The making of a suffragette: Stella Benson and I Pose (1915)

Abstract

Drawing extensively on Benson’s unpublished diaries and correspondence, this essay irst considers her engagement with the campaign for votes for women, in particular, her work with the Women Writers’ Suffrage League, and the influence of her aunt, the novelist Mary Cholmondeley, in that engagement. Placing Benson’s first novel within the context of other suffragette literature of the period, the essay then focuses on the portrayal of the suffragette movement in I Pose, a novel in which the protagonist rehearses arguments about equality and women’s suffrage