Women’s Suffra" in� Late 19$ C. England

Women  in  Victorian  England  

•  Focus  =  family  •  Ideal  woman  =  Queen  Victoria  

Women’s  Suffrage  

•  Many  women    vocal  about  demands  for  social  &  poliBcal  equality  

•  “SuffrageEes”  

Emmeline  Pankhurst  

*  SuffrageEe:  militant  -­‐  arrested  and  imprisoned  

*  She  and  her  daughters  Christabel  &  Sylvia  formed  the  Women’s  Social  &  Poli0cal  Union  (WSPU)  

Emmaline  Pankhurst  was  sent  to  a  local  girl's  school  in  Manchester.  At  the  age  of  fiBeen   she   went   to   a   finishing   school   in   Paris.   This   account   appeared   in   her  autobiography,  My  Own  Life,  in  1914  

The   educaBon   of   boys   was   considered   a   much   more   serious   maEer   than   the  educaBon  of  girls.  My  parents…  discussed  the  quesBon  of  my  brothers'  educaBon  as  a   maEer   of   real   importance.   My   educaBon   and   that   of   my   sister   were   scarcely  discussed  at  all.  Of  course  we  went  to  a  carefully  selected  girls'  school,  but  beyond  the  facts  that  the  headmistress  was  a  good  woman  and  that  all  the  pupils  were  girls  of  my  own  class,  nobody  seemed  concerned.  A  girl's  educaBon  at  that  Bme  seemed  to  have  for  its  prime  object  the  art  of  'making  a  home  aEracBve'.  

When  I  was  fiVeen  I  was  sent  to  school  in  Paris.  The  school  was  under  the  direcBon  of  Marchef  Girard  a  woman  who  believed  that  girls'  educaBon  should  be  quite  as  thorough  as   the   educaBon  of   boys.   She   included   chemistry   and  other   sciences   in  the   course,   and   in   addiBon   to   embroidery   she   had   her   girls   taught   bookkeeping.  When  I  was  nineteen  I  finally  returned  from  school  in  Paris  and  took  my  place  in  my  father's  home  as  a  finished  young  lady.  

TacBcs  

•  SuffrageEes  resorted  to  drasBc,  oVen  violent,  measures  – Disrupted  Parliament  – Chained  selves  to  things  (i.e.  the  wheel  of  the  Prime  Minister’s  carriage)  

– Fought  back  when  arrested  – Arson  

TacBcs  

•  Hunger  Strikes  in  Prison  – Resulted  in  brutal  force  feedings  

In   her   book   Memories   of   a   Militant,   Annie   Kenney  explained  the  use  of  the  hunger  strike    

In  1909  Wallace  Dunlop  went  to  prison  and  defied  the  long  sentences   that  were  being  given  by  adopBng   the  hunger-­‐strike.   'Release   or   Death'   was   her  moEo.   From   that   day,  July  5th,  1909,  the  hunger-­‐strike  was  the  greatest  weapon  we   possessed   against   the   Government…   before   long   all  SuffrageEe  prisoners  were  on  hunger-­‐strike,  so  the  threat  to   pass   long   sentences   on   us   had   failed.   Sentences   grew  shorter.    

Constance   LyQon   was   force-­‐fed   in   October   1909.   An   account   of   her  experiences  was  included  in  her  book  Prison  and  Prisoners    

Two  of   the  wardresses   took  hold  of  my   arms,   one  held  my  head   and  one  my  feet.  The  doctor   leant  on  my  knees  as  he  stooped  over  my  chest   to  get  at  my  mouth.  I  shut  my  mouth  and  clenched  my  teeth…  The  doctor  seemed  annoyed  at  my  resistance  and  he  broke  into  a  temper  as  he  pried  my  teeth  with  the  steel  implement.  The  pain  was  intense  and  at   last   I  must  have  given  way,  for  he  got  the  gap  between  my   teeth,  when  he  proceeded   to   turn   it   unBl  my   jaws  were  fastened  wide  apart.  Then  he  put  down  my  throat  a  tube,  which  seemed  to  me  much  too  wide  and  something  like  four  feet   in   length.   I  choked  the  moment  it  touched  my  throat.  Then  the  food  was  poured  in  quickly;  it  made  me  sick  a  few  seconds  aVer  it  was  down.  I  was  sick  all  over  the  doctor  and  wardresses.  As  the  doctor   leV  he  gave  me  a   slap  on   the  cheek.  Presently   the  wardresses   leV  me.  Before  long  I  heard  the  sounds  of  the  forced  feeding  in  the  next  cell  to  mine.  It  was   almost   more   than   I   could   bear,   it   was   Elsie   Howley.   When   the   ghastly  process  was  over  and  all  quiet.  I  tapped  on  the  wall  and  called  out  at  the  top  of  my   voice.   'No   Surrender',   and   then   came   the   answer   in   Elsie's   voice,   'No  Surrender'.  

