Research

I have chosen to look at the Suffrage movement as my personal project. Obviously to all women this should be an extremely important period of history and as I have just qualified to vote, I felt this was a very appropriate topic. My mother has always expressed how important it is to use this right and never waste the the work women carried out to try and bring equality to our society. Therefore, I have always felt connected to this topic.

Suffrage Definition: the right to vote in political elections. 

The first international women’s rights organisation actually formed in 1888, The International Council of Women (ICW). However, the ICW were reluctant to focus on suffrage and so in 1904 the International Women Suffrage Alliance was formed by Millicent Fawcett and other leading women’s rights activists. Millicent Fawcett was already the union leader of the NUWSS, National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, which formed in 1897. This Union became known as the Suffragists. The Suffragists engage the state via law not violence. For example, petitioning, lobbying and demonstrations. Janie Terreno’s (a member of the suffragists and then later the suffragettes) textiles of stitched handkerchiefs would be an example of

bringing about change in a non-violent manner. However, this peaceful method did not bring about the change that most women were after. This led the suffragettes to form. This group was called the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). This faction was militant and led by the Emmeline Pankhurst and her two daughters, Christabel and Sylvia. London became the central area but Emmeline Pankhurst formed her group in Manchester. This militant faction targeted any proceedings based on male authority.

Alison Mayne’s Lecture

We were lucky enough to attend a lecture from Alison Mayne and during this she spoke about the Suffrage movement. ‘The needle is a weapon of resistance’ was one of my favourite quotes taken from one of the slides of her presentation. This quote refers to how women took a very feminine craft and used it as a tool to express their views to bring about change. Mayne spoke about how the suffragettes used embroidery on parasols, ba

nners and fabric petitions of stitched signatures of those who were imprisoned and force fed to gain attention from the public. Mayne went on to highlight some interesting articles which I read to gain further insight on this particular topic.

Example of the Prison Embroidery

Stitched Signatures

These articles focused on prison embroidery. One handkerchief was found with signatures from suffragette prisoners in Holloway in 1912, which the photo to the right shows. I think these embroideries are so poignant because they outline the contrast between the delicate skill of embroidery and the oppressing nature of the prisons that the suffragettes were being held in. The suffragettes used an amateur craft associated with the domestic woman to move the struggle for the vote for women onto the public stage. The signature embroideries are a perfect example of using textiles to gain a voice. They also defied the efforts of the prison to try and strip the individual identities of the prisoners.

First sample using free machine and different threads.

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_suffrage_in_the_United_Kingdom

https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/womenvote/overview/startsuffragette-/

https://www.selvedge.org/blogs/selvedge/prison-embroidery-by-suffragettes-1905-1914

https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1757&context=tsaconf