Of course, suffragettes and their issues surfaced in A Poppy in Remembrance.
The story takes place between 1914 to 1918. Suffragettes were active and busy throughout that period.
Our heroine, Claire Meacham, had mixed feelings about them at the start of the war.
But, as she made her way in a male reporting world, her feelings changed.
Attitudes in the upper class family
Claire was a product of her family, which didn’t really approve of women’s rights at the time.
In the novel’s opening pages, she tried to figure out how to explain to her father why she wanted to be a reporter. Driving through Trafalgar Square on August 5, 1914, the day the war began, she glimpsed women exhorting citizens to enlist.
Shortly thereafter, trying to impress him about her skills, she pulled up the “color” information he needed for a story.
“Suffragettes manned tables at the base of Lord Nelson’s column in Trafalgar Square. Transport crowded the streets as men answered their king’s call to enlist in the BEF.”
“By Jove, the young woman’s a reporter,” said a journalist seated not far away.
A Poppy in Remembrance page 19
Several days later, her society-focused cousin Sylvia sneers when Claire voices a desire to work for the newspaper.
Her journalist father, Jock Meacham, allows Claire into the office to help with dictation and shorthand.
But Meacham knows what a good story. needs When he takes off to cover military action at the war’s front, he tells Claire to gather information.
” Keep your eyes and ears open wherever you go. Be careful if you attend a suffragette meeting; we don’t want you to get arrested.”
“Suffragettes? What are you asking me to do?”
“Take notes, of course.” He lowered his voice. “It’s time for you to learn how to spy like your mother. The best leads often come from innocent sources who don’t realize the importance of what they’ve told us.”
A Poppy in Remembrance
What did suffragettes do in WWI?
Prior to WWI, suffragettes aggressively confronted the government about their right to vote.
Women were arrested, staged hunger strikes, and participated in acts of civil disobedience–some violent. One woman attacked a painting at the National Gallery of Art in the name of women’s rights.
But after the war began, many shifted their focus from the right to vote to support for the soldiers.
Bandage Rolling
In A Poppy in Remembrance, Claire follows her father’s orders and visits a meeting to roll bandages.
The hearty suffragettes were determined to help the war effort any way possible.
A dozen women of varying ages rolled the immense pile of muslin in an hour, all the while debating how to get the vote before war’s end. Far more educated than Sylvia’s set, they applauded Claire for holding a job.
Of course, the only reason she could attend the meeting was Conroy’s refusal to allow her in the newsroom, Claire thought bitterly.
Claire avoided personal questions, but the suffragettes fueled her determination to earn a byline as a bona fide reporter, no matter what her parents thought.
Attending meetings such as these and writing up notes afterward was part of her training. She’d win over her father by demonstrating her skills.
A Poppy in Remembrance
Equal to men
My mother believed, as I do, that women deserve equal pay for equal work and they should have an opportunity to use their talents.
Claire reached the same conclusion and explained why to her mother and aunt.
The two women shook their heads over the suffragette meeting. “I doubt the BNS would be interested in their ideas. Have you become a radical?” Anne teased.
“They make sense. Women should use their talents. I’m as competent in the newsroom as Nigel and Jim. Why shouldn’t I work? War causes social upheaval, often for good reason.”
A Poppy in Remembrance
“I wouldn’t let your stenography skills go to your head.”
Frustrated, but determined, Claire eased her way into a secret internship with her father. She paid attention, took notes, worked around the disapproving editor Mr. Controy, and seethed.
Anger surged at both him [her father Jock Meacham] and Mr. Conroy. Maybe the suffragettes had the right attitude about patronizing men.”
A Poppy in Remembrance
Like many suffragettes, she could understand being passed over because of inexperience or lack of skill, but the assumption her sex determined her ability infuriated Claire.
As it would any thinking woman.
So what happened?
With so many men overseas, of necessity, professions opened up for their much-needed hands. Women built munitions, ran streetcars, delivered the mail and some even wrote for the newspapers (though not many).
Two million women went to work.
By war’s end in 1918, Parliament passed the Representation of the People Act. Women over the age of 30 who owned property could vote–only 40% of women in the country, but a start.
In 1928, they reduced the voting age for women to 21.
You’ll have to read A Poppy in Remembrance to learn what happened with Claire’s quest for a byline.
And now you can, for a mere $1.99 ebook–until May 12.
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