TacBcs  

•  Martyrdom  – Emily  Davison  

– Threw  self  in  front  of  King  George  V’s  horse  to  draw  aEenBon  to  the  cause    

RepresentaBon  of  the  People  Act  

*  1918  -­‐  Women  over  30  got  the  right  to  vote  

*  All  men  gained  suffrage  –  Property  qualificaBons  were  completely  eliminated!  

*  Reform  Act  of  1928  – Women  over  21    years  of  age  gained  the  right  to  vote  at  last!  

Jews in 19$ C. �Europe

EmancipaBon  

•  New  German  Empire  –  1871  – Abolished  all  restricBons  on  Jews  

•  Marriage  •  OccupaBon  •  Residence  •  Property  ownership  

– BUT…sBll  no  gov’t  employment  &  general  discriminaBon  sBll  an  issue  

Jewish  Life  in  Central  &  Western  Europe  

•  Entered  professions,  arts,  business  –  much  success  

•  Majority  improved  economic  situaBon  – Entered  middle  class  

•  Strong  naBonal  idenBty  w/  their  country  of  residence  

Modern  AnB-­‐SemiBsm  

•  Resurgence  -­‐  post  stock  market  crash  1873  – Result  of  Jewish  “financial  control”  

•  New  talk  of  a  Jewish  “race”  (not  religion)  emerged  –  Jews  posed  “biological  threat”  to  Germans  

Modern  AnB-­‐SemiBsm  (cont.)  

•  Popular  with:  – ConservaBves  – Extremist  naBonalists  – People  who  felt  threatened  by  Jewish  compeBBon  

•  Created  PoliBcal  ParBes  to  aEack  &  degrade  Jews  

The  Zionist  Movement  

•   Theodore  Herzl  (1860-­‐1904)  •   Father  of  Modern  Zionism  •   Zionism:  movement  toward  Jewish  poliBcal  naBonhood  •   Wrote  Der  Judenstaat  (The  Jewish  State)  –  1896    •   Response  to  Viennese  mayor  and  AnB-­‐Semite  Karl  Lueger  &  his  “ChrisBan  Socialists”  

Eastern  European  AnB-­‐SemiBsm  •  Most  oppressive  here  •  Russia  – No  emancipaBon  

– Over  ½  Euro  Jew  pop  in  Russia  •  4  million  of  Europe’s  7  million  Jews  lived  in  Russia  (1880)  

Pale  of  SeElement  

  Catherine   The   Great   established   the   Pale   of   SeElement   in   1791   as   a  territory  for  Russian  Jews  to  live.  Created  under  pressure  to  rid  Moscow  of  Jewish  business  compeBBon  and  "evil"  influence  on  the  Russian  masses,  the   Pale   of   SeElement   included   the   territory   of   present-­‐day   Poland,  Latvia,   Lithuania,   Ukraine   and   Belorussia.   More   than   90%   of   Russian  Jews  were  forced  to  live  in  the  poor  condiBons  of  the  Pale,  which  made  up  only  4%  of  imperial  Russia.  SBll,  the  Jewish  populaBon  in  Russia  grew  from   1.6  million   in   1820   to   5.6  million   in   1910.   Even  within   the   Pale,  Jews  were  discriminated  against;  they  paid  double  taxes,  were  forbidden  to  lease  land,  run  taverns  or  receive  higher  educaBon.    

Virtual  Jewish  Library  

     The  May  Laws  of  1882  restricted  Jews  in  the  Pale  to  urban  areas,  which   were   oVen   overcrowded  and   offered   limited   economic  opportuniBes.   In   addiBon  thousands  of   Jews  fell  vicBm  to  devastaBng   pogroms   in   the  1870s  and  1880s.  The  pogroms,  boycoEs   and   other   anB-­‐SemiBc  depredaBons   Jews   faced   in   the  Pale  led  to  mass  immigraBon  to  the   United   States   (two   million  between  1881  and  1914)  

Russian  Jews  

•  Gov’t  used  anB-­‐SemiBsm  to  distract  from  own  unpopularity  – Denounced  Jews  as  foreign  exploiters  who  corrupted  naBonal  tradiBons  

•  1880-­‐1882  –  wave  of  violent  pogroms  began  in  Southern  Russia  &  would  conBnue  intermiEently  for  decades  

Pogrom  

    An   organized,   oVen   officially  encouraged,   massacre   or  persecuBon  of   a  minority   group,  esp.  against  Jews  

MigraBon  

•  Many  Jews  emigrated    Western  Europe  &  US  

•  1881-­‐1914  – Apx  2.75  million  Jews  leV  Eastern  Europe