A BOOK celebrating the centenary of women in Britain gaining the vote examines the role played by Scottish women and the Scottish press in during the long campaign by suffragettes for electoral equality.
In June 1917, a bill for the Representation of the People Act giving the vote to women over the age of 30 was passed by a majority in the House of Commons.
At the following year’s general election, women voted for the first time. Titled The Scottish Suffragettes and The Press, the book approaches the Scottish women’s suffrage campaign from the point of view of the popular press.
The author is Sarah Pedersen, professor of communication and media at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen.
Publishers Palgrave said Pedersen's new book “investigates how the press engaged with the women’s suffrage movement; how suffragettes were portrayed in newspapers; and how different groups attempted to use the press to get their message into the public sphere.”
The book also investigates the impact of the First World War on the movement and of the suffrage issue in the Scottish press between 1903 and 1918.
Prof Pedersen said: “Scottish suffrage campaigners acknowledged the need for press coverage from the start of the campaign in the 1870s but the arrival of the militant suffragettes completely transformed newspaper coverage.
“The Scottish newspapers were particularly interested in suffragette activities during local by-elections and their hounding of local anti-suffrage MPs.
“While most of us know of the activities of the suffragettes in London, it is important to understand that this was a national movement, with militant actions happening throughout Scotland.
She added: “Scotland was particularly important for the suffragettes because so many members of the Liberal government, such as Churchill and Asquith, held seats here.”
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