Background

Interest in women's suffrage in Great Britain began to attract attention around the 1830s and 1840s. There is
historical evidence to show that on occasion some wealthy, privileged women were already voting in local
elections. However, this was not the norm and was on a local basis; there was no national right for women to
vote at that time. In Great Britain, women were explicitly banned from voting in parliamentary elections with
the Reform Act in 1832 and in local government elections under the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835.
Unmarried women ratepayers received the right to vote in local government elections with the Municipal
Franchise Act in 1869. This right was confirmed in the Local Government Act of 1894 and extended to
include some married women. In 1900 more than 1 million women were registered to vote only in local
government elections in England.
In the late 1830s, the Chartist Movement has been suggested to have included supporters of female suffrage.
There is some evidence to suggest William Lovett, one of the authors of the People's Charter, wished to
include female suffrage as one of the campaign's demands but chose not to on the grounds that this would
have delayed the implementation of the charter.
In 1867 a female shop-owner named Lily Maxwell received widespread public attention after casting a
vote. Men property owner had the right to vote at that time, and since Maxwell was a property owner her
name was accidentally added to an election register. Her vote was ultimately declared illegal in court, but her
case brought much attention to women's suffrage.
During the same period, some women in higher social spheres refused to obey the gender roles dictated to
them. Feminist goals at this time included the right to sue an ex-husband after divorce (achieved in 1857) and
the right for married women to own property (fully achieved in 1882 after some concession by the
government in 1870).
Influential writer, social critic, and member of Parliament John Stuart Mill emerged as supporter of
women's suffrage. In June 1866, Mill received from the activists Emily Davies and Elizabeth Garrett, the
first mass women's suffrage petition to the House of Commons in June 1866. It contained the names of about
1500 women collected from Scotland, Wales, Ireland and England.
Mill spoke on the petition in July 1866. In May 1867 John Stuart Mill makes an unsuccessful amendment to
the Second Reform Bill, which would have granted suffrage to women property holders.
Early suffragist societies
By the 1860s suffragist societies were springing up all over England, and politicians were starting to address
the issue. Suffragists societies influenced politicians, gave lectures to raise awareness, and produced many
posters and pamphlets advancing their cause. In February 1867 Manchester Society for Women's Suffrage
was founded, alongside many other societies in different cities across Britain such as Kensington Society,
National Society for Women's Suffrage, and the Dublin Women's Suffrage Association.
In 1868, local groups fused together to form the National Society for Women's Suffrage (NSWS). This
was the first attempt to create a unified front to propose women's suffrage.
In 1897 the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) was founded by Millicent Fawcett.
The approaches used during this time were largely constitutional and peaceful: in fact, the groups tried to
reform the law through legal means. The term “suffragist” is used to refer to the women who adopted these
types of methods. The suffragists argued their case through patient lobbying, marches, petitions and other
low-abiding campaigns. On the contrary, the term “suffragette” refers to women who used violence or civil
disobedience as an approach.
Suffragettes
The term suffragette derives from suffragist and was coined in 1906 by a reporter writing in the Daily
Mail with the aim of belittling and mocking as hysterical and childish the women advocating women's
suffrage. The militants embraced the new name: they change the name of their newspaper from “Votes for
Women” to “The Suffragette” and started pronouncing it "suffraGETtes" (hardening the 'g') and In this way,
they wanted to stress that they not only wanted the vote but that they would have been able to get it.
Who were the suffragettes?
The term “suffragette” refers in particular to members of the British Women's Social and Political
Union (WSPU), a women-only movement founded in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst, whose motto became
"deeds, not words”. Their official colour scheme was: purple, for loyalty, green, for hope and white which
represented the virtue of their campaign but also read well in sepia-tone news photos. In this way, they did a
contrast with all their surroundings, especially whet they were arrested by policemen.
Why was a new movement founded?
As we have already seen, in Manchester, the Women's Suffrage Committee had been formed in 1867. This
movement worked with the Independent Labour Party (ILP) to secure votes for women, but, although the
local ILP were very supportive, nationally the party were more interested in securing the franchise for
working-class men and refused to make women's suffrage a priority. Emmeline Pankhurst and her eldest
daughter Christabel were members of the Manchester committee but they had become impatient with the
ILP. Therefore, in October 1903, Emmeline Pankhurst held a meeting at her home in Manchester to form a
breakaway group, that is the above mentioned WSPU. The novelty of the WSPU consisted in moving away
from the campaign methods adopted by the other groups and instead undertake more effective actions.
WSPU CAMPAIGNS
It is possible to distinguish two phases within the WSPU campaigns.
In the former period (up to 1910), suffragettes endorsed milder methods.
Main actions
- At a political meeting in Manchester in October 1905, Christabel Pankhurst and a, Annie Kenney
interrupted a Liberal Party Rally by heckling the speeches had by the prominent Liberals Winston
Churchill and Sir Edward Grey, asking where Churchill and Grey stood with regards to women's
political rights. At a time when political meetings were only attended by men and speakers were
expected to expound their views without interruption, the audience were outraged, and when the
women unfurled a "Votes for Women" banner they were both arresteed after spatting at a policeman.
When Pankhurst and Kenney appeared in court they both refused to pay the fine imposed, preferring
to go to prison in order to gain publicity for their cause.

