Interpretations B and C both focus on the campaign for women’s suffrage.
How far do they differ and what might explain any differences?
Interpretation B
An extract from an article about Millicent Fawcett on the website of the Fawcett Society.
The Fawcett Society is a charity which campaigns for women’s rights. It is named after Millicent Fawcett who was the President of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (Suffragists) from 1907 to 1919.
MILLICENT FAWCETT: A TIRELESS AND COURAGEOUS LEADER
We’ve been fighting for women’s equality since 1866 when, at just 19, Millicent Fawcett started a petition for women’s votes. She went on to lead the peaceful suffrage campaign and made this cause her lifetime’s work.
Fawcett became President of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (Suffragists). With 50,000 members, it was the largest organisation campaigning for female suffrage at the time. Her powerful but moderate campaign played a significant role in securing the first extension of voting rights for women in 1918.
In 2018, 100 years since women first secured the right to vote, Millicent Fawcett made history once again. She was the first woman commemorated with a statue in Parliament Square – an important moment for the wider suffrage movement, and for women everywhere.
Interpretation C
An extract from an article in a British newspaper published in 2017. The article was written by June Purvis, a historian who has written a biography of Emmeline Pankhurst. Emmeline Pankhurst was the leader of the WSPU (Suffragettes).
The news that permission has been granted for a statue of Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square has not made me rejoice. It is wonderful that there will be a woman in that honoured space outside Parliament, but by erecting a statue only of Fawcett, we are writing Emmeline Pankhurst out of history.
The suffragists, under Millicent Fawcett, adopted legal tactics, such as writing letters to MPs and peaceful demonstrations. Fawcett loudly criticised the actions of the militant (extreme) suffragettes, arguing that they were harming the women’s cause.
Emmeline Pankhurst belongs in Parliament Square. She suffered 13 imprisonments during the suffrage campaign, where she went on hunger, thirst and sleep strike. Instead, the public will end up with a statue of a woman few people have heard of.
The names of 52 other women, including those of some suffragettes, are to be included at the bottom of the statue. But they do not belong under Fawcett’s feet.