Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-4hhp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-07T08:02:09.994Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - Servants in the Suffrage Movement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 July 2019

Laura Schwartz
Affiliation:
University of Warwick
Get access

Summary

This chapter looks at the participation and representation of domestic servants in the suffrage movement. It seeks to account for their invisibility in much of the official propaganda and public spectacle of all the leading suffrage societies, while, at the same time, uncovering the hidden history of servants’ contribution to the fight for the vote. Class was a contentious issue within the suffrage movement. The various suffrage organisations argued over the basis upon which the franchise should be granted to women, since to ask for votes on the same terms as men was to accept the existing property qualification for male voters and exclude large numbers of working-class women. Historians have also debated the degree to which suffrage included or excluded working-class women. A focus on the role of domestic workers in the campaign for women’s enfranchisement offers a new perspective on these debates. It not only shines a light on the involvement of a different kind of working-class woman, but also raises questions about how the suffrage movement defined the ‘woman worker’.

Type
Chapter
Information
Feminism and the Servant Problem
Class and Domestic Labour in the Women's Suffrage Movement
, pp. 59 - 89
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×