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Some working class men could vote

During the 19th century, the franchise was extended to include more men both in the Second Reform Act 1867 and the Third Reform Act 1884.

Approximately 58% of the adult male population was able to vote by 1900. This included some working class men. Many women who were denied the right to vote were in similar circumstances to these men, being rate-payers and subject to the same laws of the land.

There was a growing sense of injustice and from the mid-19th century onwards groups of women joined together to campaign for the vote. They were known as suffragists.

Suffragist groups

Suffragist groups existed all over the country and under many different names but their aim was the same: to achieve the right to vote for women through constitutional, peaceful means.

There were regional groups, especially in urban centres like Manchester, which held public meetings and petitioned at local level. At national level, key individuals included Millicent Fawcett and Lydia Becker.

Millicent Fawcett and the NUWSS

In 1897, regional societies with no political party allegiances established to lobby peacefully for the Parliamentary vote came together to form the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS).

They were led by Millicent Garrett Fawcett (1847-1929). Garrett published widely on women's issues and was a frequent public speaker on women's rights. She was married to an MP, Henry Fawcett, and regularly sat in the Ladies' Gallery of the House of Commons to watch the debates. Her tactical and determined leadership of the NUWSS made it a substantial and influence force in the campaign for women's votes.

Lobbying

The suffragists believed in achieving change through parliamentary means and used lobbying techniques to persuade Members of Parliament sympathetic to their cause to raise the issue of women's suffrage in debate on the floor of the House.

Between 1870 and 1884 debates on women's suffrage took place almost every year in Parliament. This succeeded in keeping the issue in the public eye as Parliamentary proceedings were extensively covered in the national and regional press of the time.

There was some criticism that by concentrating so heavily on activities in Parliament, the movement sacrificed opportunities to mobilise mass support throughout the rest of the country.

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During the 19th century, the franchise was extended to include more men both in the Second Reform Act 1867 and the Third Reform Act 1884. Approximately 58% of the adult male population was able to vote by 1900. This included some working class men.

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Find out more information about Women and the vote including the history of the suffragettes

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Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom - Wikipedia

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Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom was a movement to fight for women's right to vote. It finally succeeded through two laws in 1918 and 1928. It became a national movement in the Victorian era. Women were not explicitly banned from voting in Great Britain until the 1832 Reform Act and the 1835 Municipal Corporations Act.

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With the new film Suffragette arriving in UK cinemas on Monday 12 October, here are some of the key moments of the women's suffrage movement
1832
Mary Smith presents the first women's suffrage petition to Parliament. In the same year, the Great Reform Act confirms the exclusion of women from the vote.
1866
MP John Stuart Mill presents a petition for women's suffrage to the Commons. It fails and suffrage societies are started in Edinburgh, London and Manchester.
1867
Second Reform Bill petition from women is presented to Parliament by Mill but fails. The National Society for Women's Suffrage is formed.
1881
The Isle of Man grants votes to women.
1884
An amendment to the Third Reform Bill, to include women in the vote, is rejected.
1897
The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) forms with more than 20 national societies in support. Its leader is Millicent Garrett Fawcett, based in Gower Street, central London.
1903
Emmeline Pankhurst, a member of the Manchester suffragist set frustrated with the wait-and-see tactics of the NUWSS, forms the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) with her daughters Christabel and Sylvia.
1905
Militant campaign begins. Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenney are arrested and imprisoned. "Deeds, not words" and "Votes for women" are adopted as campaign slogans.
1906
The Liberal Prime Minister, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, and 400 of 670 MPs favour women's suffrage. Rifts begin to show in the women campaigners' ranks. The NUWSS continues petitions and meetings while the WSPU protests at the Commons. WSPU members are arrested and imprisoned. A daily newspaper coins the term "suffragette".
1907
The NUWSS organises a London march and more than 3,000 women take part. The weather is so bad that it is dubbed the Mud March. The Women's Freedom League (WFL) arises from the WSPU, rejecting the dominance of the Pankhursts. The WFL founds the paper The Vote.
1908
At a mass rally in Hyde Park, 300,000 to 500,000 activists attend. The Liberal Prime Minister Herbert Asquith does not respond. To get his attention, suffragettes smash windows in Downing Street, using stones with written pleas tied to them. Some protesters chain themselves to railings.
1909
The start of hunger strikes and force-feeding. The Scottish WSPU member Marion Wallace Dunlop becomes the first hunger striker. An increasing number of more militant WSPU members are imprisoned.
1910
The Conciliation Bill, which would give women the vote, succeeds in the Commons but Asquith does not carry it through. The WSPU starts protests, including those called "Black Friday" in which many women are injured, some permanently and later fatally, and are sexually abused by police.
1911
A new Conciliation Bill passes but is stalled by the general election in November.??????
1912
The Parliamentary Franchise (Women) Bill is introduced and defeated by 222 votes to 208. There is a mass window-smashing campaign in protest.
1913
A ruling by the Speaker wrecks hopes of an amendment to include women in the Reform Bill. Militant bomb and arson campaigns and increasing arrests culminate in the passing of the "Cat and Mouse" Act, under which hunger strikers are temporarily released then rearrested to prevent them dying in police custody.

