Suffragists argued women’s rights would strengthen Britain’s empire

Evidence

In addition to men like Cromer and Amin, various women also participated in the project of imperialist feminism. Missionary women who traveled to Egypt and other parts of the world argued that only Christianity could save the poor downtrodden Muslim woman. British feminists, particularly upperand middle-class white women who were active in the struggle for suffrage, also jumped on this bandwagon. As historian Antoinette Burton shows, suffragists argued that if Britain was to be a truly great civilization and great colonial power, it needed to give women equal rights. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 149

Categorization

• SHARE: The argument that extending the franchise at home would strengthen colonial rule abroad is a sharp irony worth sending to someone studying either suffragism or imperial feminism.
• XREF: connects to: Lord Cromer championed Egyptian women’s rights while opposing British suffrage. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 165; Cromer opposed women’s suffrage in Britain while invoking women’s rights to justify empire — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 157; Imperial feminism weaponizes women’s rights rhetoric to justify colonial rule without improving women’s conditions — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 157 (+13 more)

Broader Connections

• Cromer opposed women’s suffrage in Britain while invoking women’s rights to justify empire #expands (0.92) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 157
• White suffragists used saving Muslim women to justify their own claims to British rights #corroborates (0.90)
• Suffragists leveraged colonial superiority claims to argue for their own rights. #expands (0.88)
• British women joined colonial projects to win equality with Englishmen #exemplifies (0.87) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 162
• Imperial feminism weaponizes women’s rights rhetoric to justify colonial rule without improving women’s conditions #exemplifies (0.85) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 157
• Colonial feminism used saving Muslim women to justify imperialism #exemplifies (0.85)
• Colonial women’s-rights rhetoric coexisted with active antifeminism at home. #expands (0.85)
• Imperial feminism framed Muslim women as needing rescue by a liberal West #exemplifies (0.83)
• Women’s rights rhetoric is selectively deployed to justify imperial interventions #expands (0.80)
• Englishwomen earned equality claims by demonstrating superiority over colonized women #expands (0.80) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 162
• Imperial feminism justifies conquest without improving colonized women’s conditions #expands (0.80) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 159
• Imperial feminism framed Western intervention as rescuing Muslim women from Muslim men #exemplifies (0.80)
• Empire today is accomplished through the language of women’s rights #expands (0.78)
• Liberal rights discourse has historically justified rather than opposed empire #corroborates (0.78) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 72
• Colonial powers co-opted feminism to justify empire while opposing it at home #contradicts (0.75)