“only be ye strong and very courageous”: the militant suffragism of lady constance lytton

Myall, Michelle

doi:10.1080/09612029800200165

Cited by 6 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 11 publications

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“…Moving on in time (to the 1970s), we find a number of socialist feminists returning to ask similar questions (Myall, 1998). As they worked to debate the validity of researching the lives and experiences of just a few privileged suffragettes, questions abounded about the authenticity of these women's voices and the significance of their actions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

More than a class act? dilemmas in researching elite school girls’ feminist politics

Charles

Allan

2020

Feminist Theory

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Feminist scholars have long been concerned with privileged women’s activism and engagement with feminist politics and how acts of resistance from privileged subjects might best be understood. In the current moment, we are seeing a reinvigoration of interest in feminist activism particularly from young women, but not necessarily focusing on young women who are positioned as privileged. Simultaneously, there is attention in the sociology of elite schooling to the question of social justice politics in privileged spaces. In this article, we contribute to both of these scholarly conversations by reporting on the feminist activism of three young women attending an elite school in Australia. We argue that these young women’s activism/feminist politics need to be understood as a complex entanglement of resistance and reproduction with regard to gender, race and class, and that drawing on recent theorisations influenced by post-humanism in feminist educational research produces fresh insights into researching gender/race/class reproduction by young women in elite educational settings.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

More than a class act? dilemmas in researching elite school girls’ feminist politics

Charles

Allan

2020

Feminist Theory

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“A class act: Constance Lytton and the political, literary and dramatic dynamics of suffrage prison writings”

Eltis

2019

Feminist Modernist Studies

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political, literary and dramatic dynamics of suffrage prison writings"'In years to come this story of compassion and chivalry will be told in the schools to children yet unborn,' declared Katherine Roberts in 1910, predicting that Lady Constance Lytton would become an inspirational figure for future generations. 1 A militant suffragette, Constance Lytton had disguised herself as a working-class seamstress, Jane Warton, in order to expose the brutal treatment of less privileged suffragist prisoners. When she had previously been arrested in 1909 for stonethrowing, a congenital heart condition saw her confined to the hospital wing and exempted from all labour, alongside Mrs Brailsford, the wife of an M.P., while working-class suffragettes, Mary Leigh and Selina Martin, who had been arrested with them, were placed in the Third Division and subjected to force-feeding.Outraged by such unequal treatment, Lytton disguised herself as Jane Warton, a London seamstress, under which identity prison doctors failed to diagnose her heart condition and subjected her to force-feeding eight times before her rapidly declining health and suspicions of her true identity prompted her release. The publication in 1914 of Prisons and Prisoners: Some personal experiences. By Constance Lytton and Jane Warton, Spinster led a reviewer in the Christian Commonwealth to exclaim ecstatically that 'Constance Lytton is an incarnation of the Christ-spirit, if ever there was one. The story of her deeds -the motive that inspired them, the spirit in which she did them -is worthy of being enshrined in the Sacred Books of the race.' 2 Christabel Pankhurst drew both on the language of religious sacrifice and on that of male stoicism and courage: 'No act more chivalrous can be imagined than Lady Constance Lytton's surrender of every advantage of her own for the sake of more defenceless women. The sacrifice of the brave Captain Oates, who went into the snow to die that his comrades might have the greater chance to live, brought tears to our eyes. But cannot the world -the world even of men -understand that Lady Constance Lytton's act was of the same, perhaps of yet finer quality!' 3

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Woman Suffrage in Bengal (1921–1925): The ‘Great Game’ Between the Imperialists and the Theosophists

Das

2022

Indian Historical Review

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In 1921, the Bengal Legislative Council defeated the Woman Suffrage Bill. It created quite a stir because Bengal showed strong opposition to the Bill, in spite of its reputation for being receptive to progressive thought. The bafflement was complete when the same Bill was passed in the Bengal Legislative Council in 1925. Longstanding social taboos and attitudes do not change within 4 years. Therefore, the explanation for the curious voting pattern has to be sought in Bengal politics. Very little research has hitherto been devoted to this episode of Indian history. Feminist historians of 1970s were satisfied when the Indian male’s purported social orthodoxy were repeatedly cited as a blanket explanation for all regressive obstructions. In 1978, Brian Harrison suggested that British Imperial resistance to woman suffrage was essentially a crusade against communism. Although Harrison’s work gave rise to a vigorous reinvestigation of anti-suffragist movement in England, no similar enquiry about anti-suffragist movement in India was carried out. The article investigates why and how the British Raj opposed woman suffrage in India, when principal supporters of woman suffrage was the Theosophical Society, considered to be a shady Russian-funded mischief-making organisation by British Intelligence.

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“only be ye strong and very courageous”: the militant suffragism of lady constance lytton

Cited by 6 publications

References 11 publications

More than a class act? dilemmas in researching elite school girls’ feminist politics

More than a class act? dilemmas in researching elite school girls’ feminist politics

“A class act: Constance Lytton and the political, literary and dramatic dynamics of suffrage prison writings”

Woman Suffrage in Bengal (1921–1925): The ‘Great Game’ Between the Imperialists and the Theosophists

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