Conservative and Unionist Women's
Franchise Association.
The Progress of the
Women's Suffrage Movement
by
Mrs. Henry Sidgwick
Presidential Address to the Cambridge Branch of
the C. & U. W. F. A. at the Annual Meeting on
May 23rd, 1913.
CAMBRIDGE
BOWES & BOWES
1913
PRICE TWOPENCE NET.
THE PROGRESS OF THE WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT.
An address to the Cambridge Branch of the Conservative andUnionist Women's Suffrage Association at their Annual Meeting onMay 23, 1913. By Mrs. Henry Sidgwick.
It seems to me sometimes that we do not cheer ourselves as much as wemight by thinking of the immense strides our movement has made in thelast fifty years; so I propose to say a few words about it thisafternoon, although there is not of course anything very new to say. Forwe need cheering because, notwithstanding the general progress of ourcause, we are just now suffering from a serious set-back due to theaction of the militant societies. They are clearly and visibly settingpeople against us. And it appears that not only in this country are theyraising up enemies against us, but that our militants are hinderingthe movement in other countries.
Moreover, what is much worse than injury to the special cause which oursociety exists to promote, the militants are injuring our country andthe cause of civilization and progress. The very existence andusefulness of society depends on the maintenance of law and order. Theprotection of the weak, the possibility of development in well beinggenerally, all that society stands for, depends on its members being lawabiding—on their respecting law and life and property. And here we havewomen, while urging that their admission to a formal share in thegovernment of the country would be for its advantage, at the same timeteaching by the most powerful method they can use,—namely,example—doctrines subversive of all social order; teaching that personswho cannot get the majority to agree with their view of what isadvisable in the interest of the whole should injure and annoy thecommunity in every way they conveniently can—proceeding even toincendiarism, and apparently threatening manslaughter.
It is heartbreaking that such things should be done in a goodcause—and it is especially hard for women to bear because it hurtstheir pride in their own sex. They have to see not only their countryinjured, and the cause of women's suffrage, in whose name these thingsare done, retarded, but they have to see the reputation of their sex forgood sense and sober judgment draggled in the mud.
This is the most serious—indeed, I think the only serious set-back ourmovement has had. It has on the whole been sufficiently wisely conductedto secure almost uniformly steady progress from its small beginnings toits present great proportions.
In all—or almost all—big social movements ultimate success depends onthe gradual conversion to benevolence of a large neutral majority. Themovement in its beginning—and this was eminently true of ourmovement—is championed by a small body of pioneers. They make converts,and when they begin to be taken seriously a body of active opponents isprobably stirred up, but so long as the active opposition is not toostrong it does little harm—it may