Emily Wilding Davison, arrested nine times and force-fed 49 times, decides to draw attention to the suffrage cause and disrupt the Derby. With a return train ticket and another to a dance that evening in her bag, she steps in front of the King's speeding horse Anmer, possibly to attach a WSPU banner of suffragette colours to its bridle. She dies four days later of a skull fracture and internal injuries. Her funeral is attended by thousands of women and tens of thousands lined the streets of London as her coffin passed by.
1914
Violent actions continue, with suffragettes trying to force their way into Buckingham Palace to petition the King. The First World War begins on 4 August. Suffrage prisoners are set free. Campaigning stops and suffragette leaders urge women to join the war effort. The NUWSS continues to represent women and to campaign for recognition of their work.
1917
The Electoral Reform Bill passes in the Commons. It gives votes only to certain women: those over the age of 30, those over 21 who own their own house or those married to householders.
1918
The Representation of the People Act is passed, allowing men over 21 and women over 30 to vote.
1919
The first female MP, Nancy Astor, enters the Commons.
1928
Amendment of the Representation of the People Act entitles everyone over the age of 21 to vote.
Suffragette is released in UK cinemas on Monday 12 October. Find out more at the Suffragette Facebook page and the official Suffragette website. #INSPIRINGWOMEN GALLERY
The #InspiringWomen Gallery celebrates the women that inspire you.

The Suffragettes, Rosa Parks and Emma Watson are all inspirational women who have stood up for what they believe in. Whether it's a celebrity, an activist, a teacher or a family member, who are the women that inspire you?

Upload an image of your inspiring woman to Facebook, Twitter or Instagram using the hash tags #InspiringWomen and #Suffragette and your inspiring woman will be celebrated in the #InspiringWomen gallery on the official Suffragette website.

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The long march to votes for women - suffragette timeline

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With the new film Suffragette arriving in UK cinemas on Monday 12 October, here are some of the key moments of the women's suffrage movement 1832 Mary Smith presents the first women's suffrage petition to Parliament. In the same year, the Great Reform Act confirms the exclusion of women from the vote.

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Passionate about women's rights, in 1903 the suffragettes of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) split from the suffragists of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) to follow the militant agenda 'deeds not words'. In the years that followed, these women took radical steps to force a change in the laws in Britain for women. But how much do we really know about the Suffragettes?

1

Women did not get the vote on the same terms as men in 1918

Many people assume that, as a direct result of women's war work during the First World War, they were given the vote on equal terms to men. However, they were not.

The Representation of the People Act of 1918 was primarily needed to resolve the issue of soldiers returning from service in the First World War who were not entitled to the vote, as they did not meet existing property qualifications. The 1918 act abolished almost all property qualifications for men over the age of 21 and gave the vote to women over 30 - but only if they met minimum property qualifications or were married to a man who did.

Women could also vote as part of a university constituency if they were a university graduate. The age differential was to ensure that, following the loss of men in the war, women did not become the majority voters. After the act was passed, women made up 43 per cent of the electorate.

Women were not given the vote on the same terms as men until a decade after the act was passed: on 2 July 1928, the Second Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Actwas passed into law. In a cruel twist of fate, Emmeline Pankhurst, leader of the militant WSPU, died on 14 June 1928, some 18 days before equal suffrage rights were granted.

2

Suffragettes were accused of being 'unladylike' and 'unnatural'

The bedrock of the anti-suffrage movement was an appeal to women's femininity and the 'natural order'. Suffragettes supposedly fell foul of the 'norm' and engaged in 'unladylike' and public activities. They were presented as women who had failed to reach the ultimate female goal in life of marriage and motherhood. They were depicted as bitter spinsters and caricatured as masculine, plain and 'unnatural'. Their presence also apparently 'feminized' men, too.

The suffragette represented a figure outside of the order of society; they supposedly lacked 'womanliness'; were seen to be sexually repressed; and were even against 'God's order'.

3

Not all suffragists were women

The suffrage campaign and particularly militancy is almost always presented as a protest by women only. However, this is untrue, as many men were committed to the suffrage cause. Keir Hardie MP regularly raised questions in the House of Commons, and George Lansbury MP resigned his seat over the issue. Lansbury was also arrested at a suffrage rally in 1913 after speaking in support of the campaign of arson attacks.

Even more closely involved with the movement was Frederick Pethwick-Lawrence. The WSPU did not admit male members, but Fred and his wife, Emmeline, became joint editors of the WSPU journal Votes for Women. Fred also represented the WSPU in legal matters, including trials, as women were not permitted to do so.

Fred was imprisoned many times for his involvement with the movement. Like his wife and other suffragettes, Fred went on hunger strike and was forcibly fed [from 1909, women demanding the status of political prisoners began to refuse food, and the government's response was to forcibly feed them]. In his autobiography, Fate Has Been Kind (1943), he described how he was force-fed: "The head doctor, a most sensitive man, was visibly distressed by what he had to do. It certainly was an unpleasant and painful process and a sufficient number of warders had to be called in to prevent my moving while a rubber tube was pushed up my nostril and down into my throat and liquid was poured through it into my stomach. Twice a day thereafter one of the doctors fed me in this way. I was not allowed to leave my cell in the hospital and for the most part I had to stay in bed."

