“To wipe away these convictions is to wipe clean any sign of what was done to these women and how disproportionately and violently they were punished for disorderly conduct” – Bidisha, 02/07/18
Ruth Davidson, a Conservative leader from the UK, wants to call for pardons for the women “suffragettes” who were convicted after engaging in “disorderly conduct, setting small fires and breaking some windows” to fight for women’s rights (Bidisha, 2018).
Bidisha argues that by pardoning these women, the UK government will be erasing the abuse those women faced during that time. Their convictions symbolized their struggles and portrayed them as:
“freedom fighters who were made the victims of an aggressive and perversely violent “justice” system in which male police officers, detectives and judges cared less about considering the principles at stake than preserving male power, punishing female unruliness (often with outright violence and revolting, rape-symbolic violations such as force-feeding) and demolishing female solidarity” – Bidisha, 02/07/18
By pardoning those women, Bidisha says it would merely be a “pat on the head, a perverse “forgiveness” by a conformist society that has always punished women who speak out and act out” (Bidisha, 2018).
However, according to Davidson, those women are symbols of the freedom women in the UK now have today. She acknowledges their struggles and agrees that they were treated unfairly. In agreement, Sam Smethers, the chief executive of an organization striving for women’s rights called the Fawcett Society, states:
“Suffragette activism was for a noble cause and many of them became political prisoners. It would be a fitting tribute to pardon them now” (Gourtsoyannis, 2018).
Both positions make reasonable cases, but I personally agree more with Bidisha. I think just the fact that leaders are wanting to pardon those women says a lot about how they feel about the people and society which convicted them.
So, my question is, to pardon or not to pardon?
https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/ruth-davidson-leads-calls-for-suffragette-pardons-1-4683835
Kara Chipiwalt