Today, I’m commemorating 100
years since some women were given the vote in Britain with my Mill Philosophy
Circle. Here’s a link to the suffragettes’ rousing anthem, written by Dame
Ethel Smyth in 1911: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCtGkCg7trY
JS Mill was a key figure in the
Suffragette movement and worked tirelessly for women’s freedom and equality
whether it was in raising money or presenting their case and putting forward amendments to a Reform
Bill in the House of Commons which would help give women the vote. He abhorred the
power men held over women considering it unhealthy for both sexes but also
detrimental to any children a couple may have together. JS Mill was passionate
about women’s equality and their freedom to determine their lives as they
wished. He strongly believed that this was good for women and for society as a
whole. Both JS Mill and his wife Harriet Taylor Mill wrote about women’s
suffrage1. Her daughter, Helen Taylor joined the Kensington Society,
set up in 1865 by a group of women to hold intellectual debates. In this year,
Helen gave a paper, alongside others, addressing the society’s question of
parliamentary reform to include women’s right to vote. This debate culminated
in Helen drafting the 1866 petition which JS Mill used to argue for an
amendment to the 1867 Reform Act. When it was voted down, they, including Emily
Davies, transformed themselves into the London Society for Women’s Suffrage
alongside JS Mill who became its first president. This society spread to having
branches around the country which eventually, together with other suffrage
groups, united under the umbrella name of the National Union of Women’s
Suffrage Societies. Millicent Garrett Fawcett became a president of this
society, having been an active participant in the previous Suffrage Society
after her sister, Elizabeth Garrett, introduced her to JS Mill’s speeches and
the movement for the emancipation of women.
The Suffragettes went on to
suffer horrendously for their cause. It makes for gruesome reading/viewing! So
today we remember everything they went through to give us the vote and lead
freer lives than they were able to do. This must never be taken for granted!
Nevertheless, there’s still an awful lot left to do before women have true equality
with men, especially in the present political world climate where women’s
rights are, once again, being threatened. The Mills would be extremely
concerned and shocked by the lack of progress and scaling back of women’s
rights in the world today! What would please him, however, would be the
unveiling of the statue of the suffragette Alice Hawkins in Leicester. He
certainly lived by her motto ‘Deeds not Words’.
1 Open access texts of
their writings, including on women’s suffrage, are available to read at:
http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/mill-the-collected-works-of-john-stuart-mill-volume-xxi-essays-on-equality-law-and-education
and see appendix C for Harriet’s essay ‘Enfranchisement of Women’
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