Dr Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, 1836-1917, first woman member of British Medical Association

In spite of general public indifference, the campaign for female emancipation was making progress by 1903 when the Pankhursts set up the Suffragettes (WSPU)

There were vigorous debates in the 1890s on the future of marriage – a few couples were removing the ‘obey’ business from their vows and merging their surnames. And there was a movement – admittedly among a tiny few – for free love and open relationships.  Women could vote in parliamentary elections in New Zealand from 1893 and various parts of Australia from 1899.

Women had won the right to a basic education, and to vote for, and sit on local Education Boards. There were Girls’ High Schools in most towns. From 1869 Colleges for women opened in Oxford and Cambridge.

In 1873 the first woman, Elizabeth (Garrett) Anderson (who was Millicent Fawcett’s sister), became a member of the British Medical Association. Later she would be England’s first woman mayor in Aldeburgh. In 1875 women could sit on the Boards of Guardians that cared for the poor. In 1888 the first woman (Eliza Orme) gained a law degree – though outrageously it wasn’t until 1922 that the first woman was actually allowed to become a practising solicitor.

The press however, with the exception of the Manchester Guardian, took very little notice of votes for women. Historian Anita Sama believes this indifference may well be a significant barometer of the a much wider lack of interest in women’s votes. 

Which may be why in 1906 newly elected Liberal Prime Minister Campbell-Bannerman told a roomful of women campaigners that they had made a ‘conclusive and irrefutable case’ and that they should go on ‘pestering’. He, however, clearly intended to do nothing about it. Sounds like the Catholic Church and women priests!

Gertrude Bell, 1868-1926, writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, who worked alongside Lawrence of Arabia

By 1914, the number of women actively campaigning against women voting in Parliamentary elections was pretty much the same as those campaigning for it
 
Gertrude Bell was one of the first graduates from Lady Margaret Hall in Oxford, and went on not only to become an archaeologist but also a photographer, translator and cartographer. She was the first person to climb Mont Blanc and several other Alpine peaks, on one occasion waiting out a blizzard for two days dangling on a rope. She played a large role in founding modern Iraq and worked with Lawrence of Arabia. She was the first woman officer in British Intelligence.

Gertrude Bell could not be described as a shrinking violet. But she energetically opposed votes for women – even in the Church of England. A formidable study by historian Julia Bush - Women against the vote - shows that, by 1914, the number of women actively campaigning against women voting in Parliamentary elections was pretty much the same as those campaigning for it.
 
Another example was Annie Moberly, who was the Manager of the Times’s cousin, and founder of St Hugh’s College, Oxford. She too wanted nothing to do with women’s votes and influenced many of her students.
 
These women were what we nowadays call ‘difference feminists.’ They crisply and articulately made the point that they wanted to be recognised as equal but different. And they had no interest at all in voting.

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