Description:‘The Rights of Woman’, what are they?
The right her husband to obey,
The right to show forth all her life
How proud she is to be a wife!
The right, oh, noble destiny!
The daughter of a man to be.
The right to have one for a brother!
Or be first cousin to another.
The right, should fate be still propitious,
To be the wife of one – delicious!
The right, oh! Grasp it those who can,
To be the mother of a man!
These satirical verses appeared in the Edgbastonia magazine in January 1907, a year in which this avowedly non-political publication began to address the growing demand for women’s suffrage. Edgbastonia had begun circulation in 1881 and in its first couple of decades paid little attention to women, except to draw attention to those who had distinguished themselves in charitable works. A considerable change had taken place by 1907, when we see the editors endorsing demands for women to play a role in public life. In February, Edgbastonia carried an article guardedly supportive of women’s suffrage: ‘However widely opinions may differ as to some recent methods of supporting the movement […] it is impossible to ignore the extraordinary progress made by the cause in the last year’. The article goes on to encourage readers to sign up to Clementia Black’s declaration, demanding that women should have the right to vote on the same terms as men; i.e. providing they were householders.
Edgbastonia would have had little choice but to face up to the suffrage issue, because prominent Edgbaston residents were committed to the cause, including Elizabeth Cadbury and Bertha Ryland. The latter served as Honorary Treasurer of the WSPU (Women’s Social and Political Union), which placed this advertisement in Edgbastonia for funds and office space when it was getting started in Birmingham. The WSPU relied heavily on volunteers in its first two years before it started paying employees. The local secretary was a Miss Isabel Marris, also an Edgbaston resident. Clearly, Edgbaston was seen as fertile ground for the cause. Emeline Pankhurst had, in fact, addressed successful meetings there.<small><sup>1</sup></small> Another prominent Edgbaston suffragette was Nellie Hall, who joined the movement at an early age and came to play a prominent part in the WSPU in Birmingham. She was one of those subjected to forcible feeding at Winson Green Prison.
<font color="#666633"><small><sup>1</sup> Shoebridge, Michelle, The Women’s Suffrage Movement in Birmingham and District (Wolverhampton: Wolverhampton Polytechnic, 1983), p.18</small></font>