4

Force-feeding was a serious problem

The force-feeding of hunger-striking suffragettes was invasive, demeaning, and dangerous, and in some instances it damaged the long-term health of the victims. It should also be remembered that women were given disproportionately long sentences for minor offences such as protesting, resisting arrest, or smashing a window.

Read more

The Cat and Mouse Act of 1913 attempted to address the issue, but instead created a vicious circle: women whose health was damaged were released from prison to recover, only to be returned to prison when they were fit again to finish their sentence. Professor June Purvis's study of the letters, diaries and autobiographies written by prisoners [in particular Emmeline Pankhurst: A Biography (2003) and Votes For Women (1999)] indicate the horrors of force-feeding and the particularly harsh treatment of poor or working-class women.

Purvis describes the experiences of Lady Constance Lytton, who disguised herself as a poor woman named Jane Warton in order to gather evidence of differential treatment. Warton was "held down by wardresses as the doctor inserted a four-foot-long tube down her throat. A few seconds after the tube was down, she vomitted all over her hair, her clothes and the wall, yet the task continued until all the liquid had been emptied into her stomach. As the doctor left 'he gave me a slap on the cheek', Constance recollected, 'not violently, but, as it were, to express his contemptuous disapproval'."

Warton was forcibly fed seven more times before her true identity was revealed and she was released. Constance never fully recovered from her ordeal - she suffered a stroke in 1912 and died in 1923.

Forcible feeding was humiliating, Purvis states, "especially so for women, such as Fanny Parker, fed through the rectum and vagina. The knowledge that new tubes were not always available and that used tubes may have been previously inflicted on diseased people undoubtedly added to the feelings of abuse, dirtiness and indecency that the women felt."

5

No-one knows how many suffragettes there were

The question of how many suffragettes there were is impossible to answer. Many women drifted in and out of the various movements due to personal circumstances, as well as political disagreements. Many suffragists and women in the Labour Movement often had other affiliations, including involvement with trade unions. Others held membership under pseudonyms or fictitious names to protect themselves and their families. Furthermore, the NUWSS and the WSPU were not the only suffrage organisations - there were many other national and local groups with varying longevity.

We can estimate the number of women who went to prison at somewhere more than 1,000, but many were imprisoned under public order offences and are not always easy to identify. Neither can we be certain how many went on hunger strike or were forcibly fed.

What we can be certain of is that votes for women had mass support. Marches attracted vast numbers of militant and non-militant supporters, both male and female, from all walks of life. The Women's Sunday Procession in June 1908 attracted more than 300,000 protesters carrying 700 banners through London. There were certainly more suffragist members of the NUWSS than militant members of the WSPU. By the outbreak of the First World War, the NUWSS had 50,000 members, but estimates on membership numbers for the WSPU vary massively from between 2,000 to 5,000.

6

Adela: the lost Pankhurst sister

You are probably aware that Emmeline and her husband, Dr Richard Pankhurst, had two daughters who went on to become prominent suffragettes - Christabel (born in 1880) and Sylvia (born in 1882). But in fact they had five children - three daughters and two sons.

Their first son, Frank, was born in 1884 but died of diphtheria in 1888. The Pankhursts' other son, Henry Francis, was born in 1889. In-between was the 'lost sister' Adela, born in 1885. Like her sisters, Adela played an active role in the 'Votes for Women' campaign. She was imprisoned for her involvement and went on hunger strike, although she never supported what she perceived to be the "excesses of militancy".

Adela and her sister Sylvia left the WSPU in 1913. Sylvia became a socialist, and Adela was encouraged to emigrate to Australia after her mother gave her a ticket and £20. The rift within the family never healed.

7

There was more funding for the Suffragettes than for the Labour Party

After the WSPU split from the NUWSS in 1903, the WSPU quickly became better-funded than the early Labour Party. In 1908, Labour Party subscriptions and donations were around £10,000, while by 1909 the WSPU had an annual income of £21,213 and growing.

However, this was of little comfort to the poorer individuals involved in the moment. In her autobiography, Memories of a Militant (1924), Annie Kenny acknowledged: "I left the Movement, financially, as I joined it, penniless. Though I had no money I had reaped a rich harvest of joy, laughter, romance, companionship, and experience that no money can buy."

8

Many suffragettes refused to complete the 1911 census in protest

In addition to highly visible acts of civil disobedience, such as window smashing and setting fire to postboxes, many women also carried out quieter forms of civil protest. In 1911, the Women's Freedom League launched a campaign to encourage women to refuse to complete the 1911 census, and in April that year a meeting was held in Trafalgar Square instructing women not to participate. The protesters followed the slogan: "I don't count so I won't be counted". Some spoiled their papers with slogans such as "No persons here, only women!"; they gave their occupations as 'suffragette', and listed their 'disenfranchisement' in a column headed 'Infirmity'.

9

Suffragettes used the Royal Albert Hall for rallies

The Royal Albert Hall was regularly hired by both suffrage and anti-suffrage groups, including the National League for Opposing Women's Suffrage. There were also more than 20 suffragette meetings and rallies at the Royal Albert Hall between 1908 and 1918. The WSPU became the first group to be banned from the hall, because of costly disruption and damage.

10

Suffragettes ran for seats in parliament

Lady Nancy Astor was the first woman to take her seat in parliament; her husband, Waldorf, was the sitting MP and (supported by him) she won his Sutton Plymouth seat at a by-election in 1919.

