Edith initially became a member of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies. Then in 1907 despite complaining of frail health and not feeling able to be a militant suffragette she joined the WSPU (Women’s Social and Political Union which had only female members). In 1912 she helped form the Jewish League for Women’s Suffrage (JWLS) which had male and female members. The JLWS was interested in seeking both political and religious rights for women. More radical parts of the organisation were known as “Blackguards in Bonnets” by some in the Jewish community.

After describing suffragette meetings in Worthing that had been disrupted, local historian Frances Stenlake writes:

“The speaker at the last of this series of meetings had more luck. She was Edith Zangwill, wife of Israel Zangwill, ‘the author famed for his stories of Jewish life’. From a wagon drawn up at the roadside to serve as a platform, she exercised her ‘notable charm of manner’ and had to contend with little interruption.”
From: Frances Stenlake – Women’s Suffrage Campaigners in Worthing 1909-1915

Jewish suffrage supporters came together on 6th February 1914 with other disillusioned suffragists to create the United Suffragists. The new group was created as a reaction of the militancy of the WSPU who had started an arson campaign and the lack of success of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies. Members of the new group included Edith’s stepmother Hertha Ayrton and her husband Israel Zangwill.

After WWI ended and some women got the vote in 1918, Edith became an active campaigner on International disarmament and pacifism.

(Research by Shalom Sussex)

Books written by Edith Ayrton Zangwill:
1904 - 'Barbarous Babe'
1905 – 'The First Mrs Millivar'
1909 – 'Teresa'
1918 - 'The Rise of a Star'
1924 - 'The Call' tells a story similar to that of her stepmother Hertha’s life. To summarise, it describes a young woman scientist called Ursula who in the beginning sympathises with the Suffragettes but does not approve of their militant and violent tactics and is reluctant to join. 'Voices and Votes: A Literary anthology of the Women’s Suffrage Campaign' by Glenda Norquay (pp. 40-54) contains an extract of 'The Call'. In the beginning Ursula feels that “Woman Suffrage would surely come with the gradual emancipation of women, where was the hurry?” However, she then witnesses a trial in court where a pimp who lives off the meagre earnings of a prostitute abuses a young innocent girl of nine or ten. He is given a lenient sentence of three months in prison by the male judge by comparison with another man given one year for stealing boots. She also draws comparisons with the harsh treatment of women (especially poor) hunger strikers in prison who are given a much harder time of it. It is this that leads her to take the plunge and join the Suffragette movement despite her initial reservations as mentioned above.
1928 - The House deals with Edith’s own nervous breakdown following the death of her husband.
1932 – The Story of Disarmament Declaration

(Research by Shalom Sussex - see http://shalomsussex.co.uk/edith-ayrton-zangwill-feminist-activist-and-author/)