Edith How-Martyn
Edith How-Martyn , née How (born August 4, 1875 in Cheltenham , according to other sources, London , † February 4, 1954 in Sydney , Australia ) was a British politician, suffragette and one of the first advocates of contraception .
Life
Fight for women's suffrage
Early years and WSPU
How-Martyn was the daughter of a tea merchant, attended by Frances Buss was founded in London Collegiate School for Girls and then studied at the Welsh Aberystwyth University , from where they have a Bachelor's degree in in 1900 as one of the first women Mathematics and Physics was awarded. She then taught these subjects for some time at Westfield College of the University of London .
How-Martyn had radical political views since her youth, which is why she joined the socialist Independent Labor Party in 1905 . The following year she also became a member of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), to which she had become aware of through an article in the party magazine Labor Leader . In May 1906, she stopped in front of the besieged house Dora Montefiore her first public speech, in the summer of the same year, she was together with Charlotte Despard to honor Secretary ( Honorary Secretäry ) of WSPU determined.
Later in 1906 she gave up teaching at Westfield College completely in order to devote herself entirely to the cause of the suffragettes, that is, the fighters for the right to vote for women. In October she tried to give a speech in the lobby of the House of Commons and was arrested and sentenced to two months' imprisonment, but served only one month. She was one of the first suffragettes to go to jail for her beliefs.
Break with the WSPU, involvement in the WFL and political career
How-Martyn was very critical of the dictatorial leadership style of Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst within the WSPU. At a meeting in October 1907, she tried together with Teresa Billington-Greig , Charlotte Despard and 70 other women to push through democratic reforms in the women's rights organization. When these efforts failed, however, the three women named left the WSPU and formed the Women's Freedom League (WFL). The approach of this new group was still militant and pursued aims similar to the WSPU, but in contrast to the WSPU avoided violence.
From 1907 to 1911 How-Martyn was honorary secretary of the WFL, then until April 1912 chairwoman of the association's department for politics and militant actions. In her leadership role, she called on members not to pay taxes and to evade the 1911 census . However, the approach of upholding democracy in the organization meant that effective work was often delayed by long debates, which is why How-Martyn became increasingly dissatisfied with the WFL. After the Conciliation Bills , which were supposed to establish the right to vote for women in the United Kingdom, failed in parliament in early 1912, she resigned from office disappointed. The official reason she gave was health problems.
After the introduction of women's suffrage, women were allowed to stand for the first time in the general election in 1918 . How-Martyn, like 16 other women, exercised her right to stand as a candidate and ran as an independent candidate in the Hendon constituency , but missed her entry into the House of Commons. (She reached 2067, ten percent of the votes cast.) She was more successful in 1919 when she became the first woman to become a member of Middlesex County Council , of which she was a member until 1923.
After women were completely on an equal footing with men in the right to vote from 1928 onwards, so the suffragettes had achieved their goal, How-Martyn founded the Suffragette Fellowship with Lilian Lenton , which documented the history of the women's rights movement. Until her death in 1954, she held the presidency of this association. After her death, the association was the main heir to her property.
Fight for birth control
In Great Britain
How-Martyn had already joined the Malthusian League in 1910 , an organization that emerged as an advocate of contraception in Great Britain in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Her conviction that education about the possibilities of family planning is of particular importance for women from the working class was reinforced in particular when she met Margaret Sanger, the American pioneer in the field of birth planning , in 1915 .
Over time, she found the beliefs of the Malthusian League increasingly inadequate to cater to the individual needs of women, which is why she joined the Marie Stopes movement. In 1921 they jointly founded the first British birth control clinic, and two years later How-Martyn organized a tour of the United Kingdom, during which they distributed educational literature on contraception in hospitals.
In 1928 she founded the Birth Control Information Center in London and toyed with the idea of running again for this organization in the parliamentary elections in 1929 , which she rejected again. In 1930 she re-established her birth control center with Sanger, this time under the name Birth Control International Information Center (BCIIC). In the same year her book The Birth Control Movement was published in England .
The BCIIC merged with the National Birth Control Association of England in 1938 , which later became the Family Planning Association .
Worldwide
Through contact with Sanger, How-Martyn became increasingly active internationally from the mid-twenties. In 1927 she led the World Population Conference in Geneva with Sanger .
In 1934 she traveled to India and attended the All-India Women's Conference (AIWC) in Karachi . The following year she again took part in the AIWC and then traveled through India with Sanger to advance the common cause. Thanks to their commitment, the AIWC actually drafted a first resolution on contraception. How-Martyn hoped for a strong ally in Mahatma Gandhi's independence movement , but Gandhi, contrary to her views, saw only abstinence as a permissible form of contraception.
In the second half of the 1930s How-Martyn traveled to numerous countries to publicize the possibilities of birth control. She has been to Burma , Malaya , China , the Philippines , Japan , Hawaii , Canada and the USA, as well as to Jamaica , where she worked with the women's movement.
With the outbreak of World War II, How-Martyn moved to Australia in 1939 . As her health deteriorated there, she could no longer leave the country and died in February 1954, a few months before her husband, with whom she had been married since 1899.
Fonts
- The Birth Control Movement in England. with Mary Breed, J. Bale & Co., London 1930.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g Cheryl Law: Women, A Modern Political Dictionary. IB Tauris, London 2001, p. 85 ( online )
- ↑ a b c Biography at aim25.ac.uk , accessed on March 7, 2015
- ↑ a b c d e f g Elisabeth Crawford: The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928. Routledge, London 2003, p. 388 ( online )
- ↑ Beginning of biography on highbeam.com ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Accessed March 7, 2015
- ↑ a b Biography on spartacus-educational.com , accessed on March 7, 2015
- ↑ Biography on ourhistory-hayes.blogspot.com accessed on March 7, 2015
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | How-Martyn, Edith |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | How, Edith (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British politician, suffragette and one of the earliest advocates of birth control |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 4th August 1875 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Cheltenham or London |
| DATE OF DEATH | 4th February 1954 |
| Place of death | Sydney , Australia |