November 4, 1911, To the Editor East Anglian Daily Times, “Politics from the Woman’s
Point of View”
Continuing the theme of defense of militant tactics, Davison lays out the forty-year history of
women’s attempts to use regular political channels to achieve suffrage. Once more she links
woman’s vote to the protection of women and of children, and once more she accepts that a
“woman’s point of view” is both real and necessary to a properly functioning political system.
The history of woman suffrage in Sweden was not a smooth one: some women guild
members living in cities in the eighteenth century were enfranchised in local elections and
general elections, but both franchises were revoked in 1758 and 1771, respectively. The
franchise in local elections was returned to women in 1862, but universal franchise did not
occur until 1918. Swedish suffragettes in 1911 were, like British suffragettes, “no nearer the
goal,” as Davison puts it. This letter is also notable for its enumeration of the various political
associations open to women, including the Conservative Ladies’ Grand Council of the Primrose
League. Ultimately, she claims, it has not been such associations, but the “rise of a new
school,” the militant WSPU, which has succeeded in raising public consciousness and imbuing
the movement with renewed energy.
Sir,–In the East Anglian Daily Times of October 20th there are some paragraphs on the
considerable part which women have played in the recent elections in Sweden, in which
they have thrown out the Conservatives and helped to put in their allies, the Liberals and
Social Democrats. After a description of their really marvelous activities in the campaign,
the paragraph winds up with the words, ‘Their campaign was not marked by any outbreaks
of violence against their opponents or the Government. The Swedish Suffragettes seem
to have campaigned on the lines of peaceful persuasion from the first. And, perhaps,
comments the “Westminster Gazette,” that is why the mere man in Sweden seems to have
listened to them.’
Will you allow me to point out three facts as criticism on this passage? First of all
the methods of the Swedish Suffragettes (sic!), as you term them, are precisely those of
English women without exception, until six years ago. Thus the oldest Suffrage Society of
all, the London National Society for Woman Suffrage, formed in 1867, followed by the
National Union for Woman’s Suffrage Societies, worked on entirely peaceful and
constitutional lines with an election policy of supporting a candidate ‘who declares himself
the best friend to the cause of women.’
When women formed themselves into societies for party work they took up a line
similar to that of the Swedish women. Thus the first Liberal Association was formed in
1881, ‘For the furtherance of Liberal thought and Liberal policy, which includes just
legislation for women, and the protection of the interest of children.’ In 1885 the Primrose
League instituted the Ladies’ Grand Council, to maintain the three clearly defined political
principles for which the Conservative Party claimed to stand, namely, Religion, the
Constitution, and the Empire. In 1887 the Women’s Liberal Federation was inaugurated ‘to
promote the adoption of Liberal principles in the Government of the country and just
legislation for women and children.’
These various women’s organizations have done long, loyal, and yeomen [sic] service for
the men’s parties, without any return, in spite of the great fact that the two Liberal
women’s societies stand for woman suffrage. May I add that Swedish Suffragettes (!) also
seem no nearer to that goal.
Secondly, no person heard of woman suffrage till six years ago, except the few
advanced thinkers who looked upon it as an impossible scheme in practical politics. The
change of public attitude may be seen to have grown in vigour from six years ago with the
rise of a new school. The success of that school is its justification.
Thirdly, the ‘mere man’ in Sweden, like his prototype in England, is quite ready to
listen to the women so long as they are merely doing his work for him. No doubt, like his
English confrere, it is a far cry to the time when he will begin to consider politics from the
woman’s point of view, and to see that things are not as they should be so long as the
woman’s point of view is unexpressed in the State. I am, etc.,
EMILY WILDING DAVISON
31, Coram Street, W.C.,
31st October, 1911