suffragettes and direct action in the...

Kat Gupta

University of

Nottingham

@mixosaurus

THE TAINT OF

MILITANCY IS NOT UPON

THEM:

REPRESENTATIONS OF

SUFFRAGISTS,

SUFFRAGETTES AND

DIRECT ACTION IN THE

TIMES, 1908-1914

How a political movement was reported by those in power

WHY THE SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT?


Huge diversity of backgrounds, views and strategies within the

movement




movement

Subject of historical debate




movement


Gap in historical research




movement


Gap in historical research

Anniversary of suffrage events


EMILY WILDING DAVISON

4TH JUNE 1913

EMILY WILDING DAVISON'S FUNERAL

14TH JUNE 1913

HURST PARK RACECOURSE

8TH JUNE 1913

SUFFRAGIST PRODUCED MEDIA

Feminist and suffragist journals

The Common Cause

The Freewoman

Jus Suffragii

The Liberal Women’s Suffrage Review

The Suffragette

The Vote

Votes for Women

The Women’s Franchise

The Women’s Suffrage Journal

The Women’s Suffrage Record

(from Holton 1986)

SUFFRAGIST PRODUCED MEDIA

Pamphlets

Charlotte Despard, “Women’s Franchise and Industry”

Millicent Garrett Fawcett, “Home and Politics”, “Men Are Men And

Women Are Women”, “The Franchise and Married Working Women”

Cicely Hamilton, “Women’s Vote”

Homo Sum, “A Letter from an Anthropologist to an Anti-Suffragist”

Walter McLaren, “One Man, One Vote: One Woman, One Vote”

Emmeline Pankhurst, “The Importance of the Vote”

Frederick Pethick-Lawrence, “Sex Equality versus Adult Suffrage”

(selection from Holton 1986)

THE TIMES DIGITAL ARCHIVE (TDA)

http://archive.timesonline.co.uk/tol/archive/

Example:

THE SUFFRAGE CORPUS

Extracted from xml files provided by TDA

suffrag*

Includes suffrage, suffrages, suffragist, suffragists, suffragette,

suffragettes

Excluded Suffragan – ecclesiastical terminology

1908 – 1914

Average of 546 texts per year

7,089,889 tokens (running words) in text

THE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (LTTE) CORPUS

Extracted from xml files provided by TDA

Two steps in extracting it:

xml tag: <ct>Letters to the Editor</ct>

suffrag*

1908 – 1914

Average of 85 texts per year

395,597 tokens (running words) in text

TERMINOLOGY FROM HISTORIOGRAPHY

SUFFRAGIST

considered the more inclusive term

constitutionalists who campaigned by lobbying Parliament

TERMINOLOGY FROM HISTORIOGRAPHY

SUFFRAGIST

considered the more inclusive term

constitutionalists who campaigned by lobbying Parliament

SUFFRAGETTE

originally a pejorative coined by the Daily Mail

saw the vote as an end unto itself

prepared to engage in direct action

members of a militant organisation

challenged the constitutionalist approach

FREQUENCIES IN SUFFRAGE CORPUS

suffragist suffragists suffragette suffragettes

1908 165 302 30 57

1909 139 311 16 35

1910 156 197 9 11

1911 81 104 2 10

1912 388 502 18 30

1913 527 615 34 19

1914 263 270 15 21

suffragist* is the

preferred term, even

when discussing issues

strongly associated with

suffragettes and which

suffragists rejected e.g.

militant direct action

Mutual Information

Measure of collocation strength

Both directions

"Hunston (2002: 71) proposes an MI score of 3 or higher to be taken

as evidence that two items are collocates" (McEnery, Xiao and Tono

2006: 56)

Functional categories

Derived from historiography

Corpus-driven

METHODOLOGY

CATEGORIES

From historical research

Equal franchise vs universal suffrage

Constitutionalist vs militant

Class

Geography (regional vs London)/places

Gender/gender roles

Origins

MUTUAL INFORMATION

1912

Suffragette: a, of

Suffragettes: by, have, militant, that, the, to

Suffragist: a, after, an, anti, at, by, convicted, disturbances, dublin, english, even, every, feeding, forcible, friends, further, incident, last, leaders, liberal, london, meeting, militant, miss, movement, mrs, other, out, outrage, outrages, police, prisoners, recent, released, sentenced, she, speakers, suffragists, tion, treatment, trial, two, up, views, well, who, whole, whom, window, woman, women

