Suffrage, solidarity and strife: political partnerships and the women's movement 1880-1930

Balshaw, June Marion (1998) Suffrage, solidarity and strife: political partnerships and the women's movement 1880-1930. PhD thesis, University of Greenwich.

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Abstract

This thesis is a study of six mixed-sex political partnerships, all of which functioned within the context of heterosexual marriage. It considers these partnerships involvement in, and attitudes toward, the campaigns for women' s enfranchisement over a fifty year period from 1880 - 1930. The aim of this study is to contribute to our understanding of the gendered nature of political activity and identity through an examination of the women' s suffrage campaigns, in particular the still under-researched, yet extremely important question of men's support for women' s suffrage. This thesis takes as its point of departure historical studies of gender,
that is, a critical examination of the constructions of masculinity and femininity; ideas which have been informed and developed by women's history. It will consider the extent to which developments within the suffrage movement both challenged and reinforced gendered political identities and influenced attitudes toward the parts that men and women had to play in both the public and private
spheres. The partnerships studied demonstrate not only the diversity of opinion within the women's suffrage movement but also how this single issue affected familial politics at a variety of levels. Each chapter focuses on one political partnership and charts its involvement - whatever form it took - during one of the most dynamic periods in modern British history. The partnerships included in this
thesis are diverse and are comprised of Emmeline and Richard Pankhurst, James and Marion Bryce, John and Katharine Bruce Glasier, Emmeline and Frederick Pethick-Li1wrence, Annot and Sam Robinson, and Elsie Duval and Hugh Franklin. This thesis is, therefore, a contribution to both suffrage history and to the study of political partnerships in relation to changes in British political culture during a period of intense debates about the symbolic and actual
representation of women.

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