cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/29789039

Theresa Garnett (1888 - 1966)

Thu May 17, 1888

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Theresa Garnett, born on this day in 1888, was a militant British suffragette whose acts of feminist rebellion included assaulting Winston Churchill with a whip, shouting “Take that in the name of the insulted women of England!”

Garnett was born in Leeds on May 17th, 1888. In 1907, she joined the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) after being inspired by a speech given by the feminist and later co-founder of the Australian Communist Party Adela Pankhurst.

The WSPU fought for women’s suffrage in the United Kingdom and was noted for its use of direct action. Its members heckled politicians, held demonstrations and marches, broke the law to force arrests, broke windows in prominent buildings, set fire to post boxes, committed night-time arson of unoccupied houses and churches, and, when imprisoned, went on hunger strike and endured physically traumatizing force-feeding.

Garnett participated in several of these actions as a young adult, chaining herself in 1909, along with four other activists, to a statue in Parliament in protest of a law meant to prohibit disorderly conduct while Parliament was in session.

On November 14th, 1909, Garnett assaulted Winston Churchill, who instituted policies of force feeding suffragettes in prison, with a whip, striking him several times while shouting “Take that in the name of the insulted women of England!”

    • foxglove@lazysoci.alMEnglish
      6·
      6 hours ago

      Thank you for your useful comment, however this community is for women only to comment and post in. Hope you understand 🧡

      For those that are curious, the user was sharing the definition of a suffragette, i.e. an activist who fights for the rights of women to vote.

      • itslilith
        4·
        6 hours ago

        Heyo, I just stumbled upon this community for the first time. I’m curious, how do you figure out if someone is a woman, to enforce rule 1? I imagine it’s quite hard, unless people explicitly have their gender in their bio?

        • LadyButterfly@lemmy.worldM
          3·
          3 hours ago

          Great question Lilith! There’s various ways we do it. We don’t share how though because we don’t want to tell trolls how to dodge our protective measures.