influential writers asserting that the more extreme forms of militancy for which
she took responsibility were counter-productive.^43 In particular, historians such
as Pugh, writing within a masculinist paradigm, wish to deny or diminish her
achievements.^44 Disliking her separatist women-only politics, Emmeline is too
frequently dismissed as a fanatic who delayed the granting of the vote. Yet, I
would argue, without her leadership of the WSPU, partial enfranchisement
would not have been granted in 1918. As David Morgan comments, without
the ‘eruption into politics’ of militancy, it is most unlikely that women’s suffrage
would have been given ‘active cabinet consideration, far less cabinet approval’.
Similarly, Richard Evans, while attributing the granting of the vote to women
to a range of social and political factors, nevertheless asserts that, most impor-
tant of all, ‘perhaps’, there was a widespread fear that suffragette violence would
break out again if some measure of women’s suffrage were not granted. A more
recent contributor suggests that fears of a renewed sex war, a war which the
WSPU had primarily waged, influenced the male politicians to grant the parlia-
mentary vote to women.^45
What is frequently overlooked is that Emmeline and her militants changed
the way in which women were perceivedby people generally, including politi-
cians, a process that was further advanced by her strident advocacy of women’s
war work. There was a new confidence amongst women as well as widespread
industrial unrest amongst working men who, many feared, were learning
dangerous lessons from revolutionary socialists in Russia. Any resumption of
militancy would have been an embarrassment for the government, which would
not have wanted to imprison women who were making such a worthy contribu-
tion to war work. Emmeline, perhaps, did not reflect long on such matters.
Ethel Smyth remarked that the leader of the Women’s Party rarely paused ‘for
one half-second’ on what had already been accomplished, moving on to the
next point. A friend told her that after the vote was won, Emmeline’s mind was
so full of thoughts about winning the war and combating communism that she
was ‘secretly bored to death’ when former suffragettes began reminiscing about
the brave old days of militancy. Emmeline was looking to the future, keen to
help in building the nation and the Empire.^46
Emmeline, a patriotic feminist, continued her campaign, travelling to big
provincial cities, spreading the Women’s Party message, advocating the cause of
women workers and urging a vigorous prosecution of the war. She condemned
the Amalgamated Society of Engineers which admitted ‘boot-makers and
public-house keepers’, but refused to admit women munition workers.^47 The
issue was particularly urgent since large numbers of female employees in the
armaments factories had been dismissed, including eight thousand from the
Woolwich Arsenal. Emmeline felt a particular responsibility for keeping such
women, mainly working class, in their jobs since the Women’s Party had
campaigned hard to get women out of the home and poorly paid traditional
feminine work, such as domestic service, into the better paid jobs usually under-
taken by men, such as munitions work, transport, banking and public
LEADER OF THE WOMEN’S PARTY