Astor was not the first woman to stand for parliament or to be elected, however - this was Sinn Féin's Constance Markowitz, who was elected at the general election of 1918 but did not take her seat. The 1918 general election had seen 17 female candidates, including Christabel Pankhurst, who stood for the Women's Party in Smethwick. Despite the Conservative Party agreeing not to field a candidate, Christabel narrowly lost to the Labour Candidate by 775 votes.

In 1919, suffragettes were dismayed that the first woman MP had played no role in the suffrage movement and had succeeded her husband. Initially Nancy Astor was unsupported by any faction of the movement - after all, she was upper class, elite, and an American! She soon won them round though, by making clear her commitment to women's causes, supporting other female MPs, and by campaigning vigorously for the Equal Franchise in 1928.
Dr Jacqui Turner is a lecturer in modern history at the University of Reading, and is the author of Battleaxes and Benchwarmers, Early female MPs 1919-1931, which is due to be published in 2017.

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10 things you (probably) didn't know about the Suffragettes

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Passionate about women's rights, in 1903 the suffragettes of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) split from the suffragists of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) to follow the militant agenda 'deeds not words'. In the years that followed, these women took radical steps to force a change in the laws in Britain for women.

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Facts, information and articles about Women's Suffrage Movement, the struggle for the right of women to vote

Women's Suffrage summary: The women's suffrage movement (aka woman suffrage) was the struggle for the right of women to vote and run for office and is part of the overall women's rights movement. In the mid-19th century, women in several countries-most notably, the U.S. and Britain-formed organizations to fight for suffrage. In 1888, the first international women's rights organization formed, the International Council of Women (ICW). Because the ICW was reluctant to focus on suffrage, in 1904 the International Woman Suffrage Alliance (IWSA) was formed by British women's rights activist Millicent Fawcett, American activist Carrie Chapman Catt, and other leading women's rights activists.

Women's Suffrage In Europe

The first country to grant national-level voting rights to women was the self-governing British colony of New Zealand, which passed the Electoral Bill in September 1893. The British colony of South Australia granted full suffrage in 1894, giving women the right to vote and to stand for parliament. Australia federated in 1901 and country-wide women's suffrage followed quickly in 1902; however, women of Australia's indigenous people were specifically excluded until 1949, when the right to vote in federal elections was granted to all indigenous people. Remaining restrictions were abolished in 1962.

Other countries followed soon after New Zealand, with limited rights granted to women in Sweden, Britain, Finland, and some U.S. states by the early 20th century. When World War I began in 1914, many suffrage organizations shifted their focus to supporting the war effort, although some activists continued to fight for suffrage. Because of manpower shortages in warring countries, women took on many roles traditionally held by men and changed the dominant idea of what women were capable of doing, giving further momentum to the suffrage movement. Britain's Parliament passed the Eligibility of Women Act in November 1918, which allowed women to be elected to Parliament. Ten years later, the Representation of the People Act granted women the right to vote. Following a path similar to Britain's, many countries-Denmark, Iceland, the USSR, the Netherlands, Canada, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Sweden, Germany, Luxembourg, the United States-had granted the vote to women by 1920.

Other European countries did not grant women the right to vote until much later-Spain in 1931, France in 1944, and Belgium, Italy, Romania, and Yugoslavia in 1946. Later still were Switzerland (1971) and Liechtenstein (1984). In Latin America, national suffrage was granted to women between 1929 (Ecuador) and 1946 (Argentina). In Africa, the right to vote was generally conferred on both men and women as colonial rule ended and nations became independent-the same is true for India, which granted universal suffrage with its constitution in 1949. Middle Eastern countries granted women the right to vote after World War II, although some countries, such as Saudi Arabia, do not have suffrage at all or have limited suffrage and exclude women completely (Kuwait).

Women's Suffrage In the United States

The suffrage movement in the United States gained prominence with the first women's rights convention in the world: the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848. The convention was organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, active members of the abolitionist movement who met in England in 1840 at the World Anti-Slavery Convention. In 1851, Stanton was introduced by a mutual friend to Susan B. Anthony, who was most active in the temperance movement at the time. The two would form a life-long friendship and collaboration focused on obtaining suffrage. They formed the Woman's National Loyal League in 1863 to support the Thirteenth Amendment to abolish slavery and to campaign for full citizenship for blacks and women.

The National Woman Suffrage Association

In 1869, with slavery abolished, a rift developed in the suffrage movement over how to gain suffrage. Anthony and Stanton founded the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) and campaigned for a constitutional amendment for universal suffrage in America, and for other women's rights, such as changes in divorce laws and an end to employment and pay discrimination. Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe, and Josephine Ruffin formed the less-radical American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) to focus on obtaining suffrage for black men with the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments and on winning women's right to vote state-by-state, ignoring the broader rights the NWSA was campaigning for.

By the 1880s, it became clear that the two organizations would be more effective if they merged back into one group, so they formed the National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA) in 1890, with Stanton as president and Anthony as vice president. Stanton's position was largely honorary-she departed on a 2-year European speaking tour shortly after being elected, leaving Anthony as acting president. NAWSA was a national, parent organization to hundreds of local groups that campaigned solely for women's right to vote. However, NAWSA alienated the more radical activists like Stanton, Matilda Joslyn Gage, and Olympia Brown who were campaigning for broader rights along with the right to vote.

