One hundred years ago, women won the right to vote in the UK.
They had to be over 30 and own property — a more inclusive law came in ten years later. The Jewish League for Woman Suffrage (JLWS) was the only Jewish women’s organisation in England—and the world—dedicated to attaining votes for British women and equal religious and communal rights for women within the Jewish community.
Their protests were lively and they were dubbed the “Blackguards in Bonnets”.
| Henrietta Franklin |
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| President of the British National Union of Women Suffrage Societies in 1916 and 1917. Part of a small but powerful group who participated in the British suffrage movement |
| Eleanor Marx |
| Although not a JLWS member, Eleanor Marx has been called “the mother of socialist feminism”. A supporter of women’s suffrage, she also thought it a bourgeois movement, and pressed for the rights of working-class women. Unsurprising— her father was,Karl Marx |
| Edith Zangwill |
| In 1912. she helped form the JLWS, which was open to both male and female members. Married the women’s rights supporter Israel Zangwill |
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| Lilian Montagu |
| Founding member, with her sister, of the JLWS. She also served as president of the World Union for Progressive Judaism |
| Inez Bensusan |
| Leader of the Actresses’ Franchise League and the Jewish League for Woman Suffrage |
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