Edith Clara Summerskill,Baroness Summerskill,CH,PC (19 April 1901 –4 February 1980) was a British physician,feminist,Labour politician and writer. She was appointed to the Privy Council in 1949.
Summerskill was included in Clement Attlee's Labour government following the election victory in 1945. She served as a Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Food,and was later promoted to the Ministry of Social and National Insurance,heading the department she was profiled as the Minister of National Insurance,however she was not a cabinet minister.
Summerskill appears in a specially selected list of Fabian Society members from 1942 to 1947,showing continuity and prestige. An active feminist,she was instrumental in promoting women's causes throughout that period,starting with the Clean Milk Act in 1949. She was an early advocate for equal pay and supported the Equal Pay Campaign Committee in their cross-party efforts. In 1954 she joined Patricia Ford,Irene Ward and Barbara Castle to submit the 'Equal Pay in the public services' petition,with over 80,000 signatures,to Parliament. The four politicians arrived together in a horse drawn carriage decorated in suffragette colours.[7]
Later,as the president of the Married Women's Association,she campaigned in and outside the parliament to assure the equal rights of housewives and of divorced women,which resulted in the Married Women's Properties Act in 1964 and the Matrimonial Homes Act in 1967.
Letters to My Daughter
During the 1950s,Summerskill wrote a series of letters to her daughter Shirley,who,like her mother,was an active feminist. Shirley studied medicine in Oxford at that time and later became a doctor and a Member of Parliament and of Cabinet. Edith Summerskill's letters to Shirley were collected and published in a book Letters to My Daughter (1957). Summerskill outlines her belief that women are superior to men in almost every way. In support of such a theory Summerskill presents three "facts":firstly,that only women can enjoy two worlds of creative enterprise,the biological and the intellectual. Secondly,she suggests women are physically stronger,live longer,and are constitutionally tougher,having greater stamina. Finally,she believes women have equal if not greater intellect than men.[8]
Although Summerskill's book contains only Edith's letters to her daughter,the mother's response to questions raised by the daughter creates a sense of an ongoing dialogue between the two,concerning issues of education for women,equality and achievements. In reply to Shirley's question about the part that married women are playing in the affairs of the country,her mother writes:
The insistent demand of women for recognition in spheres of work outside the home,which has quietly but unremittingly been advanced in the course of the last hundred years,has grudgingly been conceded. As a doctor and a Member of Parliament I am fully conscious of the fact that the doors both of the medical schools and of the House of Commons had to be forced by furious and frustrated women before their claims were recognized. It would be quite inaccurate to suggest that we were welcomed into the universities or into public life. (143)
Summerskill constantly struggles for and raises consciousness about women's equal rights. In response to Shirley's complaint about "the stock question" of the anti-feminists,"Why have not more women achieved eminence in the arts and sciences?" She answers:"Personally I am astounded that so many have distinguished themselves despite the conditions which society has imposed upon them" (181). Summerskill maintains that in spite of the difficulties and prejudices,women are making progress and have achievements in music,visual art,and literature as well as some advancement in science and technology (181). Yet Summerskill's conclusion in 1956 is similar to the one Virginia Woolf reached twenty-five years earlier.[improper synthesis?] Woolf writes that even when all the outward obstacles are overcome,she,or any other a woman,has not solved the problem of "my own experiences as a body" (1942:206);Summerskill makes the parallel concession that for a woman,the "most powerful force,which takes her off the course" is the "biological urge to have a family" (187).
Personal life
Summerskill was married in 1925 to Dr Jeffrey Samuel. Their children took their mother's surname. Her daughter,Shirley Summerskill,also served as a physician,member of parliament and government minister. Her grandson Ben Summerskill became chief executive of the British gay equality charity Stonewall in 2003.
Publications
Babies without Tears (1941)
Wanted—babies:A trenchant examination of a grave national problem (1943)
Letters to my Daughter (1957)
The Ignoble Art (1957)
A Woman's World:Memoirs (1967)
References
↑ Smith, Virginia (2009). "Dr Edith Summerskill (1901-80)". The story of healthcare in Hackney. The Hackney Society. Retrieved 27 October 2023.
↑ ukvote100 (9 November 2017). "Women Demand Equal Pay!". UK Vote 100: Looking forward to the centenary of Equal Franchise in 2028 in the UK Parliament. Retrieved 17 January 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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