Leonora Cohen - Motivation To Be A Suffragist

Motivation To Be A Suffragist

Cohen’s life was full of events and people that motivated her to fight for women’s right to vote. Firstly, her mother Jane was a big influential factor in Cohen’s life. Because her mother was a widowed seamstress who raised three children alone, it was obvious to Cohen that her mother had few rights as a woman living in Britain in the late nineteenth century. Later in life at an interview, Cohen stated that, “Life was hard. My mother would say 'Leonora, if only we women had a say in things', but we hadn't. A drunken lout of a man...had a vote simply because he was a male. I vowed I'd try to change things." Cohen recognized at a young age that her mother had to overcome huge obstacles in her life simply because she was a woman. It was “her mother’s lack of empowerment that radicalized her.”

Other motivating factors included her job and her husband. At the time of Cohen’s first job as a milliner, there was a strong movement by the Leeds campaign for better working conditions for women. This had an impact on Cohen and her view of the treatment of women in the working world. Also, Cohen’s husband Henry, was very supportive of her passion to fight for women’s rights. Cohen’s family and job experience all contributed to her desire to step up and take action as a suffragist.