - the Medical Aid in Dying bill. More than 20 years ago, Oregon implemented its Death with Dignity Act. Since then, Washington, Vermont, California, Montana, Colorado, Maine, Washington DC, Hawaii and most recently New Mexico have passed legislation authorizing medical aid in dying for terminally ill adults. But not Connecticut.

Opinion The intersection of race, class and gender in America’s childcare system: The class edition
by Georgia Goldburn

When Michelle Obama declared that she wanted to become “Mom in Chief,” she spoke to a sentiment shared by many women, i.e. the desire to be the primary caregiver of their young children in their early years. Not unexpectedly, Mrs. Obama was derided for making that choice, highlighting how society stands ready to indict women […]

Opinion A progressive income tax to re-align Connecticut’s moral compass
by Ezra Kaprov

Redistribution of wealth and property is a fundamental and missing pillar of the hope for multi-racial democracy in the United States.

Artwork Grand guidance
by Anne:Gogh

In a world of systemic oppression aimed towards those of darker skintones – representation matters. We are more than our equity elusive environments, more than numbers in a prison and much more than victims of societal dispositions. This piece depicts a melanated young man draped in a cape ascending high above multiple forms of oppression. […]

Artwork Shea
by Anthony Valentine

Shea is a story about race and social inequalities that plague America. It is a narrative that prompts the question, “Do you know what it’s like to wake up in new skin?”

Artwork The Declaration of Human Rights
by Andres Chaparro

Through my artwork I strive to create an example of ideas that reflect my desire to raise social consciousness, and cultural awareness. Jazz music is the catalyst to all my work, and plays a major influence in each piece of work.”

Artwork ‘A thing of beauty. Destroy it forever’
by Richard DiCarlo | Derby

During times like these it’s often fun to revisit something familiar and approach things with a different slant. I have been taking some Pop culture and Art masterpieces and applying the vintage 1960’s and 70’s classic figures (Fisher Price, little people) to the make an amusing pieces. Here is my homage to Fisher -Price, Yellow […]

Twitter Feed
A Twitter List by CTMirror

Engage

  • Reflections Tickets & Sponsorships
  • Events
  • Donate
  • Newsletter Sign-Up
  • Submit to Viewpoints
  • Submit to ArtPoints
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Commenting Guidelines
  • Legal Notices
  • Contact Us

About

  • About CT Mirror
  • Announcements
  • Board
  • Staff
  • Sponsors and Funders
  • Donors
  • Friends of CT Mirror
  • History
  • Financial
  • Policies
  • Strategic Plan

Opportunity

  • Advertising and Sponsorship
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Use of Photography
  • Work for Us

Go Deeper

  • Steady Habits Podcast
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Five Things

The Connecticut News Project, Inc. 1049 Asylum Avenue, Hartford, CT 06105. Phone: 860-218-6380

© Copyright 2021, The Connecticut News Project. All Rights Reserved. Website by Web Publisher PRO