Comments on: Revolting Women: Dora Thewlis, Teenage Working Class Suffragette

By: Kate Buchanan

Kate Buchanan — Fri, 17 Apr 2020 13:02:52 +0000

Dear Chris
I am Town Mayor (aka Chairperson) of Meltham Town Council and a trustee of Meltham’s Carlile Institute and am working with my colleagues and interested people in Meltham to create ways to celebrate and acknowledge Dora Thewlis’s contribution to the suffrage movement. We are looking at commissioning a piece of public art – possibly a sculpture from an artist who lives in Meltham, also a play (to be performed at the Carlile Institute in Meltham which, incidentally, was built in 1890, the year of Dora’s birth) and thirdly an information board. I am in the process of reading everything I can lay my hands on about Dora and her family so I was only too delighted to read your comment that she remained a political activist right through her life. If there’s anything you can contribute about Dora’s story, we would be delighted to hear from you. Best wishes, Kate.

By: Lynne Green

Lynne Green — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 22:53:18 +0000

In reply to Chris Dow. What an amazing story and what a wonderful strong and principled lady Dora was. I am new to Honley but helping the local historians with Ww1 info and celebrating Honley hero's. To me she should be included in the local history. Please get in touch if her details are not already known and recorded on the Honley Civic Society. Thank you. Lynne

By: Chris Dow

Chris Dow — Sun, 07 Feb 2016 12:20:01 +0000

In reply to k. Dora is my grandmother and I can assure all she remained a political activist to the end. The sacking of the Whitlam Government in 1975 promoted numerous family debates but no one stood stronger with the Labour cause than my octogenarian Grandmother who declared to my father that a vote for the Liberal Party would be a vote against everything your family has ever stood for. Strong to the end!

By: Vincent Turner

Vincent Turner — Tue, 13 May 2014 19:09:18 +0000

In reply to k. Well said! A working class hero against all the odds; female, young, working class, and Northern. Here was a person wanting votes for all women not just ladies.

By: k

Thu, 31 Oct 2013 16:11:27 +0000

I’m a Thewlis, I believe related to Dora. I’m a trade unionist, a FBU Official and am proud to be associated with Dora who stood up to be counted.
More people need to get off their backsides and speak up about issues affecting so many in this country.
As a 16 year old Dora had a sense of purpose, injustice and was compelled to show this. What a lass!
Dora Thewlis, my hero, a true hero.

By: A women’s rights tour of Westminster | Womankind Worldwide

A women’s rights tour of Westminster | Womankind Worldwide — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 17:01:50 +0000

[…] a bill that would see the enfranchisement of women. Seventy-five women were arrested, including Dora Thewlis, a weaver in a Huddersfield mill, aged just 16. Have a listen to this interesting podcast about […]

By: Some blog love « mixosaurus

Some blog love « mixosaurus — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 12:27:48 +0000

[…] it contains not one, not two, but THREE posts about the suffrage movement: the Ju-Jutsuffragettes, Dora Thewlis, Teenage Working Class Suffragette and Joan of Arc, Rosie the Riveter, and the Feminist Protest Icon. They also write about films, […]

By: Meg

Meg — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 17:09:20 +0000

While it may be often argued that the violence delayed success of the suffragist cause I have yet to see any real evidence of such other than wishful thinking that violence is never the answer. At worst it delayed it 6 years, and even that’s highly unlikely since there was little evidence of imminent success when the campaign began. Given that the organized movement for votes for women had begun in Britain a century earlier, that’s at most about a 5% slowdown, and probably closer to a 1% or 2% slowdown, with no guarantee that success would have resulted without it.

The argument I’ve seen for why it may have worked is that the rational for most men to deny women the vote was chauvinistic in nature, rather than misogynistic. They were simply incapable of seeing women as political entities; they were mentally cast in the domestic sphere. Terrorist acts, even if they did not convince men of the righteousness of their cause, did cast them as political actors who had opinions about the public sphere. Had the argument been that women would use the vote badly it might have been less persuasive, but since the argument was that women weren’t the sort of people who cared about that sort of thing breaking the existing stereotype was instrumental in convincing people that women didn’t belong on an apolitical pedestal.