The Campaign for Women’s Suffrage

In Ray Strachey’s account of the origins of the British women’s suffrage movement, a young Emily Davies visited her friends Elizabeth and Millicent Garrett. Sitting in front of a bedroom fire, they discussed the problems and inequities they faced as women. Emily suggested a three-point strategy to overcome these:

‘Well, Elizabeth’, she said, ‘It’s quite clear what has to be done. I must devote myself to securing higher education, while you open the medical profession to women. After these things are done,’ she added, ‘we must see about getting the vote … You are younger than we are, Millie, so you must attend to that.’

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