Learning Thursdays:

'How can we really win radical change? Learning from organizers of the Women’s Suffrage movement.'

In conversation with Professor Krista Cowman, author of ‘Women of the Right Spirit: Paid Organizers of the Women’s Social and Political Union 1904 - 18’

Thursday 9th September 16:00-17:15

Register for this special Learning Thursdays online event, where guest speaker Professor Krista Cowman will be joining us to discuss lessons on Community Organising from her book: Women of the Right Spirit: Paid Organisers of the Women's Social and Political Union 1904-18.

This free, online session provides a fantastic opportunity to delve into the world of early 20th Century grassroots Organising. Join us as we explore the lives, personalities and processes of everyday women who used militant Community Organising tactics to make change as radical in its ambition and methods as in its impact.

The event will be interactive - attendees will have the chance to ask questions and hear from Krista about her work, and the lessons we can take from the Organisers of the past to our organising of the present. When you sign up using the form opposite - remember to add your question(s) for her!

This session is open to anyone interested in learning more about the theory, methodology and strategies behind Community Organising, and will be especially useful for those who have attended previous Citizens UK Community Leadership Training.

We ask you to come prepared for this session with reflections, ideally having read some or all of Krista's book. You can also watch the 2014 film Suffragette, for which she worked as a Historical Advisor. You may be able to watch the film using one of the following:

• Prime Video
• Google Play Movies
• Apple iTunes
• You may also be able to find it on Netflix, Redbox or Vudu.

About Women of the Right Spirit:

This book is the first investigation on how official organizers built and sustained the national militant campaign of the Women's Social and Political Union between 1903 and 1918. Whilst the overall policy of the Union was devised by an ever-decreasing circle of women, centred around the mother-daughter team of Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst, much of its actual activity, including its more extreme militant actions such as arson, was devised and implemented by these organizers who worked in the provinces and in London. Women of the right spirit reveals organizers to be a diverse bunch of women, whose class backgrounds ranged from the aristocratic to the extremely impoverished. It describes the ways in which they were recruited and deployed, and the work they undertook throughout Britain. The exhausting pace of their itinerant life is revealed as well as the occasions when organizers fell out with their employers or their own branches. Taking the story of the WSPU's workers up to the end of the First World War, it considers what directions they took when votes for women became a reality. The book will appeal to academics, postgraduates and undergraduates with an interest in women's history, as well as a more general readership wishing to understand the extent of support for the votes for women campaign and the mechanisms through which it organized.

• You may be able to find a copy on Hive, along with other works.
• Several versions are available on Biblio. We recommend this paperback version from the Saint Bookstore.
• You may be able to purchase a copy from World of Books here.
• It is available from WHSmith here.
• A copy may be available from Blackwell's here.
• A copy is available from Book Depository here.
• You can purchase a copy from Manchester University Press here.
• We do ask that you try to obtain a copy from a smaller or independent retailer. If you are unable to find a copy, you can purchase one from Amazon here.

About Professor Krista Cowman

Professor Krista Cowman is the Director of Research, College of Arts and Professor of History at the University of Lincoln. Cowman published the findings of her British Academy small research grant in her book, ‘Women of The Right Spirit! Paid Organisers in the Women’s Social and Political Union, 1904 – 18’. The research has underpinned a number of wider projects, most notably her work as Historical Advisor to the 2014 feature film Suffragette (dir. Sarah Gavron) which focuses on the grass roots experience of suffragettes in a fictitious London branch. She also worked with Pilot Theatre on a large community suffrage play Everything is Possible (Bridget Foreman) shown at York Theatre Royal in August 2017.

Register by filling in your details and you will receive the Zoom link for the session. Please remember to tell us which Citizens chapter you are a member of, or your institution is thinking of joining.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Learning Thursdays Team