Eva Gore-Booth: suffragette, social worker and labour activist

Explore  –  different social attitudes 100 years ago

Discuss  –  the rights of different groups of people in today’s society

Discover –  the importance of standing up for what we think is right

• • Personal History

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• Subject Areas
• Possible Topics
• Suggested Activities
• Interesting Fact
• Literary and Artistic Links
• Sources
• Further Resources

Subject Areas

• History – Victorian Britain: Significant people and events – Education and the rights of women (1865 -1918); Women’s right to vote; World War I and Pacifism
• English – Understanding a range of opposing viewpoints

 Possible Topics

• Poor working conditions for women in the late 1800s
• National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), 1928 – Universal Suffrage (for over 21s)
• Pacifism –‘ a belief that violence, even in self-defence, is unjustifiable under any conditions and that negotiation is preferable to war as a means of solving disputes’
• WW1 – the No-Conscription Fellowship and the Women’s Peace Crusade

 Suggested Activities

• Create a Poster for ‘Votes for Women’ (see links to banners of Hampstead Suffragettes, below)
• Write a Poem.  Possible subjects: Nature, favourite subject at school, how you help at home
• Set out the opposing arguments for something contentious.  Possible subjects: Votes for women, pacifism, education of women, homework, breakfast
• Write a story on what it would be like being educated at home by a governess

 Interesting Fact

One of the difficulties in getting women to go to union meetings was solved by starting a Tea Fund in 1902 to buy tea, sugar, milk and cake:  “It was found that the tea was a great convenience, as many of the women live in outlying districts they are naturally anxious to hurry home to tea when their work is over and it is both inconvenient and expensive for them to come back to meetings in the evening. We are glad to say that the tea had good results in introducing a social element that promoted good fellowship and a friendly spirit among the members, and the attendance has largely increased.”

Literary & Artistic Links

The Poems of Eva Gore-Booth by Esther Roper

Unseen Kings & Death of Fionavar by Eva Gore Booth

In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Constance Markiewicz by William Yeats

Sources

Manchester’s Radical History – Eva Gore-Booth

OxfordDictionary of National Biography

Eva Gore-Booth’s biography (Spartacus Schoolnet)

Further Resources

Article by Dermot Greene on Eva and her sister in Camden History Review, Vol.31 (2007)

Two banners of the Hampstead Suffragette movement are in the Museum of London collection:

Banner of the Hampstead Women’s Freedom League

Banner of the Hampstead Church League for Women’s Suffrage

This page was last updated on December 2nd, 2020.