The Death of Emily Davison History Essay

The Death of Emily Davison History Essay Emily Davison was an influential suffragette that dedicated her life to the struggle for female right to vote and contributed greatly to the emancipation of women. This historical person was born in London in 1892. The girl showed her remarkable skills already in school years, which allowed her to receive a scholarship at Royal Holloway College, which was, however, terminated after the father’s death when she could not afford tuition fees. The situation forced Emily to start teaching, which did not last long as well because of her joining the Women’s Social and Political Union.[1] Thus, in 1906, Emily Davison entered the path of the female movement seeking equal voting rights. In her full-time employment for the Union, Emily became an activist and the key British suffragette of her times who initiated a variety of protests and other activities appealing to the unjustified discrimination of women. In that respect, she hid in the House of Commons to listen Parliament sessions, arra nged public demonstrations, three metal balls through government windows and setting up fire on post-boxes. For her campaigns and activities, Emily was charged and sentenced to several-month custody seven times.[2] The tragic death of Emily Davison in 1913 was her major contribution to enforcing recognition of women’s rights and the right to vote, which was granted to women in Britain in 1928.[3] Emily Davison died four days after her collision with the King’s horse Anmer at the Epson Derby held on June 4, 1913. The event was attended by thousands of people, including members of the Royal family. Viewers saw Emily targeting the King’s horse when he was closing the finish line that was in front of the Royal Box. At the final round of the race, Emily occupied her position waiting for Anmer to come with the suffragette’s flag in her hands. The Jockey running Anmer had no way to avoid the collision with Emily. The thundering threw him away from the seat and caused concussion, broken ribs and numerous bruises. In her turn, Emily received multiple internal injuries caused by the horse’s hooves, which led to her death four days later in the local hospital.[4] There is no public and scholarly consensus regarding motives driving Emily behaviour at the 1913 race. Given credit to her commitment to female rights’ movement and active performance as a member of the Union, the idea about her ideological suicide prevailed. In her speeches, Emily had always underlined the deliberate nature of her actions conveyed to alert the horrible treatment of women in the British society and the world at large. Besides, the women had numerously declared her readiness to apply all her powers and efforts to reach her goals. In this vein, the collision of Emily and the King’s horse was recognised as her intentional decision to sacrifice her life for the benefit of women’s struggle for equal voting rights.[5] Her glory of a leading British suffragette underpinned the public opinion concerning her tragic death for ages. Though making a huge step ahead in the emancipation movement, Emily was regarded as A fanatic and mentally ill person who valued lives of oth ers as little as her own. In line with the position, the public media focused on health and well-being of the Royal horse and jockey rather than on Emily’s death when analysing events of June 4. While the official version views the collision as a sacrificial act initiated by Emily, recent reviews of the past evidence suggest the accidental nature of the incident. However, while researchers are free to re-investigate the past event and develop new hypotheses, the death of Emily Davison left a substantial mark in the British history and the global women’s fight for equality. Bibliography HUNTER, N., Rosa Parks and Emily Davison (London: Raintree, 2016). KOSUT, M., Encyclopaedia of Gender in Media (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2012). RAPPAPORT, H., Encyclopaedia of Women Social Reformers, Vol. 1 (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2001). WEBB, S., The Suffragette Bombers: Britain’s Forgotten Terrorists (Barnsley: Pen and Sword, 2014). [1] S. Webb, The Suffragette Bombers: Britain’s Forgotten Terrorists (Barnsley: Pen and Sword, 2014), 74-76. [2] N. Hunter, Rosa Parks and Emily Davison (London: Raintree, 2016), 28. [3] M. Kosut, Encyclopaedia of Gender in Media (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2012), 96. [4] H. Rappaport, Encyclopaedia of Women Social Reformers, Vol. 1 (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2001), 179. [5] Webb, 77-78.