Suffragists: among, anti, are, at, being, believe, both, breaking, by, case, constitutional, damage, done, dublin, ejected, english, extreme, four, have, held, imprisoned, interrupted, labour, last, liberal, london, militant, miss, night, non, now, number, out, passed, point, police, political, prison, released, section, set, should, some, support, their, treatment, trial, two, well, were, when, who, window, windows, woman, women

CONSTITUTIONALIST VS MILITANT

1912

Suffragette: a, of




GEOGRAPHY

1912

Suffragette: a, of




GENDER & GENDER ROLES

1912

Suffragette: a, of




CATEGORIES


Equal franchise vs universal suffrage


Class


Gender/gender roles

Origins

DIRECT ACTION

1912

Suffragette: a, of




LEGAL AND PRISON

1912

Suffragette: a, of




ORGANISATIONAL

1912

Suffragette: a, of




POLITICAL

1912

Suffragette: a, of




OPPOSITION

1912

Suffragette: a, of




ALL CATEGORIES

1913

Suf fragette: a, she, that , the

Suf fragettes: and, are

Suf fragist: a, addressed, again, ai r, alber t, an, another, ant i , at tempt, between, bombs, breakers, campaign, case, cause, colours, conspiracy, cour t , dav ison, deal , demonstration, disorder, d isturbance, disturbances, dur ing, f i re , found, hal l , held, her, hyde, l , large, last , leader, leaders, l iberal, l i terature, london, male, meet ing, meetings, mi l itancy, mi l itant, ministers, miss, movement, near, night , on, open, outrage, outrages, papers, park , pol ice, pr isoner, pr isoners, publ ications, quant ity, re leased, repor ted, sentenced, she, some, speaking, supposed, taken, tho, two, v iew, v iolence, was, wel l , were, who, wi th, woman, women, yesterday

Suf fragists: about , act ions, again, against, among, ant i , are, at , at tempt, at tempted, att r ibuted, been, being, body, both, by, campaign, cause, caused, committed, damage, demonstration, disturbance, done, ear ly, end, f i re, f i res, four, george, given, have, hav ing, held, interrupted, known, large, l iberal , male, many, meeting, mi l i tant , miss, morning, mrs, never, night , non, number, occurred, on, outrage, outrages, park , pol ice, prevent, pr ison, proceedings, set , several , s ide, stated, st reet, supposed, suspected, the, their, themselves, those, three, to, t reatment, two, unionist, var ious, v iolence, well , were, who, window, woman, women, yesterday

CATEGORIES




Gender/gender roles

Corpus-driven categories

Direct action

Legal and prison

Organisational

Political

Opposition

Proper nouns

Frequencies of

suffrag* collocates

normalised to 500

texts

DIRECT ACTION

DIRECT ACTION TERMS

disturbance* Relatively high frequency, non-specific

Most frequent term before1912

outrage* Relatively high frequency, non-specific

Most frequent term after 1912

violence Low frequency, specific

crime* Low frequency, specific

disorder Used when suffrage campaigners encounter non-suffrage supporters,

especially hostile crowds

incident? Used when suffrage campaigners attempt to attract the attention of authority

figures

WHAT DO THE COLLOCATIONS TELL US?

Direct actions terms have dif ferent patterns of use

Used at different times

Used to describe different activities





Preference for suffragist* + direct action term than for

suffragette* + direct action term







Association of suffragist with terms that more closely reflect

suffragette activities

Reducing the diversity of suffrage movement

Using texts from the Letters to the Editor corpus

Obtained collocates through Mutual Information scores

Anti (1910, 1912, 1913, 1914)

Leaders (1908, 1913, 1914)

Movement (1908, 1910, 1912)

Party (1908, 1910, 1914)

Prison (1908, 1909, 1910)

Prisoners (1910, 1912, 1913)