In the early 20th century, NAWSA restructured itself and shifted it's tactics, recruiting celebrities to draw attention to the cause, allying with local women's clubs and some labor unions, and raising money to train and pay organizers to canvass for votes and enlist new members. NAWSA held many parades and rallies to draw attention to their cause, with its members wearing white uniforms and carrying banners to draw crowds and reporters.

In 1914, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns became dissatisfied with the leadership and direction of the NWSA and formed the Congressional Union. Both women had assisted and learned from the British suffrage movement, which was much more radicalized and militant than the NWSA. England's more militant suffragists faced violent confrontations with authorities and jail sentences; some went on hunger strikes while imprisoned and were made to endure force-feedings to prevent them from dying behind bars, which might increase public sympathy for their cause.

The Congressional Union initially focused on putting pressure on the Democratic Party, which controlled both houses of Congress and the White House. In 1916, the organization was renamed the National Woman's Party (NWP) and began a more militant campaign for suffrage, picketing and holding demonstrations in front of the White House.

Carrie Chapman Catt, NAWSA president from 1900 to 1904 and 1915 to 1920, was Anthony's hand-picked successor as the driving force of the organization. She led the final push toward a constitutional amendment, setting up a publicity bureau in Washington, D.C., in 1916 to exert immediate, face-to-face pressure on Congressmen. At the beginning of World War I, the NWP criticized the government for supporting democracy abroad while denying women the right to vote at home-blatant hypocrisy, in their view. Chapman Catt publicly distanced herself and NAWSA from the NWP, calling their behavior unladylike and disapproving of the bad publicity they generated for the movement. In June 1917, NWP members were arrested on the technical charge of obstructing traffic. Arrests and jail time, hunger strikes and force-feedings would continue for activists until the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified.

Ratification Of The Nineteenth Amendment

Tennessee became the last battleground state for ratification. There, as in other Southern states, the woman's suffrage movement was inextricably linked in the minds of many with the abolition movement, and old animosities still simmered. In Dixie, even more than in other parts of the country, feminism ran counter to a culture in which conservative religion, tradition, and respect for the law was deeply engrained. Too, powerful lobbying groups including liquor distilleries-the temperance movement and women's rights movement had long been comrades in arms-textile manufacturers and railroads opposed expanding women's rights. Additional opposition came from state's rights advocates, some of whom wanted to see women get the right to vote but felt that should be dealt with at the state level, not the national. On August 18, 1920, the Tennessee legislature narrowly approved the 19th Amendment. On August 31, the Tennessee House of Representatives voted to rescind their previous vote, but the U.S. Secretary of State had already proclaimed the amendment ratified on August 26.

Women's right to vote was achieved through the national and local efforts of both the NAWSA and the NWP. The labor shortage caused by World War I that allowed women to move into roles traditionally held by men also made it increasingly difficult for opponents to argue that women were unworthy of the vote on the grounds of physical and mental inferiority. With the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in sight, Chapman Catt formed the League of Women Voters during NAWSA's last meeting on February 14, 1920, to help newly enfranchised women exercise their right to vote.

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Facts, information and articles about Women's Suffrage Movement, the struggle for the right of women to vote Women's Suffrage summary: The women's suffrage movement (aka woman suffrage) was the struggle for the right of women to vote and run for office and is part of the overall women's rights movement.

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Citation: C N Trueman "Suffragettes"
historylearningsite.co.uk. The History Learning Site, . .

The Suffragettes wanted the right for women to vote.

The move for women to have the vote had really started in 1897 when Millicent Fawcett founded the National Union of Women's Suffrage. "Suffrage" means the right to vote and that is what women wanted - hence its inclusion in Fawcett's title.

Millicent Fawcett believed in peaceful protest. She felt that any violence or trouble would persuade men that women could not be trusted to have the right to vote. Her game plan was patience and logical arguments. Fawcett argued that women could hold responsible posts in society such as sitting on school boards - but could not be trusted to vote; she argued that if parliament made laws and if women had to obey those laws, then women should be part of the process of making those laws; she argued that as women had to pay taxes as men, they should have the same rights as men and one of her most powerful arguments was that wealthy mistresses of large manors and estates employed gardeners, workmen and labourers who could vote........but the women could not regardless of their wealth.....

However, Fawcett's progress was very slow. She converted some of the members of the Labour Representation Committee (soon to be the Labour Party) but most men in Parliament believed that women simply would not understand how Parliament worked and therefore should not take part in the electoral process. This left many women angry and in 1903 the Women's Social and Political Union was founded by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia. They wanted women to have the right to vote and they were not prepared to wait. The Union became better known as the Suffragettes. Members of the Suffragettes were prepared to use violence to get what they wanted.

In fact, the Suffragettes started off relatively peacefully. It was only in 1905 that the organisation created a stir when Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenney interrupted a political meeting in Manchester to ask two Liberal politicians (Winston Churchill and Sir Edward Grey) if they believed women should have the right to vote. Neither man replied. As a result, the two women got out a banner which had on it "Votes for Women" and shouted at the two politicians to answer their questions. Such actions were all but unheard of then when public speakers were usually heard in silence and listened to courteously even if you did not agree with them. Pankhurst and Kenney were thrown out of the meeting and arrested for causing an obstruction and a technical assault on a police officer.

