There are two hidden (and unpopular) truths in the plight of women’s suffrage. The first is that during these campaigns one hundred years ago, half of British men couldn’t vote either. Yes. These millions of disenfranchised men are missing from the history books and erased from public knowledge. In fact, one hundred years earlier again, only 10% of men could vote, and for most of British history the vote was enjoyed by just 1–3% of the male population. That’s right. The idea that ‘men could always vote’ is a gross mistelling of the truth – history revised by those with political motivations. So too is the idea that the Sufragettes were a peaceful and entirely productive political group. Because they weren’t. In fact to many, they were regarded (and still are) as terrorists. Planting bombs, setting fires, planning assassination attempts and targeting the Government and general public. They didn’t just plant letter bombs, the Suffragettes *invented* them. All told, their actions killed at least five people and injured dozens more. Their leader, Emmeline Pankhurst, when not publicly shaming terrified unenlisted men and boys into joining The Great War, (as part of the Order of the White Feather), of course dabbled in arson and terrorism of her own. So who is Pankhurst to you? And did the actions of the Suffragettes help, or perhaps hinder, the rights women later won in 1919? ~ The Suffragettes bombing and arson campaign  The 1910s: ‘We have sanitised our history of the suffragettes’  Letter bombs and IEDs: Were the suffragettes terrorists?

2022-05-13