View from the Green Room: Suffragette Tales
Eugene Broderick.
The Broderick Talks resumed for the month of February with Dr Eugene Broderick focusing on the contribution of women to the body politic and their effect on the fledgling Irish state.
Eugene began his research in the early years of the Irish Suffragette Movement, which attacked the conventional mood of the Victorian era, where a woman’s role was restricted to child-bearing and child-minding.
Some women came to the realisation that it was only with the parliamentary vote that they could effect real social change.
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These early feminists linked the right to vote to achieving self-determination and true equality.
The parliamentary franchise became the hallmark of full citizenship and the gateway to meaningful political change.
The Dublin Women’s Suffrage Association included Quaker Anna Haslam, who stated that her Quaker upbringing meant she always took women’s equality for granted.
In the non-hierarchical structure of the Society of Friends, women played a prominent role. Anna attended Newtown School from 1840 to 1842. In 1854 she married Thomas Haslam, who was a confirmed feminist and operated as a team in the promotion of women’s rights and in achieving social reform.
Isabella Tod and Anna Haslam determined that winning the parliamentary franchise was the dominant issue for feminists during the first two decades of the twentieth century.
The Broderick Talks continue each Wednesday lunchtime at the Medieval Museum of Waterford Museum of Treasures.
