MacGregor's text:Defaced penny:
Thirty-three years before, Emmeline’s husband had drafted the first Women’s Suffrage Bill for Parliament, which was doing well in the House of Commons until the prime minister, William Gladstone, spoke out against it:
I have no fear lest the woman should encroach upon the power of the man. The
fear I have is, lest we should invite her unwittingly to trespass against the
delicacy, the purity, the refinement, the elevation of her own nature, which are
the present sources of its power.
By invoking the delicacy and refinement of women, Gladstone made a calculated appeal to traditional, repressive ideas of how a lady should behave.
–A History of the World in 100 Objects,
Neil MacGregor
What cultural shift does the penny represent?
Edward VII becoming less respected by society
Prime Minister William Gladstone realizing that his ideas about women were wrong
fewer people concerning themselves with obeying the law
women becoming more concerned with their rights and less concerned with acting “ladylike”