Both women refused to pay a fine preferring to go to prison to highlight the injustice of the system as it was then. Emmeline Pankhurst later wrote in her autobiography that:

The Suffragettes refused to bow to violence. They burned down churches as the Church of England was against what they wanted; they vandalised Oxford Street, apparently breaking all the windows in this famous street; they chained themselves to Buckingham Palace as the Royal Family were seen to be against women having the right to vote; they hired out boats, sailed up the Thames and shouted abuse through loud hailers at Parliament as it sat; others refused to pay their tax. Politicians were attacked as they went to work. Their homes were fire bombed. Golf courses were vandalised. The first decade of Britain in the twentieth century was proving to be violent in the extreme.

Suffragettes were quite happy to go to prison. Here they refused to eat and went on a hunger strike. The government was very concerned that they might die in prison thus giving the movement martyrs. Prison governors were ordered to force feed Suffragettes but this caused a public outcry as forced feeding was traditionally used to feed lunatics as opposed to what were mostly educated women.

The government of Asquith responded with the Cat and Mouse Act. When a Suffragette was sent to prison, it was assumed that she would go on hunger strike as this caused the authorities maximum discomfort. The Cat and Mouse Act allowed the Suffragettes to go on a hunger strike and let them get weaker and weaker. Force feeding was not used. When the Suffragettes were very weak..........they were released from prison. If they died out of prison, this was of no embarrassment to the government. However, they did not die but those who were released were so weak that they could take no part in violent Suffragette struggles. When those who had been arrested and released had regained their strength, they were re-arrested for the most trivial of reason and the whole process started again. This, from the government's point of view, was a very simple but effective weapon against the Suffragettes.

As a result, the Suffragettes became more extreme. The most famous act associated with the Suffragettes was at the June 1913 Derby when Emily Wilding Davison threw herself under the King's horse, Anmer, as it rounded Tattenham Corner. She was killed and the Suffragettes had their first martyr. However, her actions probably did more harm than good to the cause as she was a highly educated woman. Many men asked the simple question - if this is what an educated woman does, what might a lesser educated woman do? How can they possibly be given the right to vote?

It is possible that the Suffragettes would have become more violent. They had, after all, in February 1913 blown up part of David Lloyd George's house - he was probably Britain's most famous politician at this time and he was thought to be a supporter of the right for women to have the vote!

However, Britain and Europe was plunged into was to be vital for Britain's war effort. In 1918, the World War One in August 1914. In a display of patriotism, Representation of the People Act was passed by Parliament. Emmeline Pankhurst instructed the Suffragettes to stop their campaign of violence and support in every way the government and its war effort. The work done by women in the First World War

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Women's right to vote - Suffragettes - History Learning Site

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Citation: C N Trueman "Suffragettes"historylearningsite.co.uk. The History Learning Site, . . The Suffragettes wanted the right for women to vote. The move for women to have the vote had really started in 1897 when Millicent Fawcett founded the National Union of Women's Suffrage.

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SUFFRAGETTE - Trailer ufficiale italiano

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The Pankhurst family is closely associated with the militant campaign for the vote. In 1903 Emmeline Pankhurst and others, frustrated by the lack of progress, decided more direct action was required and founded the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) with the motto 'Deeds not words'.

Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928) became involved in women's suffrage in 1880. She was a founding member of the WSPU in 1903 and led it until it disbanded in 1918. Under her leadership the WSPU was a highly organised group and like other members she was imprisoned and went on hunger strike protests.

Women only

Membership of the WSPU was limited to women only. Emmeline Pankhurst's daughters, Christabel, Sylvia and Adela, were committed members.

WPSU members were determined to obtain the right to vote for women by any means and campaigned tirelessly and sometimes violently to achieve this aim. They felt that the impact of peaceful tactics seemed to have been exhausted and a different, more radical approach was needed.

Militant action

Initially the WSPU's tactics were to cause disruption and some civil disobedience, such as the 'rush' on Parliament in October 1908 when it encouraged the public to join them in an attempt to invade the House of Commons. 60,000 people gathered but the police cordon held fast.

However the lack of Government action led the WSPU to undertake more violent acts, including attacks on property and law-breaking, which resulted in imprisonment and hunger strikes.

These tactics attracted a great deal of attention to the campaign for votes for women.

Legal and constitutional support

Not all those campaigning for women's right to vote favoured militant action.

Moderate women's organisations, such as the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) led by Millicent Fawcett, were instrumental in building up the legal and constitutional support for the enfranchisement of women, but their contributions were often overshadowed by the high profile actions of the suffragettes.

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The Pankhurst family is closely associated with the militant campaign for the vote. In 1903 Emmeline Pankhurst and others, frustrated by the lack of progress, decided more direct action was required and founded the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) with the motto 'Deeds not words'.

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In August 1914 war was declared in Europe. The suffrage movement suspended its activities, the government released all suffragettes from prison, and the Pankhursts and others threw themselves into supporting Britain's war effort. Around a million women took on men's jobs as they went off to fight in the war.

