Class and the Suffrage Movement Essay

Suffragette Sally was a story of various women involved in the suffrage movement in England during the early 1900s. We follow the lives and times of Lady Hill, Sally Simmonds, and Edith Carstairs. Each of these ladies represent a different social class. By giving us a representative from each main social class Colmore deals with issues that varying classes may bring up in the movement. Throughout the stories of each character we see how each level of society viewed the suffrage movement and the women involved in it. The involvement and others perceptions on said involvement varied based on both the class of the woman and whether she was a suffragette or a suffragist. Despite differences in class and therefore lifestyle, these women at times dealt with very similar situations and problems.Take for instance Lady Geraldine Hill. She is most obviously a higher class woman. She appears from the reading to be well educated as well. She starts out in the book as very outspoken and very much for the suffragette movement. She proclaims herself to be a militant suffragette and not a more peaceful suffragist while on her first walk with Edith along the beach. Though a short while later in the book she states that she really shouldn’t be included when talking about the movement because she really hasn’t done any leg work essentially. It is revealed that the reason she had not participated in any raids as Lord Henry Hill calls them is because she promised him she would only speak. However she comes to the conclusion that it may come to the point that she must participate and put her title to use getting exposure for the suffrage movement.The day when she realizes that she needs to step up her involvement comes on the 24th of February…

… the movement were to take on the mindset of one large class, say one of those deserving of the vote, and work together they could have been spared some of the violence and distaste they faced.In conclusion, these three ladies in the novel each represent a vastly different class and lifestyle. Sally and Geraldine represent a different way of going about things than Edith does, but both sides of the movement have viewpoints that serve their common movement and the actions of these ladies demonstrate as such. Despite differences in class and social standings, women by coming together in the suffrage movement frequently faced similar problems. At one point both Sally and Geraldine were struggling with the decision between their lifestyle and their cause as what was more important to them.