ABSTRACT
Adela Pankhurst believed militarism was the opposite of feminism. Addressing Pankhurst’s second speaking tour in Queensland fresh from her visit to New Zealand and NSW, the transnational, national, and interstate importance of the Women’s Peace Army can be partly told through her story. Mapping Pankhurst’s work offers insight into the complicated politics of the World War 1 in regional Queensland, where when she attempted to address the crowd on the disastrous effects of war, the farm boys booed her off the stage calling her a suffragette and house burner. The very reason she was in Australia was because she opposed the Women’s Social and Political Union militant suffragette direct action tactics of her mother Emmeline’s and her sister Christabel’s support for militaristic prime minister Hughes. New work on Pankhurst challenges earlier readings of her work and importance and highlights different styles of effective political leadership and activism.
The mobilisation of women in voluntary work as VADs through the British Red Cross, and in support of the military through the National Council of Women, is summarised, shaped by analysis of the interaction between the women and understandings of social movement and counter movement.
