Purvis' main research area is the Suffrage movement in Edwardian Britain, and it was easy to see how passionate she was about it as she begun speaking to the audience. As well as her extensive knowledge, she also has a lot of suffragette memorabilia that she has collected over the years and even brought some of to share with us. She has written many books in this area, including a biography of Emmeline Pankhurst and Women's Activism: Global perspectives from the 1890s to the present.
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| One of Purvis' books about Women's suffrage |
The event occurred just before this term's general meeting, in which we discussed a motion to lobby the college to name the new library the 'Emily Wilding Davison' library. You can imagine how passionate people were about getting this motion passed, and they were even more so after spending an hour hearing how women had fought for our vote. It led to a large debate on the motion, which, though upsetting to see people so against it, was ultimately a good thing, seeing so many students ready to share their opinion, and in the end the motion passed with over 100 votes more than the opposition.
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| The return ticket that Emily Davison bought to Epson Derby which for many shows that she did not intend to get fatally injured that day. |
Our Suffrage history is not something that should be easily forgotten. Both Royal Holloway and Bedford New College did amazing things for women's education, something I've only really begun to appreciate. Bedford College, founded in 1849 was the first institution for women's university education in the UK. Neither Cambridge nor Oxford can boast such an early date, despite being the oldest universities in the UK. And even after they admitted women, women could not graduate until the mid 20th century!
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| The plaque which can be found outside the Bedford College building |
From early on, Royal Holloway was a place where women could get involved about issues that they were passionate about and have a voice in the discussion. The university had a political society where they would debate about current topics, and a diary of one student, named Winifred, describes a debate that occurred over women's suffrage, where the time had to be extended to account for the passionate opinions. She notes that both the Principal and Vice-Principal were in favour of suffrage, though there were still many students, including herself, that were not.
When considering the movement for women's suffrage, it is important to remember the two groups fighting for it: the National Union for Women's Suffrage Societies, which was a mixed-gender group, fighting in a peaceful and constitutional manner, and the Women's Social and Political Union, a militant, women-only group founded by the Pankhursts, which Royal Holloway College tried to deter students from getting involved with for fear that they might disgrace the respectable reputation of the college.
The NUWSS campaigned for at least 40 years before the WSPU was formed. With the motto 'deeds not words' this union aimed to take a more up-front approach to the issue of suffrage. Though many may disagree with their tactics, it is easy to see why the Pankhursts felt it necessary to take stronger action for the cause, and it is important to remember that they weren't the only people taking forceful action.
On the 18th October 1910, when 300 women went to the house of commons in protest, policemen were brought in, and women were kicked, punch, dragged by both on-foot and mounted police. Furthermore, those who were imprisoned were force-fed when they went on hunger strike, and comics and writings depicting this show us how horrific it was. In fact, the reason the suffragettes begun to damage property was because the government had damaged their bodies. As well as this, there was a cultural fear created, showing husbands bending to their every wish and being ruled by their suffragette wives.
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| 'What is a suffragette without a suffragette household?' One example of anti-suffrage propaganda |
Of course, there is a lot more that happened during the suffrage movement than this, and if you're interested in finding out more about our college's involvement in it, the archives are a great place to explore! You can access there collection online, or if there's anything you'd like to see in person, send them an email to arrange a viewing. Have a look at their item of the month for March, a copy of The Suffragette in memory of Emily Wilding Davison here.
We are incredibly lucky to be part of a college with such a fantastic feminist history, and it is something that by many students is overlooked. Hopefully the college board will listen to what the Student's Union has to say about the naming of the new library, so we can finally have something that boasts of this history.
