Learn about Annie Kenney, the overlooked suffragette who transformed history

Who was Annie Kenney?

Annie was born on the 13th of September 1879, in Springhead, Oldham. Her loving parents Nelson Kenney and Anne Wood taught Annie and her six other siblings the importance of education, reading and debating. Although she was still in education as a child, by the age of 10 she began working in a cotton mill. By 13, she began working a full-time job to help support her family. Her background as a working-class woman soon became central to her socialist-feminist approach to the suffrage movement.

She remained in the cotton mill for 15 years but was heavily relevant in trade-union actions around Manchester and remained informed by different socialist ideas written within the socialist newspaper ‘The Clarion’. It wasn’t until 1905 when Annie became involved in the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) when she heard Teresa Billington-Greig and Christabel Pankhurst speak at the Clarion Vocal Club. It was this event that blossomed the feminist bud of Kenney; beginning her journey to change the patriarchal notions of our political system.

What was her significance in history?

From 1905, Kenney began to participate in campaigns for the enfranchisement of women. During the Free Trade Hall political meeting of October 1905, Kenney interrupted Winston Churchill declaring: “Will the Liberal government give votes to women?” while displaying a banner that declared “Votes for Women”. From these movements, Kenney was arrested 13 times throughout her advocation. In 1907, she was officially appointed as part of the WSPU and left her work at the cotton mill.

She began to take her campaigns nationally in areas like London, Aberdeen and Bristol while engaging in various forms of protests like hunger strikes. It was these radical movements that held the Liberal government accountable and disrupted everyday life to bring attention to her cause. Her rise to the top as a member of the senior hierarchy gave her the status in the WSPU to arrange meetings with politicians like David Lloyd George about the representation of working-class women. This attention to the poor working conditions and poor payment women received exposed a reality these elite politicians were sheltered to. Without activists like Kenney, the everyday realities of the working class and women would continue to be overlooked. Ironically, even the pay to be an advocate for the WSPU was low (£2 a week), thus showing the continuous class struggle she endured.

How did she shape the narrative as an LGBTQ+ person?

As well as a colleague and friend to Christabel Pankhurst, from supposed contemporary diary entries, they were also lovers. Many claim that Christabel was “an object of desire for several suffragettes” one being for Kenney. There was rumours of short-lived sexual desires between the two that took place during Annie’s visits to Eagle House, Bath. Though at the time, Christabel was involved with Mary Blathwayt. It was Mary who reported that Annie had “someone else” in her bed during these visits. This someone supposedly being Christabel. Though the clandestine relationship was never fully revealed, Annie’s illicit affairs with women before marrying her husband, James Taylor, opens up the heteronormative values oppressed onto women.

It’s significant to understand Kenney’s story as a sacrifice – her time, energy and life to the suffrage movement shaped British democracy to the present. Yet she still fell victim to the patriarchal values of matrimony and heteronormativity she fought so hard to reject.

The fight doesn’t end here: the importance of social action

This is why social action doesn’t just belong in the 1910s. It is a movement that needs to surround our everyday lives to help make the world a better place. February is LGBTQ+ awareness month. It is important to remember LGBTQ+ figures like Annie Kenney to understand and advocate for the rights and freedoms within this community they couldn’t necessarily embrace. We need to use the past and the figures who shaped it to understand and shape our future. Social action is for everyone. It can appear in various forms such as protests, rallies, boycotts, art, music, literature, theatre, campaigning and more. Around the UK, there are various opportunities available that allows you to advocate and get involved in the causes that you are passionate about. The following resources are a few of them, get in touch with these companies and start your campaign journey today. You never know, you could pave the path of history just like Annie Kenney did.