‘We intend to show what Our Lord has done for women’: the Liverpool Church League for Women’s Suffrage, 1913–18

¹ This figure comes from the ‘Suffrage Directory’, Votes for Women [hereafter VFW], 6 Feb. 1914.

² For the WSPU see, for example, Pankhurst, E. Sylvia, The Suffragette Movement, an Intimate Account of Persons and Ideals (London, 1931); Fulford, Roger, Votes for Women (London, 1957); Raeburn, Antonia, The Militant Suffragettes (London, 1973); Rosen, Andrew, Rise Up Women! The Militant Campaign of the Women’s Social and Political Union, 1903–14 (London, 1974). For the NUWSS, works include Strachey, Ray, The Cause: A Short History of the Women’s Movement in Great Britain (London, 1928); Liddington, Jill and Norris, Jill, One Hand Tied Behind Us: The Rise of the Women’s Suffrage Movement (London, 1978); Hume, Leslie Parker, The National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (New York and London, 1982). For the WFL, which still awaits a published history, see Eustance, G L, ‘Daring to be free: the evolution of women’s political identities in the Women’s Freedom League’ (University of York D. Phil, thesis, 1993), and Francis, Hilary, ‘Our job is to be free: the sexual politics of four Edwardian feminists from C.1910-1935’ (University of York D. Phil. thesis, 1996).

³ London, Lambeth Palace Library, Davison Papers W16, Revd Claude Hinscliffe to Arckbiskop Davison, 3 May 1912, cited in Heeney, Brian, The Women’s Movement in the Church of England, 1850–1930 (Oxford, 1988), p. 105.

⁴ Jane Rendali, ‘Nineteenth century feminism and the separation of spheres: reflections on the public/private dichotomy’, in Andreasen, Tayo, Borchorst, Anette, Daklerup, Drude, Lous, Eva, and Nielsen, Hanne Rimmen, eds, Moving On: New Perspectives on the Women’s Movement, Acta Jutlandica LXVH:1, Humanities Series, 66 (Aarhus, 1991), p. 17.

⁵ See Rendall, ‘Nineteenth century feminism’, for an overview of historiography.

⁶ Kessler-Harris, Alice, ‘Gender ideology and historical reconstruction’, Gender and History, 1 (1989), pp. 31–49.

⁷ The categories of ‘rational’ and ‘manly’ come from Nancy Fraser, ‘Rethinking the public sphere: A contribution to the critique of actually existing democracy’, in Calhoun, Craig, ed., Habermas and the Public Sphere (Cambridge, MA, 1994), pp. 109–42 . Here, Fraser borrows from Landes, Joan B., Women and the Public Sphere in the Age of the French Revolution (Ithaca, NY, 1988). For a similar analysis see Davidoff, Leonore, ‘Regarding some old husbands’ tales: public and private in feminist history’, in her collection Worlds Between: Historical Perspectives on Gender and Class (Oxford, 1995), pp. 227–76.

⁸ Fletcher, Sheila, Maude Royden, a Life (Oxford, 1989), p. 4.

⁹ Bell, Maurice F., The Church and Women’s Suffrage: Sermon before the Inaugural Meeting of the Church League for Women’s Suffrage at St Mark’s, Regent’s Park, Thursday December 2, 1909, by the Vicar, Rev. Maurice F. Bell, M. A., CLWS Pamphlet, 1 (London, 1909) [London, Museum of London, Suffragette Fellowship Collection, MOL 50. 82./307].

¹⁰ Central Society for Women’s Suffrage, Women’s Suffrage: Opinions of Leaders of Religious Thought (London, 1895).

¹¹ Revd William Temple, M. A., ‘How the women’s movement may help the cause of religion’, in The Religious Aspect of the Women’s Movement; being a Series of Addresses Delivered at Meetings held at the Queen’s Hall, London, on June 19 1912 (London, 1912) [London, Museum of London, Suffragette Fellowship Collection, MOL 50. 82./205], pp. 57–61.

¹² Right Revd J. A. Kempthorne, D. D., Bishop of Hull, ‘Our Lord’s teaching about women’, ibid., pp. 9–13.

