Hi Dr. Turner, and Happy International Women's Day!

I often hear that the women's suffrage movement in the UK forced men into war in WW1 en masse. Was there mass support for the White Feather Movement (both among the suffragettes and among the general public), or was it more fringe? How many women dissented or protested against WW1, and whether there was also a widespread anti war sentiment among certain groups of suffrage activists.

Additionally, in the US at least, there was tension between suffragettes of color and their white colleagues, in particular about slavery and later about civil rights. I know that slavery was outlawed in Britain by this point, but were there similar tensions between white suffragettes and those of color in regards to civil rights or colonialism or the Empire?

The timing couldn't be more perfect. I'm in the middle of Andrea Mansker's Sex, Honor and Citizenship in Early Third Republic France (very good, highly recommend, but that is neither here nor there) and something mentioned in passing is how many French feminists contrasted their own movement in the early 20th century with that across the Channel, the British women's suffrage movement being seen as apparently violent and undignified in comparison (the focus of the chapter however is on women challenging men to duel, so obviously not all felt this way!). But at least so far this hasn't been explored too much, so I was hoping you might have a little more insight into the levels of international cooperation by the British suffragettes in that period, and how their fight was viewed by similar movements elsewhere, not just France but also somewhere like the US.

Thank you!

Did she actually call soldiers of the Italian campaign D-Day Dodgers? And if she didn't, do we know how it came to be attributed to her ?

Hi Dr Turner & Melanie! Thank you so much for joining us for this AMA today, I'm really delighted to have you here with us.

Many people will have heard Nancy Astor's name in snippet quotes from her fiery exchanges with Winston Churchill. And they were fiery! As the first women sitting in Commons, what kind of image did Astor cultivate for herself? Was she a firebrand and wit, like one might assume from those examples of banter, or were these remarkable exchanges a rarity for her career?

Did the english people had any issues with the first woman to sit in the House of Commons being an American?

Thanks for offering your time for this!

A couple of questions:

Why were the Conservatives the first to have a woman representing them in Parliament? As I understand it, it wasn't a fluke, with quite a few of the first women MPs being conservatives.

The first woman to be elected as an MP - Constance Markievicz, I believe - tends to get a bit overshadowed by Astor and other early women MPs who actually took their seats. All I know about her is her party affiliation, can you tell us a bit more about her?

Hello Dr Turner and Melanie, thank you so much for this AMA!

I would be interested in how (if at all) the British suffragette movement was drawing inspiration from/coordinating with corresponding movements in other countries. Without knowing too much about it, I would imagine that the ties to the US were especially strong in that regard. But what about former British colonies like New Zealand and Australia, where women had the right to vote since 1893 and 1902, respectively? And to go beyond the Anglosphere - how closely did British women’s rights activists monitor the developments in European countries, especially in Germany where (if I am understanding the writings of Hedwig Richter correctly in this regard) a strong women’s rights movement took a different, more "legalistic" approach towards achieving their goals?

Thank you again for your AMA, I am looking forward to your sharing your knowledge with us!

Could you talk a little bit about the Astor100 Project? Without getting too 'modern politics' given the rules here, what do you see as the lessons for today that we can learn from her legacy?

Additionally, just poking around the Astor100 site, what can you tell us about the women mentioned from the 1918 general election? Especially Markievicz who sounds quite interesting, but the rest too. Was this part of a coordinated campaign to stand for election, mostly independent actors...?

Thank you for doing such a fascinating AMA! Its pretty impressive that Nancy Astor sat in the House of Commons for so long, from 1919-945. Through the war years and everything. Did she face controversy or push back the longer she had her seat, or did things eventually settle for her?