Struggle and Suffrage in Halifax: Women's Lives and the Fight for Equality

by Helena Fairfax

Overview

Between 1800 and 1950 the town of Halifax grew beyond recognition. The booming mills and factories were built on the labor of women and their children, and yet their voices are almost completely missing from the history books. For the first time, this is the story of Halifax from the point of view of the women who helped shape the town.

This was a period of extraordinary change, but the battle for equality was long. In 1800, many women were illiterate. By 1900, there was a thriving girls' high school in Halifax, and yet one of its most brilliant students was denied a full degree because she was a woman. In 1939, the Vicar of Halifax called women's economic independence "an evil".

Families were large and women regularly died in childbirth. Many faced the stigma of single parenthood or else the terror of an illegal abortion. In the 1930s, the first Family Planning Clinic was set up by women in the town.

In the 1840s, women in Halifax fought for their menfolk's right to vote. In 1911, when Emmeline Pankhurst gave a stirring speech at the Mechanics' Institute, women had yet to be granted a vote of their own, leading many women to boycott that year's census and at least two to declare their occupation as "slave".

From girls in the factories to the first women stepping into public office, this book provides a fascinating and moving account of the lives of Halifax's women through the key events in the town's history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781526717795
Publisher:	Pen and Sword
Publication date:	02/28/2019
Series:	Struggle and Suffrage
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	176
File size:	12 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Helena Fairfax is an editor and author of women's fiction. Her novels have been shortlisted for several awards, including the Exeter Novel Prize. Helena previously worked for many years in the manufacturing and textile industries, and she is particularly interested in the unrecorded lives of the women who worked these mills before her. Helena is a member of the Society of Authors and the Society for Editors and Proofreaders. Further information and articles can be found at her website www.helenafairfax.com.

Table of Contents

Introduction vii

Acknowledgements x

Chapter 1 Child Labour and Girls at Work 1

Girls at Work in the Card-Making Industry 1

Girls at Work in the Textile Mills 6

Girls at Work in the Mines 17

Chapter 2 An Unequal Education 25

The Early Years 25

'A cruel injustice.' The Schools Inquiry Commission 1867-68 32

The Focus on Domestic Science 41

Further Education: the Halifax girls 'not burdened with a serious education' 46

Chapter 3 Women's Health and Domestic Lives 51

Women's Chores in the Home 51

Courtship and Marriage 59

Sexual Abuse and Harassment 65

Pregnancy and Childbirth 71

Birth Control 77

Chapter 4 Women in Employment 89

What Did Middle-Class Women Do? 89

Working-Class Women and Their Jobs 99

Women in Domestic Service 102

Women at Work in the Mills, Factories and Engineering 110

The Halifax Building Society: 'No Female Shall Be Admitted to Any Office Therein' 129

Chapter 5 Chartism, Radical Politics, and Votes for Women 139

Halifax Women and Nineteenth Century Radical Politics 139

The Halifax Suffragettes 149

Halifax Suffragettes and the Boycott of the 1911 Census 171

Bibliography 175

Citations 183

Index 195