Jane Aaron (2) (1951–)

This book is exactly what it says in the title - a collection of writings (in English and Welsh, with translations) by Welsh women starting in the 1830s when women a large number of British women started to become publically politically active to the winning of the vote on equal terms with men in 1928.

It's a fascinating read for a number of reasons. It provides a context for the relationship between the Welsh and the English, which can still be difficult. In 1847 the British Government published a report about the state of education in Wales, a document that was overwhelmingly negative (if not outright racist) about the Welsh, the Welsh language and their nonconformist religious traditions. One of the first article in this book is a strident rebuttal to this report written by Jane Williams. She put forward a detailed analysis of the report highlighting the failings of the evidence it was based on. Her intelligent arguments and obvious idignation at this insult to her country are compelling.

This book also shows that while women were keen to have their voices heard and were becoming ever more confident about being politically active in public, their self-proclaimed reasons for doing this were couched in the accepted thought of the Victorian age. They colluded with the notion of women being the moral guardians of the nation and explained that the motivations for their activism were based in their natural womanly responsibilities. One writer notes 'it is your womanly duty to minister to the sick, therefore it is also your duty to raise your voice on behalf of the important Land Laws, Rural Reforms, and other Liberal measures that will prevent overcrowding, bad sanitation and consequent disease. It is your womanly duty to rescue the tempted and comfort the sorrow stricken...' The implication is that men did not have these duties so it was up to women to take on these issues, the argument that was often used to overcome protest from men (and from other women who believed that the woman's place was in the home). I can see why this method was useful but it I would have loved to see women talking about wanting power to make decisions rather than the flowery discussions of using their influence, based on female feelings, to change male decision-making.

The personal stories that appear later in the book are also very interesting, particularly those of women who participated in the Suffrage Pilgrimage, marching from various parts of Wales to London in 1913 to meet up with women from all over the country.… (meer)