Women and Politics in Smethwick, 1918-1929

This article examines the experiences of two women who stood in general elections in Smethwick in the aftermath of women’s enfranchisement. The first, and far better known, was Christabel Pankhurst, who stood as the Women’s Party candidate there in 1918. A little over a decade later, in 1929, the relative unknown Maude Marshall stood as the Liberals’ candidate. Both ran very different campaigns: Pankhurst as a celebrity candidate, who made overtly feminist appeals to voters, and Marshall as a candidate enmeshed within the party machine, but both were defeated. This article argues that their experiences as candidates, though distinct, were broadly indicative of wider contemporary trends in British politics. Furthermore, the article considers the role played by local women in both campaigns, examining the ways in which local women responded to, and were involved with, general elections in the years following enfranchisement.