Blog Post #6 - Christabel's Memoir

     This week happened to be another primary source for my topic. I am finally delving into another memoir, this one being Christabel Pankhurst’s. Unshackled tells Christabel’s feelings toward both the movement and the militancy of the WSPU. For Christabel the militant movement originally began to give women a voice when society lost interest in the movement. She like her mother argues that the militancy began in response to a lack of acknowledgement via political and economic routes. One interesting thing that Christabel notes is her mother’s choice to stand alone in the beginning by choosing militancy. She says, “She stood utterly alone in the world, so far as this decision to militancy was concerned,” (Pankhurst 50). While originally the WSPU stood alone in its militant behavior over time other women’s organizations joined in militant behaviors.

     This source offers much more information than the memoir of Emmeline Pankhurst. Arguably, this occurs because of Christabel’s law degree and focuses more upon the events of the WSPU as a whole as opposed to her personal work within the militancy. She does offer her own opinion and details surrounding the events, yet she is sure to include the opinions of other Suffragettes. One thing that Christabel mentions is the idea of a technical assault. Up until this point, most of what I read focused on the idea of women assaulting police violently. Christabel explains a technical assault as much less violent as previously believed. She states, “It was not a real spit but only, shall we call it a ‘pout’, a perfectly dry purse of the mouth…my technical assault was enough,” (Pankhurst 52). This is an important idea to remember because the public learned of the violence perpetrated by women from the police, and the media. Both of these sources offer a bias against women, wanting to discredit their behavior as that of hysterical women.

Source:

Pankhurst, Christabel. Unshackled: The Story of How We Won the Vote. Edited by Lord Pethick-Lawrence. London: Hutchinson & Co., 1959.