As a work of historic interest of the period The March of the Women is an essential work.British composer Ethel Smyth was a prolific important composer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1910 she joined the Women’sSocial and Political Union for whom she wrote this anthem. It was taken up and sung everywhere including Holloway Prison where Smyth and other suffragettes had been imprisoned for breaking windows and other acts of politicaldisorder. When Sir Thomas Beecham visited her there he found the women marching around the inner yard and singing while Smyth directed the impromptu Chorus with her toothbrush.
