The Ascent Of Woman: A History of the Suffragette Movement

Not the best read. More like a batch of academic data thrown together. Not to my liking although I feel strongly about the topic.

I loved this book, so much so that when I lost it I ordered another straight away. It recounts the gripping history of the suffragette movement in all its glory and repugnance. Melanie Phillips' authorial voice is erudite and authoratative and on occasion opinionated, which gave it an edge. The author manages the complex timeline and interweaving of women's stories adeptly. Definitely worth reading.

Just started reading this enjoying it thank you

This was a very interesting book to read and it is a shame that there aren't more books on this subject. Like the other review I would agree that it does leave you wanting to know more. There are so many questions: some of them are answered but, like other questions in history, some are not. The only qualm I had with this book was the fact that it wasn't long enough in my opinion and I found myself having too look up some of the less well-known people as the author didn't explain who they were. However this just may be my lack of knowledge on the time period and it shouldn't put you off reading the book. So it definitely gets five stars for me considering there aren't many other books like this to compare with.

This is an in depth analysis of feminism in the UK in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Interesting and detailed.

Good

Not an easy read. As one reviewer pointed out the book performs more as a detailed historical text than an entertaining discourse on the evolution of this ongoing contemporary issue. Indeed, the author Melanie Philips may have intended it to be a reference book given the writing style, the epilogue, 31 pages of notes, 7 pages of bibliography and 13 pages of index. Packed with masses of names and dates as women from Mary Wollstonecroft to the suffragettes and the Pankhursts marched to the end of WW1 and the lost generation of men. The book ends at that point when public pressure and sheer necessity obliged parliament to grant women the vote.There is a sense that a sequel would make sense in that women struggled to replace the lost generation and overcome the prejudice still felt in many quarters as England fell towards WW2. An excellent reference book if a little turgid. Essential reding for anyone who wants or needs to understand male dominance and attitudes in just a little over 100 years ago. I would like to have read by way of context if and how women were ascending in other countries at the same time. Nevertheless 5 stars.

This book gives a excellent insight to what the Suffragettes did and went through to give us women the vote. I wish there were organisations like this today to fight for the rights of women where we are not equal to men yet. Double standards with men are still happening and until they are regulated by law women will always be the underdog in society.