White Feather Campaign

The White Feather Campaign was a prominent enlistment campaign and shaming ritual in Britain during the First World War, in which women gave white feathers to non-enlisting men, symbolising cowardice and shaming them into signing up. Although the campaign was unpopular among the public, with reports of it causing mental suffering and suicides among men, it was seen as a success by the government, with figures such as Christabel Pankhurst receiving praise, monetary grants, as well as political endorsement. The campaign, noted for the participation of many suffragettes and early feminists in its leadership, such as Baroness Orczy, Christabel Pankhurst and Emmeline Pankhurst, is also interpreted as one of the reasons behind the passing of the Representation of the People Act 1918, which first granted franchise to land-owning women.

Background

At the outset of World War I, Britain relied on voluntary enlistment. However, as the war stretched long, and Britain started running out of working-age men to death or injury, there was a shortage of troops, which prompted the government to start conscripting men in 1916, and later decreasing the age of conscription through the Military Service Act. Britain also started recruiting teenagers, with about 250,000 minors serving with the country in WW1. In August 1914, Admiral Charles Penrose-Fitzgerald founded what became known as the "Order of the White Feather". He enlisted groups of young women to hand out white feathers – a traditional symbol of cowardice – to men in civilian attire in public places. The group that he founded (with prominent members being the authors Emma Orczy and Mary Augusta Ward) was known as the White Feather Brigade or the Order of the White Feather. The Order and their recruiting methods quickly spread across Britain. Women of all backgrounds contributed their influence to the war effort. These so-called "white feather girls" combed streets, trams, theatres and other public spaces, pinning feathers onto unsuspecting young men as a public rebuke for their failure to join the military.This was part of a larger shift towards propaganda drawing heavily on themes of gender, to suggest an innocent vulnerability of mothers, wives and daughters, and to guilt men by implying they would be emasculated if they did not fight. While the propaganda was meant to persuade women to use their influence to secure more recruits, many women seized upon these appeals as license to arbitrate male behavior and to demonstrate their own superior bravery and patriotism. The White Feather Movement was effective in drumming up enlistment – many men reportedly volunteered soon after being handed a feather, unable to bear the stigma. In Britain, it started to cause problems for the government when public servants and men in essential occupations came under pressure to enlist. That prompted Home Secretary Reginald McKenna to issue employees in state industries with lapel badges reading "King and Country" to indicate that they were serving the war effort. Likewise, the Silver War Badge, which was given to service personnel who had been honourably discharged by wounds or sickness, was first issued in September 1916 to prevent veterans from being challenged for not wearing uniform. Anecdotes from the time indicate that the campaign was unpopular among soldiers, not least because soldiers who were home on leave could find themselves presented with feathers.

Role of the suffragettes A significant faction of British suffragettes enthusiastically embraced the war effort and the White Feather Movement, viewing them as an opportunity to demonstrate women's patriotism and claim a stake in national service. Leading the pro-war charge was Emmeline Pankhurst, the famous militant suffragette and leader of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). As soon as war broke out in 1914, Emmeline and her eldest daughter Christabel Pankhurst dramatically pivoted their organisation's focus from fighting for the vote to fighting for the country. She also famously toured the country making recruiting speeches, her supporters handing out feathers. The British government, keen to secure the support of these influential militants, released all WSPU suffragettes from prison in August 1914, effectively striking a bargain: the WSPU would suspend its suffrage agitation and devote its energies to recruiting men and mobilising women for war work. Emmeline Pankhurst declared that suffragettes must now "fight for their country as they fought for the vote," telling her followers that the struggle for women's rights would be meaningless if Britain itself were defeated. The movement also received a £2,000 grant from the government to aid in campaigning. At a mass demonstration in 1915 billed as the "Women's Right to Serve" procession, Pankhurst led 30,000 women through London with banners encouraging men to participate in the War. Sylvia Pankhurst later recounted that during Emmeline's recruiting tours, WSPU members "handed out white feathers to every young man they encountered wearing civilian dress" According to Sylvia, WSPU enthusiasts would even appear at public meetings waving placards reading "Intern Them All" – a sign of their ultra-patriotic fervour against allegedly unpatriotic men and enemy aliens. Sylvia later speculated that the WSPU's women and the unofficial white feather distributors were "one in the same." The White feather campaign also caused a rift among the pro-war and pacifist feminist, with the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies famously expelling its pacifist members in 1915. The campaign was also briefly renewed for the Second World War.

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