Cicely Hale on joining the WSPU

In 1908 Cicely Hale (1884-1981) heard Christabel and Emmeline Pankhurst speak and joined the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). She soon became an organiser at the main WSPU office in Clements Inn, London. Cicely Hale later became a health visitor and midwife, publishing her memoir of the suffragette movement A Good Long Time in 1975.

Here she recalls how joining the movement ostracised her socially and the attitudes of men towards the Votes for Women campaign. The image shown is of a postcard shows Emmeline Pankhurst standing, speaking to a crowd from a horse-drawn carriage, Christabel Pankhurst seated beside her (7JCC/O/02/007). The next image is of a postcard from the anti-Suffrage movement that highlights the kind of derogatory attitudes to women having a vote that Hale describes.

Cicely Hale spoke to the historian Brian Harrison as part of the interviews he conducted with early twentieth century feminists between 1974 and 1981. You can find out more about those interviews here: https://www.lse.ac.uk/library/collect.... This is just a small section from her interviews which has been turned into a video by putting the edited sound file together with relevant images from the Women’s Collection at LSE Library.