“Women who dared to ask for a vote”

In an area of political history as under-represented as women’s fight for their right to vote, the involvement of Scotland’s suffrage campaigners is even less known, researched and discussed. These women contributed greatly to the cause, taking part in just as much militant activism as their London-based peers, but their stories have not received recognition in the same way. Some Scottish suffrage campaigners did seek to have their voices heard by writing first-person memoirs on their struggles, but these have largely gone unpublished and unnoticed. This article discusses the fascinating lives and autobiographies of two Scottish Women’s Social and Political Union members, Elizabeth Thomson and Jessie Stephen, and questions why their fascinating stories have remained hidden away in inaccessible archives for so long.