CREATING SUFFRAGE UNITY

SUFFRAG* PRISONERS

suffragette prisoners , suffragist prisoners and suffrage

prisoners all appear

SUFFRAGETTE PRISONERS

Low frequency

Only found in 1908

1. to keep the peace. They were placed in the second division, end

since then the rule has been for all suffragette prisoners to be placed

in the second division, and in some cases even in the third divi

2. tenced to seven days' imprisonment, and she was placed in the first

division. Following this all the suffragette prisoners (and there were

many batches, in some cases containing 60, 60, and 70 prisone

SUFFRAGIST PRISONERS

Found in 1909, 1910, 1912, 1913

1912 1. SUFFRAGIST PRISONERS. TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES. Sir,-Now that the

leaders of the Women's Social an

2. r. Churchill's rule. The question of doing work was never raised. I

was allowed - as were all the other suffragist prisoners - visitors and

letters once a fortnight. Parcels, whether of food or other thin

3. . Sir,-I am desired by the Home Secretary to say that Mrs. Fawcett

in her letter on the treatment of suffragist prisoners published in The

Times of to-day is evidently under a misapprehension when s

4. rests." The privileges of Mr. Churchill's new rule (Rule 243a) were

given some time ago to all the suffragist prisoners alike, and this has

been made clear in the statements made by Mr. McKenna in

5. g yesterday, authorized me to communicate to you a very earnest

expression of their feeling that the suffragist prisoners found guilty

in the recent conspiracy trial should be accorded treatment in th

6. court public inquiry at an early date on this question as on others

connected with the treatment of suffragist prisoners. April 26. ETFLL

S3MYTr, 3[us.Dov. In view of Mr. Philip Snowdens question con

SUFFRAGE PRISONERS

Found in 1909, 1912, 1913

1912 1. stice to support Mrs. Fawcett's appeal against the injustice of

refusing to the rank and file of the suffrage prisoners the first-class

treatment which had been conceded to their leaders, and the brut

2. ore more than I can easily describe Mr. McKenna's refusal to afford

to the rank and file of the suffrage prisoners the first-class

treatment which he has already conceded to the leaders. He insi

3. THE SUFFRAGE PRISONERS AND FORCIBLE FEEDING. TO THE EDITOR OF THE

TIMES. Sir,-The strong disapproval of

4. quely misleading. It states that the Medical Memorialists who are

opposed to the forcible feeding of suffrage prisoners have no

alternatives to suggest as to prison treatment of prisoners, whether

pol

5. son A is impossible, hunger-striking can be met by method B. This

has often been done in the case of suffrage prisoners, invariably so

through out Scotland, where forcible feeding has not been attempt

SUFFRAGE PRISONERS

1913

1. ES. Sir,-Of the alternatives put by Mr. J3. Wells in The Times of

to-day as to the treatment of the suffrage prisoners, I have a definite

opinion upon which ought to be preferred. But, as the Govermne

2.any prisoner refusing food is at least doubtful: "Forcible feeding

was instituted . . . to keep the suffrage prisoners in health and also

to prevent them bringing about remission of their sentences *

3.l ? A few extracts from a report by Sir Victor Horaley and other

doctors on the forcible feeding of suffrage prisoners, published in the

Lancet of August 24, 1912, will, I think, show that the legali

suffrag* prisoners

Suffrage campaigners' letters revealed that suffrage was the

preferred suffrag* term across organisations

Opens up a space where NUWSS leaders can work on behalf of WSPU

prisoners

CONCLUSION

CONCLUSION

suffrag* prisoners

Suffrage campaigners' letters revealed that suffrage was the

preferred suffrag* term across organisations

Opens up a space where NUWSS leaders can work on behalf of WSPU

prisoners



B a k e r , P . , G a b r i e l a t o s , C . , K h o s r a v i n i k , M . , K r z y z a n o w s k i , M . , M c E n e r y , T . , & W o d a k , R . ( 2 0 0 8 ) . A u s e f u l m e t h o d o l o g i c a l

s y n e r g y ? C o m b i n i n g c r i t i c a l d i s c o u r s e a n a l y s i s a n d c o r p u s l i n g u i s t i c s t o e x a m i n e d i s c o u r s e s o f r e f u g e e s a n d a s y l u m

s e e k e r s i n t h e U K p r e s s . D i s c o u r s e a n d S o c i e t y , 1 9 ( 3 ) , 2 7 3 .

B a k e r , P . , & M c E n e r y , T . ( 2 0 0 5 ) . A c o r p u s - b a s e d a p p r o a c h t o d i s c o u r s e s o f r e f u g e e s a n d a s y l u m s e e k e r s i n U N a n d

n e w s p a p e r t e x t s . J o u r n a l o f L a n g u a g e a n d P o l i t i c s , 4 ( 2 ) , 1 9 7 - 2 2 6 .

