Dame Ethel Mary Smyth DBE (April 22,1858 - May 8, 1944) was an English composer and member of the women's suffrage movement. The fourth of eight children, Smyth showed a keen interested in music as a career. Her father, a major general in the Royal Artillery was not particularly supportive, though that didn't stop her from pursuing music anyway. Smyth studied privately, and then attended the Leipzig Conservatory. She wrote orchestral and choral works, chamber pieces, operas, and works for piano. (We have explored two of her works before, which you can read about here and here). Sadly deafness brought her musical career to an end, but between 1919 and 1940, she found herself an author, writing ten successful books.

In 1910, Smyth joined the Women's Social and Political Union, a suffrage group, and her work, March of the Women , written in 1911, became the anthem of the women's suffrage movement. Written in F major, this work is encouraging and fortifying, much like you'd expect from an anthem for such a movement. The words are as follows:

Shout, shout, up with your song!
Cry with the wind, for the dawn is breaking.
March, march, swing you along,
Wide blows our banner and hope is waking.
Song with its story, dreams with their glory,
Lo! they call and glad is their word.
Forward! hark how it swells,
Thunder of freedom, the voice of the Lord!

Long, long, we in the past,
Cower'd in dread from the light of Heaven.
Strong, strong, stand we at last,
Fearless in faith and with sight new given.
Strength with its beauty, life with its duty,
Hear the voice, oh, hear and obey,
These, these beckon us on,
Open your eyes to the blaze of the day!

Comrades, ye who have dared,
First in he battle to strive and sorrow,
Scorned, spurned, naught have ye cared,
Raising your eyes to a wider morrow.
Ways that are weary, days that are dreary,
Toil and pain by faith ye have borne.
Hail, hail, victors ye stand,
Wearing the wreath that the brave have worn!

Life, strife, these two are one!
Naught can ye win but by faith and daring.
On, on, that ye have done,
But for the work of today preparing.
Firm in reliance, laugh a defiance,
Laugh in hope, for sure is the end.
March, march, many as one.
Shoulder to shoulder and friend to friend!

We can't find a recording, unfortunately, but hope that will change in the future!