This article by Kathleen Ratcliffe (a student at Edge Hill from 1905-07) is from the 1908 edition of the Edge Hill College Magazine and was one of two articles that were printed describing mass women\u2019s suffrage demonstrations that took place in London in June of that year. Helena Normanton, another former student (and one who would go on to become a hugely significant figure in the development of women\u2019s rights and the British legal system), describes the experience of marching with suffragists through London on 13th<\/sup> June. It is interesting to note that Normanton\u2019s only use of the term suffragette<\/em> is to say that this is the term that many newspapers \u201cdelight to call\u201d militant suffragists; suggesting that the differentiation between suffragist <\/em>and suffragette<\/em> was not as commonly made in 1908 and that suffragette<\/em> was being used to somehow belittle the activists. Both Ratcliffe and Normanton have obvious sympathies for the increasingly militant activities of some suffragists, with Normanton, for example, reflecting that \u201cwomen have been asking in a nice polite way for this great reform\u201d for over fifty years and that now it has \u201cdawned on them that they were being made the victims of their own sweet reasonableness.\u201d Ratcliffe, meanwhile, includes herself among those \u201cwho would willingly lay down their lives in this great struggle for freedom, justice and righteousness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ratcliffe\u2019s article is a wonderful description of a \u201cmass meeting\u201d that took place on 21st<\/sup> June 1908, the week after the event that Normanton attended. Both events were crucial moments in the fight for women\u2019s suffrage, with the 21st<\/sup> June demonstration becoming known as \u201cWomen\u2019s Sunday\u201d, attended by around 500,000 people and receiving a great deal of media coverage at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ratcliffe successfully conveys the excitement of attending an event of such historic significance and she is clearly inspired by what she sees and hears, with her writing quickly taking on the form and style of a brilliantly passionate speech: you can imagine this being read out loud to a crowd of people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After reading Kathleen\u2019s article, you might want to write a short historical piece about women\u2019s suffrage or about the lives of women in this period and how things have changed since. You may want to write a short piece of fiction or a poem inspired by Kathleen\u2019s words. Perhaps you may be inspired to create some kind of artwork about the fight for equality that Kathleen and Helena were part of.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By 1908, the campaign for women\u2019s suffrage (the right of women to vote in elections) had been underway in Britain for well over 50 years and the movement encompassed a very wide range of views, opinions and approaches to achieving the aim of getting the vote. Broadly speaking, the campaign in the years immediately before […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2257,"featured_media":0,"parent":550,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1619","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/sites.edgehill.ac.uk\/researchcatalyst\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/345\/2022\/09\/sufferage-1024x512.jpg\")
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