50 5 Von der Aufklärung bis zum Ersten Weltkrieg Kämpfe um Emanzipation: Frauen | 19. Jahrhundert Private schriftliche Quellen, wie Autobiografien, Tagebuchaufzeichnungen oder Briefe zeigen die subjektive Sichtweise der jeweiligen Autorin oder des Autors auf bestimmte Ereignisse und Personen bzw. ihre oder seine Gefühle. In Autobiografien schildern Personen sie betreffende vergangene Ereignisse aus einem persönlichen Blickwinkel. Die englische Frauenrechtlerin Emmeline Pankhurst (1858–1928) beschreibt in ihrer 1914 erschienenen Autobiografie „My own Story“ ihre Entwicklung von einem behüteten kleinen Mädchen zur radikalen und militanten Kämpferin für das Frauenwahlrecht, die auch bereit war, für ihre Überzeugungen ins Gefängnis zu gehen. Aus Emmeline Pankhursts „My own Story“: [1.] Emmeline wird auf den Unterschied aufmerksam, der zwischen der Erziehung ihrer Brüder und ihrer eigenen gemacht wird: My childhood was protected by love and a comfortable home. Yet, while still a very young child, I began instinctively to feel that there was something lacking1, even in my own home. This vague2 feeling became conviction3 about the time my brothers and I were sent to school. The education of the English boy was considered a much more serious matter than the education of the English boy’s sister. My parents discussed the question of my brothers’ education as a matter of real importance. My education and that of my sister were hardly discussed at all. A girl’s education at that time was all about the art of „making home attractive“ – to male relatives. I couldn’t understand why I had to make the home attractive to my brothers. We got along really well, but it was never suggested to them as a duty that they make home attractive to me. Why not? [2.] Emmeline stellt fest, dass auch in ihrer Familie Männer mehr gelten als Frauen: The answer to these questions came to me when I lay in my bed waiting to fall asleep. It was a custom of my father and mother to make the round of our bedrooms every night before going to bed themselves. When they entered my room that night I was still awake, but for some reason I chose to pretend to sleep. My father bent over me, shielding the candle flame with his big hand and I heard him say, somewhat sadly, „What a pity she wasn’t born a boy.“ My first impulse was to protest that I didn’t want to be a boy, but I lay still and heard my parents’ footsteps pass on toward the next child’s bed. I thought about my father’s remark for many days. It was made quite clear that men considered themselves superior to women, and that women apparently acquiesced4 in that belief. [3.] Emmelines Eltern setzen sich für das Frauenwahlrecht ein, doch die gesetzliche Lage ist schwierig: I found this view of things difficult to reconcile5 with the fact that both my father and my mother were advocates of equal suffrage6. I was very young when the Reform Act of 1866 was passed, but I very well remember the trouble: This Reform Act marked the first popular extension of the ballot7 in England since 1882. Under its terms, householders paying a minimum of ten pounds a year rental8 were given the Parliamentary vote. While it was still under discussion in the House of Commons, John Stuart Mill moved an amendment to the bill to include women householders as well as men. The amendment was defeated9, but in the act the word „man,“ instead of the usual „male person,“ was used. Now, under another act of Parliament it had been decided that the word „man“ always included „woman“ unless otherwise specifically stated10. So when the Reform Bill with the word „man“ in it became law many women believed that the right of suffrage had actually been given to them. Huge discussions started, and the matter was finally tested by many women seeking to have their names placed upon the register as voters. In my city of Manchester 8,924 women claimed their votes and their claim was defended in the law courts by prominent lawyers, including my future husband, Dr. Pankhurst. Of course the woman’s claim was denied in the courts, but the woman-suffrage agitation all over the country grew stronger. [4.] Emmeline kommt über ihre Mutter zur Frauenbewegung und ist sofort überzeugt: I was fourteen years old when I went to my first suffrage meeting. Returning from school one day, I met my mother just setting out for the meeting, and I begged her to let me come with her. She consented. The speeches interested and excited me, especially the speech of Miss Lydia Becker an excellent speaker. She was the secretary of the Manchester committee, and I had learned to admire her as the editor of the Women’s Suffrage Journal, which came to my mother every week. I left the meeting a conscious and confirmed suffragist. I suppose I had always been an unconscious suffragist. (nach: Punkhurst, Emmeline: My Own Story. London 1914, S. 5 ff.; Online auf der Internetseite des „Projektes Gutenberg“: http://www.gutenberg.org/ [26.8.2023]) M1 1 lacking: mangelnd, fehlend 2 vague: unbestimmt, unklar 3 conviction: Überzeugung 4 to acquiesce: einwilligen, sich fügen 5 to reconcile: aussöhnen, schlichten, versöhnen 6 suffrage: Wahlrecht 7 ballot: Wahl 8 rental: Miete 9 to defeat: ablehnen, annullieren 10 to state: erklären, angeben, festlegen Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv
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