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The is on the 1920s women's right's, voting, working, education and their sexuality. The women that starred in films and performers: Clara Bows, Josephine Baker, Florence Mills, Bessie Smith and Louis Brooks. Pictures of flappers and publications. There are songs by Bessie Smith such as "Tain't Nobody's Business If I Do" and 1920s "Need A Little Sugar In My Bowl".

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In the 1920's women were tired of being seen and not heard. The Women's Liberation movement started and and with this young women started acting out. They formed groups of feminists, and some women...

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Passionate about women's rights, in 1903 the suffragettes of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) split from the suffragists of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) to follow the militant agenda 'deeds not words'. In the years that followed, these women took radical steps to force a change in the laws in Britain for women. But how much do we really know about the Suffragettes?

1

Women did not get the vote on the same terms as men in 1918

Many people assume that, as a direct result of women's war work during the First World War, they were given the vote on equal terms to men. However, they were not.

The Representation of the People Act of 1918 was primarily needed to resolve the issue of soldiers returning from service in the First World War who were not entitled to the vote, as they did not meet existing property qualifications. The 1918 act abolished almost all property qualifications for men over the age of 21 and gave the vote to women over 30 - but only if they met minimum property qualifications or were married to a man who did.

Women could also vote as part of a university constituency if they were a university graduate. The age differential was to ensure that, following the loss of men in the war, women did not become the majority voters. After the act was passed, women made up 43 per cent of the electorate.

Women were not given the vote on the same terms as men until a decade after the act was passed: on 2 July 1928, the Second Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Actwas passed into law. In a cruel twist of fate, Emmeline Pankhurst, leader of the militant WSPU, died on 14 June 1928, some 18 days before equal suffrage rights were granted.

2

Suffragettes were accused of being 'unladylike' and 'unnatural'

The bedrock of the anti-suffrage movement was an appeal to women's femininity and the 'natural order'. Suffragettes supposedly fell foul of the 'norm' and engaged in 'unladylike' and public activities. They were presented as women who had failed to reach the ultimate female goal in life of marriage and motherhood. They were depicted as bitter spinsters and caricatured as masculine, plain and 'unnatural'. Their presence also apparently 'feminized' men, too.

The suffragette represented a figure outside of the order of society; they supposedly lacked 'womanliness'; were seen to be sexually repressed; and were even against 'God's order'.

3

Not all suffragists were women

The suffrage campaign and particularly militancy is almost always presented as a protest by women only. However, this is untrue, as many men were committed to the suffrage cause. Keir Hardie MP regularly raised questions in the House of Commons, and George Lansbury MP resigned his seat over the issue. Lansbury was also arrested at a suffrage rally in 1913 after speaking in support of the campaign of arson attacks.

Even more closely involved with the movement was Frederick Pethwick-Lawrence. The WSPU did not admit male members, but Fred and his wife, Emmeline, became joint editors of the WSPU journal Votes for Women. Fred also represented the WSPU in legal matters, including trials, as women were not permitted to do so.

Fred was imprisoned many times for his involvement with the movement. Like his wife and other suffragettes, Fred went on hunger strike and was forcibly fed [from 1909, women demanding the status of political prisoners began to refuse food, and the government's response was to forcibly feed them]. In his autobiography, Fate Has Been Kind (1943), he described how he was force-fed: "The head doctor, a most sensitive man, was visibly distressed by what he had to do. It certainly was an unpleasant and painful process and a sufficient number of warders had to be called in to prevent my moving while a rubber tube was pushed up my nostril and down into my throat and liquid was poured through it into my stomach. Twice a day thereafter one of the doctors fed me in this way. I was not allowed to leave my cell in the hospital and for the most part I had to stay in bed."

4

Force-feeding was a serious problem

The force-feeding of hunger-striking suffragettes was invasive, demeaning, and dangerous, and in some instances it damaged the long-term health of the victims. It should also be remembered that women were given disproportionately long sentences for minor offences such as protesting, resisting arrest, or smashing a window.

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The Cat and Mouse Act of 1913 attempted to address the issue, but instead created a vicious circle: women whose health was damaged were released from prison to recover, only to be returned to prison when they were fit again to finish their sentence. Professor June Purvis's study of the letters, diaries and autobiographies written by prisoners [in particular Emmeline Pankhurst: A Biography (2003) and Votes For Women (1999)] indicate the horrors of force-feeding and the particularly harsh treatment of poor or working-class women.

Purvis describes the experiences of Lady Constance Lytton, who disguised herself as a poor woman named Jane Warton in order to gather evidence of differential treatment. Warton was "held down by wardresses as the doctor inserted a four-foot-long tube down her throat. A few seconds after the tube was down, she vomitted all over her hair, her clothes and the wall, yet the task continued until all the liquid had been emptied into her stomach. As the doctor left 'he gave me a slap on the cheek', Constance recollected, 'not violently, but, as it were, to express his contemptuous disapproval'."

Warton was forcibly fed seven more times before her true identity was revealed and she was released. Constance never fully recovered from her ordeal - she suffered a stroke in 1912 and died in 1923.

Forcible feeding was humiliating, Purvis states, "especially so for women, such as Fanny Parker, fed through the rectum and vagina. The knowledge that new tubes were not always available and that used tubes may have been previously inflicted on diseased people undoubtedly added to the feelings of abuse, dirtiness and indecency that the women felt."

