Churchill on Women's Suffrage

[wdodgens]

I'm a high school teacher and I am searching everywhere for quotes
from Churchill on women's suffrage. I read everywhere how he made
rude comments about suffragettes and how he was even attacked (or
whipped), but I can't find any direct quotes from the man himself.

Can anyone direct me to actual Churchill quotes on women's suffrage...
particularly quotes against women getting the vote.

Thanks in advance for any help and guidance!

[Jon Lellenberg]

Roy Jenkins in his biography says (p. 109) Churchill circa 1906 was "provoked" by "early suffragette manifestations" into replying, when asked what his intentions on this issue would be if returned to Parliament, "The only time I have voted in the House of Commons on this question I have voted in favour of women's suffrage, but, having regard to the perpetual disturbance at public meetings at this election, I utterly decline to pledge myself" and on another occasion around that time, "I am not going to be henpecked on a question of such grave importance."  In the December 1910 election campaign he equivocated again: "he favoured an early extension of the vote to some women, but only if it could be achieved without undue political disturbance (meaning, as he urgerd in private, only if it could be done without harming Liberal electoral prospects, such as might be the result of a high property qualification)."

In response, Mrs. Pankhurst's followers "targeted his meetings and movements for especial disruption in their increasingly violent campaign.  During the first 1910 general election he was attacked by a young woman with a dog-whip," and Jenkins makes a point of Churchill's special responsibility for dealing with suffragette violence since he was Home Secretary at the time.

I hope this is helpful; I don't mean to suggest that it's comprehensive.

[Kyle, David J. (CDC/CCEHIP/NCEH) (CTR)]

I am intrigued, you say you could find no quotes, so the search for some is indeed commendable.

May I ask your raison d'être for seeking quotes specifically against woman's suffrage rather than a selection of both for and against?

David

[Editor/Finest Hour]

Why do you ask for "quotes specifically against women's suffrage"?
This is a complex subject on which Churchill's views changed. Start by
reading the extensive references/quotes in Randolph Churchill/Martin
Gilbert's WINSTON S. CHURCHILL, volumes II and IV. Some entries from a
quick troll through my book, CHURCHILL BY HIMSELF (September), track
the evolution of his thought on the matter:

"We are getting into very g[rea]t peril over Female Suffrage. Be quite
sure of this—the Franchise Bill will not get through without a
dissolution [of Parliament] if it contains a clause adding 8,000,000
women to the electorate. Nor ought it to get through....Votes for
women is so unpopular that by-elections will be unfavourable....What a
ridiculous tragedy it will be if this strong Government and party
which has made its mark in history were to go down on Petticoat
politics!....

"The only safe and honest cure is to have a referendum, first to the
women to know if they want it; and then to the men to know if they
will give it. I am quite willing to abide by the result."
--1911, 18 December. WSC to the Master of Elibank. Ofcl Bio,
Companion Vol 2 Part 3, 1473.


"I feel you have come into my bathroom and I have only a sponge with
which to defend myself."
--1919, 1 December, WSC to Nancy Astor. Nicolson Diaries vol. 2, 451.
(Letter from Harold Nicolson to his son, Nigel. Nancy Astor, making
one of her last speeches in Commons in 1945, told the House that when
she first entered the Commons (1 December 1919), Churchill was very
cold to her and she had asked him why, then quoting his reply.)


"I didn’t like the idea of their entering Parliament but it turned out
better than I feared....Concede the theory and you have no trouble in
practice....You can use women in AA [anti-aircraft] batteries: why not
in foreign Service....Anything in law to prevent a woman becoming a
judge?"
--1945, 19 March. Diaries of Cabinet Secretary Sir Norman Brook, New
York Times, 22 January 2006.


"Even the women have votes....They are a strong prop to the
Tories....It did not turn out as badly as I thought...Some of them
have even been Ministers. There are not many of them. They have found
their level....it has made politicians more mealy-mouthed than in your
day. And public meetings are much less fun. You can't say the things
you used to."
--1947, WSC to the ghost of his father in "The Dream," Official Bio
VIII, 368.
(Lady Thatcher stayed up all night reading her copy of the Churchill
Centre edition of "The Dream" in Washington in 1993, and got a huge
kick out of this.)


"[The future role of women should be] the same, I trust, since it has
been since the days of Adam and Eve."
--1952, 17 January, Press Conference, Washington. Fishman, My Darling
Clementine, 394
(An uncharacteristic aside, in that Churchill had written cogently
about the changing role of women from the 1930s, and had changed his
views in favour of female suffrage in the 1920s, as his daughter Mary
remarked, “...when he realised how many women would vote for him.”)


"When I think what women did in the war I feel sure they deserve to
be treated equally."
--1958, Hyde Park Gate. Colville, Churchillians, 106.
(Colville recalled the “astonishment” when Churchill said he hoped
that Churchill College, founded as a national memorial to him, would
admit women on equal terms with men. “No college at Oxford or
Cambrdige had ever done any such thing. I asked him afterwards if this
had been Clementine’s idea. ‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘and I support it.’”)