Comments: 4
BrokenTune 7 years ago
Interesting. I was under the impression that Christabel was the more famed one because she was favoured by her mother and became, in all practicalities, her second in command, whereas Sylvia had been sidelined somewhat.
For exampe, it was Christabel who sacked Caroline Phillips, and took over the Scottish branch of the suffragettes, thus widening the divide between suffragettes and suffragists north of the border.
markk 7 years ago
She was definitely more prominent in the campaign, but when I talked with Purvis she identified two somewhat related factors in the diminishment of her role. The first was the rivalry with Sylvia, which mattered when Sylvia got the jump on writing the history of the campaign. The second was political; the history of suffragism became a left-wing history, one in which Christabel's support for the First World War and turn towards Christianity didn't make for an easy fit. As a pacifist and socialist Sylvia had the better credentials, so she attracted greater admiration from authors as the decades passed.
BrokenTune 7 years ago
Oh, I see, she was overshadowed by future historical developments.
Does Purvis refer to Christabel as a suffragist throughout the book rather than a suffragette or is this with a sight towards her later years, too? I.e. did Christabel ever change her mind about the effectiveness or justification for the violence her and her mother's group incited?
markk 7 years ago
I did a quick check, and she uses "suffragette" not just in reference to Christabel but the movement as a whole. I know there's been some criticism of the use of the word, but her employment of it seems to be as much stylistic (easier than writing "women's suffrage" all of the time, yet more specific than the general phrase which applied to other contemporary voting-rights campaigns) as anything else.