Issue 40 winter 23 web - Flipbook - Page 96
Women’s
Freedom League
Plaque erected in 2023 by English Heritage at 1 Robert Street, London, WC2N 6RL,
City of Westminster
The Women’s Freedom League was a suffragist and equal
rights campaigning organisation that worked on the
principles of passive resistance and non-violence. Formed
after a split in the Women’s Social and Political Union, it
had its former headquarters at 1 Robert Street, Strand,
which is marked with an English Heritage blue plaque.
Background and Foundation
The turn of the 20th century saw an upsurge in the fight
for women’s emancipation and enfranchisement in the
UK. In 1897, the National Union of Women’s Suffrage
Societies (NUWSS) was founded by Millicent Garrett
Fawcett. Suffragists made progress persuading politicians
to support the cause, but the slow pace galvanised Emmeline Pankhurst into founding the more militant
Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1903.
Taking the motto ‘Deeds Not Words’, the WSPU used
direct action and disruption - earning publicity and the
nickname ‘suffragettes’.
Below, English Heritage - The Womens Freedom League
In 1907, disagreements within the WSPU led Emmeline
Pankhurst to announce the cancellation of the annual
conference and that a new committee would be nominated rather than elected. Her autocratic stance shocked
many and a breakaway group declared that they would
go ahead with the planned conference. It was attended
by delegates from over half of the WSPU branches, and
voted in a new executive committee.
‘Dare to be Free’: the Women’s Freedom League
The new organisation was named the Women’s
Freedom League (WFL), signalling its aim to secure total
emancipation for women. This was underlined by their
1908 motto: ‘Dare to be Free’.
Among the leading members were Teresa BillingtonGreig (the first suffragette to go to prison), Charlotte
Despard, Edith How Martyn, Caroline Hodgson, Annie
Cobden-Sanderson and Margaret Nevinson. It was a
democratic body with a collective leadership; the absence
of a single figurehead seems to have served to give it a
lower than deserved historical profile.