5

No-one knows how many suffragettes there were

The question of how many suffragettes there were is impossible to answer. Many women drifted in and out of the various movements due to personal circumstances, as well as political disagreements. Many suffragists and women in the Labour Movement often had other affiliations, including involvement with trade unions. Others held membership under pseudonyms or fictitious names to protect themselves and their families. Furthermore, the NUWSS and the WSPU were not the only suffrage organisations - there were many other national and local groups with varying longevity.

We can estimate the number of women who went to prison at somewhere more than 1,000, but many were imprisoned under public order offences and are not always easy to identify. Neither can we be certain how many went on hunger strike or were forcibly fed.

What we can be certain of is that votes for women had mass support. Marches attracted vast numbers of militant and non-militant supporters, both male and female, from all walks of life. The Women's Sunday Procession in June 1908 attracted more than 300,000 protesters carrying 700 banners through London. There were certainly more suffragist members of the NUWSS than militant members of the WSPU. By the outbreak of the First World War, the NUWSS had 50,000 members, but estimates on membership numbers for the WSPU vary massively from between 2,000 to 5,000.

6

Adela: the lost Pankhurst sister

You are probably aware that Emmeline and her husband, Dr Richard Pankhurst, had two daughters who went on to become prominent suffragettes - Christabel (born in 1880) and Sylvia (born in 1882). But in fact they had five children - three daughters and two sons.

Their first son, Frank, was born in 1884 but died of diphtheria in 1888. The Pankhursts' other son, Henry Francis, was born in 1889. In-between was the 'lost sister' Adela, born in 1885. Like her sisters, Adela played an active role in the 'Votes for Women' campaign. She was imprisoned for her involvement and went on hunger strike, although she never supported what she perceived to be the "excesses of militancy".

Adela and her sister Sylvia left the WSPU in 1913. Sylvia became a socialist, and Adela was encouraged to emigrate to Australia after her mother gave her a ticket and £20. The rift within the family never healed.

7

There was more funding for the Suffragettes than for the Labour Party

After the WSPU split from the NUWSS in 1903, the WSPU quickly became better-funded than the early Labour Party. In 1908, Labour Party subscriptions and donations were around £10,000, while by 1909 the WSPU had an annual income of £21,213 and growing.

However, this was of little comfort to the poorer individuals involved in the moment. In her autobiography, Memories of a Militant (1924), Annie Kenny acknowledged: "I left the Movement, financially, as I joined it, penniless. Though I had no money I had reaped a rich harvest of joy, laughter, romance, companionship, and experience that no money can buy."

8

Many suffragettes refused to complete the 1911 census in protest

In addition to highly visible acts of civil disobedience, such as window smashing and setting fire to postboxes, many women also carried out quieter forms of civil protest. In 1911, the Women's Freedom League launched a campaign to encourage women to refuse to complete the 1911 census, and in April that year a meeting was held in Trafalgar Square instructing women not to participate. The protesters followed the slogan: "I don't count so I won't be counted". Some spoiled their papers with slogans such as "No persons here, only women!"; they gave their occupations as 'suffragette', and listed their 'disenfranchisement' in a column headed 'Infirmity'.

9

Suffragettes used the Royal Albert Hall for rallies

The Royal Albert Hall was regularly hired by both suffrage and anti-suffrage groups, including the National League for Opposing Women's Suffrage. There were also more than 20 suffragette meetings and rallies at the Royal Albert Hall between 1908 and 1918. The WSPU became the first group to be banned from the hall, because of costly disruption and damage.

10

Suffragettes ran for seats in parliament

Lady Nancy Astor was the first woman to take her seat in parliament; her husband, Waldorf, was the sitting MP and (supported by him) she won his Sutton Plymouth seat at a by-election in 1919.

Astor was not the first woman to stand for parliament or to be elected, however - this was Sinn Féin's Constance Markowitz, who was elected at the general election of 1918 but did not take her seat. The 1918 general election had seen 17 female candidates, including Christabel Pankhurst, who stood for the Women's Party in Smethwick. Despite the Conservative Party agreeing not to field a candidate, Christabel narrowly lost to the Labour Candidate by 775 votes.

In 1919, suffragettes were dismayed that the first woman MP had played no role in the suffrage movement and had succeeded her husband. Initially Nancy Astor was unsupported by any faction of the movement - after all, she was upper class, elite, and an American! She soon won them round though, by making clear her commitment to women's causes, supporting other female MPs, and by campaigning vigorously for the Equal Franchise in 1928.
Dr Jacqui Turner is a lecturer in modern history at the University of Reading, and is the author of Battleaxes and Benchwarmers, Early female MPs 1919-1931, which is due to be published in 2017.

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10 things you (probably) didn't know about the Suffragettes

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Passionate about women's rights, in 1903 the suffragettes of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) split from the suffragists of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) to follow the militant agenda 'deeds not words'. In the years that followed, these women took radical steps to force a change in the laws in Britain for women.

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Why women won greater political equality by 1928 - Revision 1 - Higher History - BBC Bitesize

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For Higher History, revise how changing attitudes, suffrage campaigns and World War One contributed to women winning greater political equality.

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Modern Woman, America in the 1920s, Primary Sources for Teachers, America in Class, National Humanities Center

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Exam board content from BBC Bitesize for students in England, Northern Ireland or Wales. Choose the exam specification that matches the one you study.