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The
Women Involved Men provided the leadership of Unionism but they were men who, knowing the strengths of women, wished to give women the vote. Indeed, the Ulster Crisis was to allow a noticeable shift in the role of women and secured for them a relatively advanced position. An Ulster Women's Unionist Council was formed in 1911, and recruited over 40,000 members within a year. The Covenant Campaign, with its emphasis on the unity of all Loyalists, harnassed the vital contribution of women, recognising their particular concern to secure the future and the rightful inheritance of Ulster's children. The conventions of the time might demand a separate women's Declaration, but women were eager to show that they could not only match but outstrip the efforts of the men. Everywhere they helped in the tremendous efforts to organise the gathering of signatures. Well aware of the often unrelenting demands of domestic life, Unionist women went from door to door canvassing the support of their fellow women. The efforts of these dedicated workers for Ulster's future paid off handsomely: in Ulster 218,206 men signed the Covenant; the women, reflecting their numerical superiority in the population, beat that with a figure of 228,991.
Two of the most impressive features of the Covenant Campaign were the breadth of Unionist support across the classes and the high profile of women. The photograph (above) shows Miss Whitaker, honorary secretary of West Belfast Women's Unionist Association, canvassing women in a poor district of the constituency. Women were asked to sign the parallel Declaration associating them with the men "in their uncompromising opposition to the Home Rule Bill now before Parliament." In truth canvassing was unnecessary: men and women of all classes needed little prompting to sign the Covenant and the Declaration respectively. The Women's Unionist Association in the East Antrim constituency produced a poster to advertise the local efforts to publicise the Declaration. Women were exhorted to bring their older children to one of the religious services and then to sign the Declaration.
Throughout Ulster women, rich and poor alike, streamed into the halls made available for the signing of the women's Declaration. Working-class women seldom had any alternative but to bring their children along with them: though they may not have understood the seriousness of the occasion, the young off-spring were thus made witnesses to a great moment in Ulster's history -- a moment in which their mothers played a full part.
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