¹³ McLaughlin, Megan, ‘Gender paradox and the otherness of God’, Gender and History, 3 (1991), pp. 147–59 ; Bjorg Seland, ‘Women’s place within the pious Assembly House culture’, unpublished paper delivered to ‘A Woman’s Place’ conference, Kristiansand, June 1996 (cited with permission of the author).

¹⁴ Mrs Creighton, ‘Effects of the women’s movement on the education and ideals of women’, in The Religious Aspect of the Women’s Movement, pp. 46–50.

¹⁵ Williams, Revd George, Women’s Rights; a Sermon (Glasgow, 1914).

¹⁶ The Suffragette, 1 Aug. 1913.

¹⁷ Tickner, Lisa, The Spectacle of Women: Imagery of the Suffrage Campaign 1907–14 (London, 1987), p. 138.

¹⁸ Davison, Emily Wilding, VFW, 3 Sept. 1909.

¹⁹ Cited by Vicinus, Martha, ‘Male space and women’s bodies: the suffragette movement’, in her Independent Women (London, 1985), p. 251.

²⁰ Pethick-Lawrence, Emmeline, “The New Crusade’: a Speech Delivered by Mrs Pethick- Lawrence at Exeter Hall on May 30th, 1907, WSPU Pamphlet (London, 1907) [London, Museum of London, Suffragette Fellowship Collection, MOL 50. 82./144].

²¹ Vicinus, ‘Male space’, p. 260.

²² See the religious ideas of Dora Marsden, described in Garner, Les, A Brave and Beautiful Spirit (Aldershot, 1990), pp. 155–83 . A representation of’Saint’ Christabel is reproduced on the cover of Mitchell, David, Queen Christabel (London, 1977).

²³ Church League for Women’s Suffrage Monthly Paper [hereafter CLWS Monthly Paper], Jan. 1913. Pembroke Chapel was the main site of pulpit radicalism in Liverpool. For more details see Sellers, I., Salute to Pembroke, unpublished typescript, Liverpool Record Office; also Leonard Smith, Religion and the Rise of Labour (Keele, 1993), pp. 145–53.

²⁴ For an explanation of the way that suffrage politics in Liverpool stretched through into Cheshire, Bootle, and Merseyside, see Cowman, Krista, ‘Engendering citizenship: women in Merscyside political organisations, 1890–1930’ (University of York D.Phil. thesis, 1994).

²⁵ Heeney, Women’s Movement, p. 112.

²⁶ Church League for Women’s Suffrage, Fourth Annual Report (London, 1913).

²⁷ An analysis of the Liverpool members named in the CLWS Monthly Paper shows that of the nineteen who had associations with other suffrage bodies, nine were WSPU members, six supported the NUWSS, and four were involved with the WFL.

²⁸ The recent developments of militant policy and … the reaction in public opinion … make it more important than ever that the … methods of the National Union should be kept prominently before public attention’: Rathbone, Eleanor, ‘The methods of conciliation’, Common Cause, 5 Sept 1911.

²⁹ CLWS Monthly Paper, March 1914.

³⁰ VFW, 18 April 1913.

³¹ Bell, The Church and Women’s Suffrage.

³² Fletcher, Maude Royden, pp. 143–4.

³³ See Pankhurst, The Suffragette Movement, p. 510.

³⁴ For a short account of the importance of the Lady Chapel to feminism, see The Vote, 11 Nov. 1909.

³⁵ The Suffragette, 23 Jan. 1914, 30 Jan. 1914.

³⁶ The Suffragette, 3 April 1914.

³⁷ CLWS Monthly Paper, Sept 1913.

³⁸ Letter from Miss Hoy, WSPU and Woman’s Church activist, Wallasey and Wirral Chronicle, 14 March 1914; letter from Miss Brand, ibid., 24 Jan. 1014.

³⁹ Free Church Suffrage Times, April 1914.

⁴⁰ For more details on the Revd Baker, see Free Church Suffrage Times, Jan. 1917; also Elaine Kaye, ‘A turning point in the ministry of women; the ordination of the first women to the Christian ministry in England in September 1917’, SCH, 27 (1990), pp. 505–12.