Blog Post #8 - Christabel's Speech on Militant Methods in 1908

This week my analysis will be over another primary source. It is a speech given by Christabel Pankhurst in 1908 aptly titled “The Militant Methods of the N.W.S.P.U.”; this speech comes out of a compilation of speeches done by a few editors. Yet this speech is not as much of a rallying cry as I expected it to be. Instead of being a call to women, to join forces with the WSPU this is much more a speech against the forces fighting the WSPU. It takes a strong stance against the Liberal government as well as specific individuals in the government, especially Mr. Asquith, the Prime Minister. This stance is against the government as a whole because even though an individual may support the woman suffrage movement, his government does not so inherently he is playing in to the system that prevents women from receiving the vote. This system is also trying to delay votes on bills that support women’s suffrage.

Christabel sums it up brilliantly by saying, “If we do not achieve our purpose soon, this Parliament will run its  course, and another Parliament will come in before we get the vote, and then we will be told the same old story, ‘You cannot expect us to enfranchise you now,’” (Roberts 4). For these women the militant methods became necessary because constitutional ones were not receiving the response women desired. For Christabel the WSPU and women in general will resume constitutional methods of protest once they have received the vote. She says, “Well, that is just what we are only too anxious to do, and what we shall do when the vote is ours,” (Roberts 9). She even argues that with the militant methods the WSPU has earned the support of the public. By being radical toward the government, these women have opened themselves up to the media who in turn share the stories of these women and their escapades. Yet the most important point that Christabel addresses is the reaction of some officials to push women to actions that are ever more militant. Mr. Haldane a Parliament member told the women, “Do you think to succeed with a policy of pin-pricks? Why not use weapons that hurt,” (Roberts 16). This is an incitement to violence, coming from the government to the Suffragettes. This speech offers an example of how in 1908 the WSPU and Christabel did not look for militant actions, but began to see that an escalation was inevitable.

Roberts, Marie M., and Tamae Mizuta, eds. The Militants: Suffragette Activism. London: Routledge & Thoemmes Press, 1994.

**The speech comes from pages 1-16, although the page numbering in this book is a bit strange.**