martha_is_reading 's review for:

My Own Story by Emmeline Pankhurst

3.0

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The militancy of men, through all the centuries, has drenched the world with blood, and for these deeds of horror and destruction men have been rewarded with monuments, with great songs and epics. The militancy of women has harmed no human life save the lives of those who fought the battle of righteousness. Time alone will reveal what reward will be allotted to the women.

To mark 100 years since some women achieved the vote in the UK, I decided now was the time to read Emmeline Pankhurst's memoir. I was surprised initially by how accessible the writing was, I've struggled previously with novels written around the same time, so that was a pleasant surprise. Pankhurst describes in great detail the circumstances which led her to champion the cause of women's suffrage and the methods used by the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) to try and achieve the vote.

I couldn't rate it higher than three stars because there were long stretches that felt quite repetitive and laborious to read, particularly where Pankhurst had effectively transcribed whole speeches she'd made either in public or in court.

However, I can't fault her for going into such detail, because while the repetition wasn't enjoyable to read, it reflected how repetitive their work was. The WSPU had to keep ploughing away at this, doing the same things over and over again. I don't think I'd really appreciated how many times they marched to Westminster just to be able to petition the Government to grant them the vote - and how this was portrayed by the Government and the media as troublemaking, and often resulted in the marchers being assaulted and/or imprisoned. Yes, many will remember their more overt militancy, such as smashing windows and putting bombs in postboxes, and of course Emily Wilding Davison's death, but that was really a result of having all of their more "peaceful" protests ignored and derided by the Government and the press.

Likewise, the tactic of force-feeding women on hunger strike was always appalling in my mind but I hadn't really thought about it in great detail until I read about it, it was truly abhorrent, and makes it all the more incredible that these women were willing to go to such lengths.

I'm not naïve to think that this is an unbiased look at the history of women's suffrage, as Pankhurst is clearly biased on this topic; but I think it's a worthy read to understand more about the motivations and decision-making of these women whose efforts (and lives) may undoubtedly contributed to the achievement of equal suffrage when it finally came.

There can be no real peace in the world until woman, the mother half of the human family, is given liberty in the councils of the world.