This year is 100 years since women got the vote.
A 2016 film ‘Suffragettes’
made no mention of the roles played by Scottish Suffragettes.
There is usually no mention of the
contribution of the Scottish Suffragettes contributions. "For a long time
the suffrage movement, as far as history is concerned was located in London and
the national leadership was located there too," Dr Norman Watson, a
journalist and historian who has researched the suffragettes for 30 years.Professor Sarah Pedersen, Robert Gordon University, points to the fact that Edinburgh had one of the earliest suffrage societies in the 1870s and by the period after 1905 Scotland was "punching above its weight" in the struggle for votes. There were plenty of opportunities to confront the establishment with then prime minister Herbert Asquith having his constituency in Fife and Winston Churchill as an MP for Dundee. When Churchill came to stand in Dundee in 1908 he was followed by 27 of the national leaders of women's suffrage movements. At one point he even hid in a shed and tried to hold a meeting there.
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| Flora Drummond |
There was the burning down of
buildings, the grandstands at Ayr and Perth racecourses, the pouring of acid in
post boxes to destroy the mail or burning the slogan 'votes for women' into the
greens of golf courses with acid. Sylvia
Pankhurst, daughter of Emmeline Pankhurst became a good friend of the Scottish
Labour founder Keir Hardie - he used to
visit parents house.
"One of the things to note is that they
were very careful not to actually harm or kill anyone with all these fires, the
places they set fire to were empty. An important point for the movement in
Scotland was a big rally in Edinburgh in 1909 led by the formidable Flora
Drummond, riding on horseback. A key figure in the movement, she had grown up
in Arran. Earlier in the year a group of women took part in a public art event,
called "March of Women", from the Glasgow Women's Library to Glasgow
Green. “ There had been lots of campaigning for the vote towards the end of the 19th Century mainly using methods such at petitions, writing letters and badgering members of parliament by the suffergists. Eventually they felt all this talking was getting them nowhere.
World War One impacted on the struggles. Many who worked as teachers, or nurses saw the reality of the hardships and inequality many women endured. One wealthy women, a Violet Markam, who was involved with the ‘Women’s National Anti-Suffrage League’ – but when she saw first hand in the war the struggles of women’s lives she changed her mind. (They believed that giving votes to women would bring disaster and fill the electorate with ignorant voters!!)
**Women and Sport – Today in 2018 I believe more needs to be done for young girls playing
team sports. I have three grown up children – two boys and a daughter. The boys
always played team sports. In American men and women play softball together and girls are keen on soccer. Team sports such as rugby or football build up character and skills for being a
team player. I believe this is very important.
