Margaret Skinnider's Effects On Women

Although women were mostly regarded based on stereotypes of the time, it does not mean that they weren’t in constant danger. Some soldiers completely rejected the chivalrous attitudes of the time and treated women with abuse and belligerence or outright violence. Margaret Skinnider, who fought in St. Stephen’s Green alongside Countess Markievicz, was shot three times revealing that “British soldiers do not appear to have been too chivalrous to shoot at women.” Unarmed women weren’t in danger of being shot, but “because the women could not be hit or bayoneted, the belligerence directed toward them had a special ferocity and was designed to humiliate as well as to threaten.” Elizabeth O’Farrell, who delivered the message of surrender to the British, was met with derision and verbal abuse when she arrived, being regarded as a liar by a British officer who said to her ‘You think because you’re a woman you can say what you like; mind you don’t get a
Although not physically scarring, these experiences affected women psychologically. Women continued to show bravery and fight for equality after surrender was accepted and the Rising was terminated. At the General Post Office, many women were reluctant to leave and many who left “went to the Four Courts where they were later taken prisoner.” This again shows how some of the British did not regard women differently, still imprisoning them alongside their male counterparts. However, allowances were still made. Countess Markievicz charges “were word for word the same as those which were levelled at Connolly and Mallin” and she was found guilty and sentenced to death. Yet, “the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment almost certainly on the grounds of her sex.” Markievicz was furious at this allowance, believing herself to be an equal to the leaders of the