Summary Of The Play 'How The Vote Was Won'

How The Vote Was Won written by Cicely Hamilton (formerly Hammill) and Christopher St John (born Christabel Marshall). It is an inspiring piece of suffrage theatre, written in 1909 by two women who were both a part of the first wave feminist movement. Hamilton, co-founded the WWSL (Women Writers' Suffrage League) in 1908, she was also an actress and dramatist “Her first big success was Diana of Dobsons (1908)” (Paxton, 2013, p.25), along side her playwriting she also wrote lyrics for the 'March of the Women', composed in 1910 by Ethel Smyth. St John was a playwright and author of several women’s suffrage and propaganda plays including The Pot and the Kettle 1909, which was also co-written by Hamilton. St John founded the Pioneer Players with
Another topic is based on the disdain toward actresses; Maudie Spark a character in the play is an actress. She enters the room and continues to explain that all the theatre houses have shut down, and all actresses have gone on strike, “Most of 'em thought […] that they'd go to the theatre to escape. But there's not a blessed theatre to go to!” (2010, p.315). There is also a character called Madam Christine, who owns a respectable high street clothing store; not to mention her own motor and driver. This she gives up in the name of the cause, to join her second cousin Horace, her nearest male relation. I find this an interesting predicament, for a woman who has survived so high in society still wishes to lower her affairs to help the suffrage
25), this means that although there were several anti-suffrage leagues, there was still obstacles within the writings that the suffragettes had to face. To understand feminist literature criticism you must expose the strategies in which it works, firstly the authors use select foundations of Marxism, structuralist or post-structuralist themes, these structure the play or novel “[...] by first exposing it's hidden presuppositions and then giving it a different objective” (Ruthven, 1991, p.24). The reception of feminist literary text in the early 1900's had little to do with cultural differences or gender, but had more to do with “[...] political difference between different forms of feminism” (Bammer, 1990, p.18). Which is why feminists began leagues such as WWSL (Women Writers Suffrage League; Founded by Cicely Hamilton and Bessie Hatton), AFL (As I mentioned earlier). There were also several Anti-Suffrage Leagues founded at this time such as, ASS (Anti-Suffrage Society; Founded 1908 by Mary Humphry Ward), NLOWS (National League for Opposing Woman Suffrage; Founded 1910 by Lord Cromer), and of course WNASL (Women's National Anti-Suffrage League; Founded 1908 by Lady