Freemasonry and Suffrage

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Freemasonry and Suffrage
Ann Pilcher-Dayton Looks at the Influence of Freemasonry on the Right of Woman to Vote

[Excerpt - Article Freemasonry Today, Spring (Northern Hemisphere) 2009 - Linked Above]

Lady Freemasons – once never mentioned in polite masonic society – have recently been celebrated in a highly successful Centenary exhibition at Freemasons’ Hall in London. Along with their heightened profile, new research has shown that early women masons (and some men) once played a striking part in feminist history, in their support of the fight for the vote.

Freemasonry which included both men and women in its lodges - called Co-Masonry – was brought to this country by Annie Besant, the social reformer and feminist, following her initiation in France in 1902 into a new mixed Order called Le Droit Humain (Human Right). That year, the first Co-Masonic and mixed Lodge of Le Droit Humain, Lodge Human Duty No.6, was consecrated in London, with Annie Besant as its Worshipful Master and feminists Ursula Bright and her daughter Esther among the officers.

Some feminists saw the new type of mixed Freemasonry, with its emphasis on universal brotherhood and equality of the sexes, as a force which could be used to change society for the better. The first part of this study will feature some Freemasons who strongly endorsed these ideas and saw the power of the vote as a medium of service to humanity.

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Freemasonry and Suffrage: Part Two

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Ann Pilcher-Dayton Reveals the Part
Women Freemasons Played
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[Excerpt - Article Freemasonry Today, Summer (Northern Hemisphere) 2009 - Linked Above][/center]

The Woman Movement, as it was called then, was not just a question of enfranchising a relatively small group - it came to encompass huge symbolic implications. It became a movement that offered the hope of change, of an improvement in social and economic conditions, of the opportunity of giving service to humanity and, above all, of granting women equality in all senses.

This was particularly the case with the masonic suffragists. The idea of brotherhood, fundamental to Freemasonry, to them meant the brotherhood of all people – men and women together. It is significant that two of the leaders of the suffrage movement, Annie Besant and Charlotte Despard, were Co-Masons in Le Droit Humain and their ideas influenced the thinking of the movement.

A masonic commentator wrote in a suffrage journal in 1911:

‘Surely it was fitting that an Order pledged “to ceaseless endeavour to promote the welfare of humanity” should play a part in aiding women, who view the exercise of the franchise as an opportunity for greater service to their country, to secure political justice for their sex. Brotherhood, the main principle of Freemasonry, must include, if it is to deserve the name, the relation of man and woman and their co-operation in life and work’.