B i n g h a m , A . ( 2 0 1 0 ) . T h e D i g i t i z a t i o n o f N e w s p a p e r A r c h i v e s : O p p o r t u n i t i e s a n d C h a l l e n g e s f o r H i s t o r i a n s . T w e n t i e t h

C e n t u r y B r i t i s h H i s t o r y , 2 1 ( 2 ) , 2 2 5 - 2 3 1 .

C o l m o r e , G . ( 1 9 1 3 ) . T h e L i f e o f E m i l y D a v i s o n . L o n d o n : T h e W o m e n ' s P r e s s .

C r a w f o r d , E . ( 1 9 9 9 ) . T h e W o m e n ' s S u f f r a g e M o v e m e n t : A r e f e r e n c e g u i d e 1 8 6 6 - 1 9 2 8 . L o n d o n : R o u t l e d g e .

G a b r i e l a t o s , C . , & B a k e r , P . ( 2 0 0 8 ) . F l e e i n g , S n e a k i n g , F l o o d i n g : A C o r p u s A n a l y s i s o f D i s c u r s i v e C o n s t r u c t i o n s o f

R e f u g e e s a n d A s y l u m S e e k e r s i n t h e U K P r e s s , 1 9 9 6 - 2 0 0 5 . J o u r n a l o f E n g l i s h L i n g u i s t i c s , 3 6 ( 5 ) , 5 .

H a l l , L . A . ( 2 0 1 2 ) . S e x , G e n d e r a n d S o c i a l C h a n g e i n B r i t a i n s i n c e 1 8 8 0 ( 2 n d e d . ) . L o n d o n : P a l g r a v e M a c m i l l a n .

H a m p t o n , M . ( 2 0 0 1 ) . ` U n d e r s t a n d i n g m e d i a ' : t h e o r i e s o f t h e p r e s s i n B r i t a i n , 1 8 5 0 - 1 9 1 4 . M e d i a , C u l t u r e & S o c i e t y , 2 3 ( 2 ) ,

2 1 3 - 2 3 1 .

H o l t o n , S . S . ( 1 9 8 6 ) . F e m i n i s m a n d D e m o c r a c y : W o m a n ' s s u f f r a g e a n d r e f o r m p o l i t i c s i n B r i t a i n , 1 9 0 0 - 1 9 1 8 . C a m b r i d g e :

C a m b r i d g e U n i v e r s i t y P r e s s .

L i d d i n g t o n , J . ( 2 0 0 5 ) . E r a o f C o m m e m o r a t i o n : C e l e b r a t i n g t h e S u f f r a g e C e n t e n a r y . H i s t o r y W o r k s h o p J o u r n a l ( 5 9 ) , 2 5 .

L i d d i n g t o n , J . , & N o r r i s , J . ( 1 9 8 4 ) . O n e H a n d T i e d B e h i n d U s : T h e R i s e o f t h e W o m e n ' s S u f f r a g e M o v e m e n t ( 2 n d e d . ) . L o n d o n :

V i r a g o .

M a u t n e r , G . ( 2 0 0 9 ) . C h e c k s a n d b a l a n c e s : h o w c o r p u s l i n g u i s t i c s c a n c o n t r i b u t e t o C D A . I n R . W o d a k & M . M e y e r ( E d s . ) ,

M e t h o d s o f C r i t i c a l D i s c o u r s e A n a l y s i s . L o n d o n : S a g e .

M c E n e r y , T . , X i a o , R . , & Y o k i o , T . ( 2 0 0 6 ) . C o r p u s - b a s e d l a n g u a g e s t u d i e s : A n a d v a n c e d r e s o u r c e b o o k . L o n d o n : R o u t l e d g e .

M o r l e y , A . , & S t a n l e y , L . ( 1 9 8 8 ) . T h e L i f e a n d D e a t h o f E m i l y W i l d i n g D a v i s o n . L o n d o n : T h e W o m e n ' s P r e s s .

R o s e n , A . ( 1 9 7 4 ) . R i s e U p , W o m e n ! T h e M i l i t a n t C a m p a i g n o f t h e W o m e n ’ s S o c i a l a n d P o l i t i c a l U n i o n 1 9 0 3 - 1 9 1 4 . L o n d o n :

R o u t l e d g e .

T i c k n e r , L . ( 1 9 8 7 ) . T h e S p e c t a c l e o f W o m e n : I m a g e r y o f t h e S u f f r a g e C a m p a i g n 1 9 0 7 - 1 4 . L o n d o n : C h a t t o a n d W i n d u s .

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