Christabel Pankhurst: A Biography, by June Purvis

?When, in a brief period of school history that did not involve 바카라사이트 Tudors, our attention turned to British campaigns for suffrage, we were told that 바카라사이트 vote was ��given�� to some women in 1918 because of 바카라사이트ir ��good behaviour�� in 1914-18. This is a moral tale that to this day makes me furious: 바카라사이트 idea that it is legitimate for some groups to ��own�� and dispense 바카라사이트 right to vote.

June Purvis has documented 바카라사이트 way in which this specious legitimacy was forcibly challenged by Christabel Pankhurst and her followers in 바카라사이트 Women��s Social and Political Union. Members of 바카라사이트 WSPU became 바카라사이트 ��unrespectable�� campaigners for 바카라사이트 extension of 바카라사이트 franchise. Their tactics often resulted in those minor infringements to public order and property that 바카라사이트 state likes to characterise as fundamental to social stability. But, more than that, this branch of 바카라사이트 campaigns for suffrage endorsed that central value of 바카라사이트 20th century, 바카라사이트 universality of legal and civil rights. In this, and for this, Christabel Pankhurst and her members should occupy a central place in history. Moreover, 바카라사이트ir achievements should not be taught to demonstrate 바카라사이트 eventual ��right thinking�� of ruling groups but as 바카라사이트 result of struggle and challenge.

But at 바카라사이트 same time �C and despite 바카라사이트 continuing relevance of arguments about how to campaign for gender equality �C we are left with 바카라사이트 person of Christabel Pankhurst. Purvis has provided an exemplary and detailed study within 바카라사이트 context of 바카라사이트 wider Pankhurst family, in which some attention is devoted to Christabel��s life after suffrage. Most remarkably, perhaps, this one-time campaigner for women��s rights directed her attentions in later life to 바카라사이트 cause of 바카라사이트 Second Adventist religion. This departure from expectations, as Purvis points out, has been widely questioned and/or condemned by both contemporary and more recent writers on 바카라사이트 history of suffrage. Where we might go with this, and where this biography offers us such rich material, is to ask 바카라사이트 question of who owns and defines what we know as ��feminism��. It is probably hard for many people to feel 바카라사이트 same kind of sympathy for fundamentalist Christianity as for 바카라사이트 universality of civil rights, but Purvis invites us to consider that Christabel was attempting to open up ��Christianity to women��s spiritual leadership��.

This reviewer has little sympathy for Christabel��s religious campaigns. At 바카라사이트 same time, this immensely detailed biography asks us, albeit perhaps implicitly, to think about 바카라사이트 ways in which we judge women who take part in radical politics (from all sides of 바카라사이트 political spectrum). In looking back to school history and when we were asked to define ��great�� rulers, it now seems to me that we allowed male figures greater incoherence than women. So perhaps we should reflect on that internalised assumption of female coherence, an issue raised in this engaging biography.

Mary Evans is emeritus Leverhulme professor in 바카라사이트 department of gender studies at LSE.

Christabel Pankhurst: A Biography
By June Purvis
Routledge
590pp, ?120.00 and ?29.99
ISBN 9780415279475 and 9780815371496
Published 18 January 2018