Fashion & Femininity

A new fashion exhibition at a landmark Devon National Trust property will give a timely insight into the links between fashion and suffrage

FOLLOWING the long efforts of the national suffrage movement, the first women were finally given the right to vote in 1918. To mark the centenary of this milestone, Killerton, near Exeter, will be telling their suffrage story through the eyes of two generations of Acland women who were at the heart of the fight, but on opposing sides.

Gertrude and Eleanor Acland might have been from the same family but their political views differed greatly. Both lived on the estate during these years, with Gertrude strongly opposed to women’s suffrage while her niece, Eleanor passionately advocated rights for women.

Gertrude was Chair of Exeter’s antisuffrage league, even holding an anti-suffrage garden party at Killerton in 1910 and urged women to unite to defeat the movement:

“We appeal to all patriotic women to join our league, and to exert themselves to defeat the women’s suffrage movement, for that can only be done by women themselves.” Gertrude Acland, signatory Exeter anti-suffrage league, Exeter Gazette, 11 December, 1908.

All these years on, Eleanor’s letters provide a rich source of detail about the movement but also exposes the tensions within the suffrage movement. They particularly highlight the division between suffragettes who were willing to break the law to achieve their ends and suffragists who campaigned using constitutional means.