Editing British Union of Fascists (section)

==Relationship with the suffragettes==
Attracted by "modern" fascist policies, such as ending the widespread practice of sacking women from their jobs on marriage, many women joined the Blackshirts – particularly in economically depressed Lancashire. Eventually women constituted one-quarter of the BUF's membership.<ref>Nigel Jones, ''Mosley'', Haus Publishing (2004) {{ISBN|9781904341093}}, p. 86: "Eventually women, under the titular leadership of ‘Ma Mosley’ – Lady Maud, ably seconded by an ex-suffragette, Mary Richardson – constituted one-quarter of the BUF's membership, and Mosley himself later acknowledged the part they played: "My movement has been largely built up by the fanaticism of women: they hold ideas with tremendous passion. Without the women I could not have got one-quarter of the way."</ref>

In a January 2010 BBC documentary, ''Mother Was A Blackshirt'', James Maw reported that in 1914 [[Norah Elam]] was placed in a [[Holloway Prison]] cell with [[Emmeline Pankhurst]] for her involvement with the [[suffragette]] movement, and, in 1940, she was returned to the same prison with [[Diana Mosley]], this time for her involvement with the fascist movement. Another leading suffragette, [[Mary Richardson]], became head of the women's section of the BUF.

[[Mary Sophia Allen]] OBE was a former branch leader of the West of England Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). At the outbreak of the First World War, she joined the [[Women Police Volunteers]], becoming the WPV Commandant in 1920. She met Mosley at the January Club in April 1932, going on to speak at the club following her visit to Germany, "to learn the truth about of the position of German womanhood".<ref>{{Cite book|title=Lady Blackshirts. The Perils of Perception - suffragettes who became fascists|last=Caldicott|first=Rosemary|publisher=Bristol Radical Pamphleteer #39|year=2017|isbn=978-1911522393}}</ref>

The BBC report described how Elam's fascist philosophy grew from her suffragette experiences, how the British fascist movement became largely driven by women, how they targeted young women from an early age, how the first British fascist movement was founded by a woman, and how the leading lights of the suffragettes had, with [[Oswald Mosley]], founded the BUF.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00pk7zp/Mother_Was_A_Blackshirt/?from=r&id=35227e69-fcbf-45d7-8295-2c78e9703b74.0 |title=BBC Radio 4 - Mother Was A Blackshirt |publisher=BBC|website=Bbc.co.uk |date=4 January 2010 |access-date=21 April 2013}}</ref>

Mosley's electoral strategy had been to prepare for the election after 1935, and in 1936 he announced a list of BUF candidates for that election, with Elam nominated to stand for Northampton. Mosley accompanied Elam to Northampton to introduce her to her electorate at a meeting in the Town Hall. At that meeting Mosley announced that "he was glad indeed to have the opportunity of introducing the first candidate, and ... [thereby] killed for all time the suggestion that National Socialism proposed putting British women back into the home; this is simply not true. Mrs Elam [he went on] had fought in the past for women's suffrage ... and was a great example of the emancipation of women in Britain."<ref name="McPherson & McPherson">{{cite book| last =McPherson| first =Angela| author2 =McPherson, Susan| title =Mosley's Old Suffragette - A Biography of Norah Elam| year =2011| publisher =Lulu.com| url =http://www.oldsuffragette.co.uk| isbn =978-1-4466-9967-6| url-status=dead| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20120113154415/http://www.oldsuffragette.co.uk/| archive-date =13 January 2012| df =dmy-all}}</ref>

Former suffragettes were drawn to the BUF for a variety of reasons. Many felt the movement's energy reminded them of the suffragettes, while others felt the BUF's economic policies would offer them true equality – unlike its continental counterparts, the movement insisted it would not require women to return to domesticity and that the [[corporatist]] state would ensure adequate representation for housewives, while it would also guarantee equal wages for women and remove the marriage bar that restricted the employment of married women. The BUF also offered support for new mothers (due to concerns of falling birth rates), while also offering effective birth control, as Mosley believed it was not in the national interest to have a populace ignorant of modern scientific knowledge. While these policies were motivated more out of making the best use of women's skills in state interest than any kind of [[feminism]], it was still a draw for many suffragettes.<ref>Martin Pugh, [https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/04/why-the-british-union-fascist-movement-appealed-to-so-many-women.html "Why the Former Suffragettes Flocked to British Fascism"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190324184731/https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/04/why-the-british-union-fascist-movement-appealed-to-so-many-women.html |date=24 March 2019 }}, ''Slate'', 14 April 2017. Retrieved 24 March 2019.</ref>