Women's suffrage in Scotland

Women's suffrage was the seeking of the right of women to vote in elections. It was carried out by both men and women, it was a very elongated and gruelling campaign that went on for 86 years before the Representation of the People Act 1918 was introduced on 6 February 1918, which provided a few women with the right to vote.[1]

Anna Munro advertising the Scottish Women's Freedom League

One of the earlier societies supporting women's rights to vote was established in Scotland's capital, the Edinburgh National Society for Women's Suffrage.[2]

Scottish suffragettes released from prison with Flora Drummond

Later Scotland's suffragettes were part of the British Women's Political and Social Union militant movement, and took part in campaigns locally and in London; for example when Winston Churchill arrived to stand for election as M.P. in Dundee in 1908 he was followed by 27 of the national leaders of the women's suffrage movements. At one point he even hid in a shed and tried to host a meeting there.[3]

Scottish women like Flora Drummond had leadership roles with the Pankhursts, in the London WSPU headquarters, and celebrated the Scottish community of activists on their release from prison.[4] Others like Frances Parker, from New Zealand, were organising the West of Scotland WSPU and like others was infamously subjected to force feeding orally and rectally in Scottish [5] and British prisons.[6] Parker was also arrested when trying to disrupt David Lloyd George from giving a speech in the Music Hall in Aberdeen, and allegedly set fire to Burns Cottage in Alloway, Ayrshire.[7]

There were many Scottish women across all classes who took an active role in the movement to draw attention to the growing demands for equal right to Votes for Women.

Scottish branches of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies were active in the main cities and even in the rural and remote areas such as Dornoch,[8][9] in the Highlands, Stornoway with 27 women forming a suffrage association,[10] from the remote Western Isles (the Hebrides), as well as NUWSS Orcadian group[11] in Orkney and a Shetland suffrage society.[12]

Fanny Parker being escorted out from Ayr Sheriff Court

See also

Further reading
  • King, Elspeth (1978) The Scottish Women's Suffrage Movement. Glasgow. People's Palace Museum
  • Leneman, Leah (1995) A Guid Cause: The Women's Suffrage Movement in Scotland. Edinburgh. Mercat Press.
  • Leneman, Leah (2000) The Scottish Suffragettes. Edinburgh. National Museums of Scotland. ISBN 190166340X
  • Pedersen, Sarah (2017) The Scottish Suffragettes and the Press. London. Palgrave MacMillan. ISBN 9781137538338

References
  1. Grant, Jocelyn (2019-03-08). "Scotland and Women's Suffrage". Open Book. Retrieved 2019-10-31.
  2. "A guid cause ... The women's suffrage movement in Scotland". National Library of Scotland. Retrieved 2020-04-04.
  3. Sharpe, Gillian (2015-10-10). "Scotland's suffragettes". Retrieved 2019-10-31.
  4. Atkinson, Diane (2018). Rise up, women! : the remarkable lives of the suffragettes. London: Bloomsbury. p. 179. ISBN 978-1-4088-4404-5. OCLC 1016848621.
  5. madeinpe (2014-05-18). "Suffragette Movement in Perth". Made in Perth ~ Official Website ~ SC044155. Retrieved 2020-04-08.
  6. "Te Papa buys rare bravery medal awarded to suffrage activist Frances Parker". Stuff. Retrieved 2020-04-04.
  7. Leneman, Leah (1993). Martyrs in our midst : Dundee, Perth and the forcible feeding of suffragettes. Abertay Historical Society. Dundee: Abertay Historical Society. p. 31. ISBN 0-900019-29-8. OCLC 27678731.
  8. Higgins, Sue (2013-04-10). "Suffragettes!". historylinksdornoch. Retrieved 2020-04-04.
  9. Crawford, Elizabeth (1999). The women's suffrage movement : a reference guide, 1866-1928. London: UCL Press. p. 171. ISBN 0-203-03109-1. OCLC 53836882.
  10. Katie (2018-02-12). "A Hebridean tale to remind us about the women we were". Hebrides Writer. Retrieved 2020-04-04.
  11. Dusty (2018-03-10). "Orkney Archive - get dusty: A Suffrage Search". Orkney Archive - get dusty. Retrieved 2020-04-04.
  12. "Fighting for the right". The Shetland Times. 2009-01-09. Retrieved 2020-04-04.
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