The civil war brought about many issues, with the men folk away fighting, women were left and therefore forced suddenly into public life weather they liked it or not. They had to run the family businesses and still support their families during the time of their husband unavailability.
The rise of mass political activity of a new kind, accompanied by demonstrations in the street and petitions, and a high level of popular political consciousness, including for the first time petitioning and demonstrating by women and apprentices.
Women presented petitions to Parliament during the period 1641 to 1653.
The women petitioners of the English Civil war were the first organized groups of women to take direct political action in England.
Women who were on either side, from royalist to parliamentarian presented petitions to government it was not just one or the other; both parties implicated petitions.
Some Historians feel that these women were true pioneers in the realisation that they were the first women to establish campaigns of political action.
The women petitioning Parliament in 1642 and 1643 were taking action as women and speaking for women, and thus for the time their political role was sex- differentiated and an assertion of gender
In January 1642 some 400 women presented a petition to the House of Lords on the subject of the decay of trade and their general distress.
The political turmoil of the Seventeenth-Century led women to controversy views on politics, as women they had no political identity in their own rights only through their husbands or fathers.
There was an exception to this rule, which was for widows who were entitled to a proportion of their husband’s estate. During this time a small number of widowed women had petitioned Parliament in matters that related to their estates, a major problem here was that vast majority of women, had little or no access to the law.
In 1654, Margaret Somerset the Countess of Worcester, Anne Henshaw and Katherine Stone all dependants of royalist whose estates had been confiscated by parliament. Petitioned to claim their rights to one fifth of the property.
Other parliamentary petitioners comprise of Susannah Bastwick and Mary Blaithwait Susannah Bastwick had petitioned the Commons on a numerous times manly for her husband and the actions that had been taken by the royalist she wanted them over turned.
There is also material for a study of the realities of women’s legal rights in the personal petitions published by women in the mid seventeenth century concerning non-payments of legacies from the estates of their deceased relatives.
Given the strict restriction on women’s presence in public, it seems astounding that groups of women were able to forge and enhance political ideas during this era. All women petitioners had to weaken the appropriate customs of virtuous female actions by making themselves observable, evident and perceptible in and around Parliament, which at this time was the most public of spheres.
The women’s petitions of the Seventeenth Century broke down in to three categories. The first being Miscellaneous petitions, most of these, petitioned for the Parliament to act to relieve the hardship, this may have been caused by the deterioration in trade due to consequence of the continued civil unrest.
On October 1645, 2,000 maimed and wounded soldiers and widows presented a petition to the House of Commons protesting their hardship.
The second category being Peace Petitions, some of these women wore white ribbons this was a symbol of their cause. The wearing of white ribbons was the distinguishing mark of peace petitioners, just as wearing of sea-green ribbons became that of the Levellers.
In August 1643, when groups of two to three thousand women converged on Parliament to petition for peace, the supporters of the war branded the women as the inferior sort’, ‘whores’ ‘the scum of the suburbs’ and an ‘abundance of Irish women. This reflected the claim that including women in politics would impair the principles of all that it concerned.
Their protest ended in a violent siege, were some women were killed or seriously injured. Ironically enough, this was the peace-seeking mob, women killed by soldiers in this tumult, yet unappeased
The third category were the Leveller petitions, their most intense period of protest being in April and May 1649.
Leveller petitions clamed equality, a petition of April 1649 argued that women had an equal share and interest with men in the commonwealth, in May 1649 another petition justified the rights of women by asserting that women were created in the image of God.
Some historians state that the Levellers were unpopular with both the Royalist and the Parliamentarians this was because they were seen as radicals.
Most of the Leveller women’s petitions included well-acquired arguments for women’s political rights in contrast to political action for which the peace petitioners had given it.
Leveller women were not aristocratic women, nor were they mainly drawn from the very poorest in society, but they were principally artisans, with some form of property or skilled trade.
News books gave daily accounts of the events in and around Parliament
It would seem that petitions by women were considered very newsworthy as nearly all papers around at the time analysised especially during the turmoil of the peace and the leveller’s petitions.
These news books just underlined existing mannerisms to women in public, thus acted as a possible deterrent to other women who may have been tempted in to taking on political thought and action.
The first incidents, which gave, rise to a large number of reports about women’s political actions were the Peace petitions of August 1642.
According to Eales there is evidence of women taking part in local Parliamentary elections, Dame Elizabeth Copley daughter-in-law Catharine had the right to the nomination, it apparently was a legal part of her widows jointure, the Privy Council overturned it in 1572. It was not the sex but the lordship of the borough that mattered
Some wives and mothers helped to organize campaigns for their husbands and fathers in order for them to get elected. Some elite women even after the Restoration still continued to influence the political process. It was at this time we saw the development of political groups this came in the form of the Whig and the Tory parties.
There were other aspects of women getting involved in political issues, some women acted as spies for both or either sides. Some worked as fundraisers and set up committees that met two to three times weekly.
The most common forms of political action for women were specking in public and participating in riots, demonstrations and processions.
Women were combining in an attempt to alter government policy, justifying their actions with the assertion that since they were affected by affairs of state, they should be allowed to express their opinions.
Women like Margaret Cavendish, wrote about women’s issues, one being how they were perceived in politics she stressed that women on the whole were excluded from politics she wrote we are no subjects of the state. She felt very strongly about this issue, therefore feeling that women did not count unless through their husbands she goes on to say the truth is, we are no subjects, unless it be to our husband, and not always to them, for sometimes we usurp their authority, or else by flattery we get their good wills to govern.
This era could be seen as the first step to women’s rights, Women’s right to vote, women’s rights to be MPs in Parliament and women’s right to speck out in public. The seventeenth Century women’s role was very minimal in all that they did and were allowed to do. If it were not for women in this era that fought for what they believed in would we have had women like Emily Pankhurst who took the fight to the next level in helping to get women the vote, more political rights and the first lady MP. Then in 1997 there were 119 women elected to Parliament.
In conclusion it can be seen that women’s political activities were not the same as men’s, as they were seen in a different light. On both sides powerful individuals were concerned to secure the success of their own family or patronage networks and this is an area in which the participation of women still awaits further serious detailed and systematic research.
Clearly though some women did have a say in politics at this period manly by using their husband’s or father’s influence and position in all affairs of state this view is supported by Laurence who states that some women did influence their male relations and used their position to involve themselves in political affairs.
Men’s views at this time were that Women were expected to remain in the home, represent and protected by their husbands or father. When out in public women was considered prey to corrupting influences, which she was too illogical and emotional to resist.
However this situation was backed up by firm code of behaviour for which all women were judged as honourable and righteous as they were said to be both silent and obedient to their husbands.
Even though this may suggest that perhaps women should remain at home and have no public life, this was clearly not the case. As it as been reported in the years which heralded the Civil War women had become all the more visible in all public life. Even women who had married often worked a long side their husbands in either their work shops or shops.
Women certainly felt able to express political opinions. As some saw it, it was their right to be equal.
Women getting involved how they did at this time only seemed to happen during the Civil War as they had more opportunity to assert their views than before or even after the War.
Bibliography
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Collier, T (1997) Women at the edge of Politics York
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Eales, J (1998) Women in early modern England 1500- 1700 England
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Fraser, A (2002) The weaker vessel A Phoenix press
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Keeble, N (1994) The Cultural Identity of Seventeenth- Century women Routledge
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Manning, B (1973) Politics, Religion and the English Civil War Edward Arnold
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