- In July 1908 the WSPU hosted a large demonstration in Heaton Park, near Manchester with speakers
on 13 separate platforms including Emmeline, Christabel and Adela Pankhurst. 

- During these years, the WSPU publicised and fundraised for their activities by selling some gadgets,
even a board-game called "Pank-a-Squith". The name was derived from Pankhurst and the surname
of Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, who was largely hated by the movement. The board game was set
out in a spiral, and players were required to lead their suffragette figure from their home to
parliament, past the obstacles faced from Prime Minister H. H. Asquith and the Liberal government

Second phase
1910 represents a turning point
 In 1910 MPs proposed a Conciliation Bill a partial compromise, as the name suggests, to appease
suffragettes. It offered the chance of a limited franchise for women through. If it passed it would
have enfranchised approximately one million women on the basis of a property qualification. As a
gesture of goodwill the Suffragettes suspended militant activity until the fate of the bill was decided.
Although MPs backed the bill and passed its first and second readings, Asquith refused to grant it
further parliamentary time. On 18 November 1910, following a breakdown in relations between
the House of Commons and House of Lords over that year's budget, Asquith called another general
election, and said that parliament would be dissolved on 28 November. The Women's Social and
Political Union (WSPU) saw the move as a betrayal and organised a protest march to parliament
from Caxton Hall in Westminster, called “Black Friday” Lines of police and crowds of male
bystanders met three hundred female protestors outside the Houses of Parliament; the women were
physically and sexually assaulted for the next six hours by the police.
The newspapers shown sympathy towards the policemen. 
The Times reported that "Several of the police had their helmets knocked off in carrying out their
duty, one was disabled by a kick on the ankle, one was cut on the face by a belt, and one had his
hand cut";
The Daily Mirror wrote that "the police displayed great good temper and tact throughout and
avoided making arrests, but as usual many of the Suffragettes refused to be happy until they were
arrested ... in one scuffle a constable got hurt and had to be led limping away by two colleagues."
References to the suffragettes were in tones of disapproval for their action.
- However, at that time, all the 135 statements from demonstrators described acts of violence against
the women; 29 of the statements also included details of violence that included indecency. The
memorandum the conciliation committee published summarised their findings: The action of which
the most frequent complaint is made is variously described as twisting round, pinching, screwing,
nipping, or wringing the breast. This was often done in the most public way so as to inflict the
utmost humiliation. Not only was it an offence against decency; it caused in many cases intense
pain ... The language used by some of the police while performing this action proves that it was
consciously sensual
From here forward suffragettes became more radical and willing to use violence to accomplish their goals.
This campaign went down in history as the suffragette bombing and arson campaign. Led by key WSPU
figures such as Emmeline Pankhurst, it targeted infrastructure, government, churches and the general public,
and was characterized by the use of improvised explosive devices, arson, letter bombs, assassination attempts
and other forms of direct action and violence. At least 5 people were killed in such attacks (including one
suffragette), and at least 24 were injured (including two suffragettes). 
- In 1911, Conciliation Bill was reintroduced in May and passed with large majority. In November the
Liberal PM Asquith changed his position. He decided to drop the Conciliation Bill and bring in a
new measure to give more men the vote. He then indicated that MPs could add an amendment to
give some women the vote. The bill was consequently dropped.
- Another conciliation bill (the Parliamentary Franchise (Women) Bill) was introduced and defeated
by 222 votes to 208,In June and July 1912, five serious incidents involve the beginning of the
campaign: the homes of three anti-suffrage cabinet ministers were attacked, a powerful bomb was
planted in the Home Secretary's office and the Theatre Royal, Dublin, was set fire to and bombed
while an audience attended a performance. The latter was one of the most dangerous attacks
committed by the suffragettes. Arson attacks continued for the rest of 1912.
- The increasing number of arson attacks and acts of criminal damage was criticised by some members
of the WSPU, and in October 1912 two long-standing supporters of the suffragette cause, Emmeline
Pethick-Lawrence and Frederick Pethick-Lawrence, were expelled from the Union for voicing their
objections to such activities.

- The 1913 campaign was aimed at terrorising the government and the general public to change their
opinions on women's suffrage under threat of acts of violence. The suffragettes invented the letter
 bomb, a device intended to kill or injure the recipient. Several letter bombs were sent to
the Chancellor David Lloyd George and Prime Minister Asquith, but they all exploded in post
offices, post boxes or in mailbags while in transit across the country. In February, there was a
suffragette bomb attack on Chancellor David Lloyd George's house, with two bombs being planted
by Emily Davison. Only one of the bombs functioned but the building was seriously damaged,
although nobody was injured.
- On 4 April, the day after Emmeline Pankhurst was sentenced to 3 years in prison for her role in the
bombing of Lloyd George's house, a suffragette bomb was discovered in the street outside the Bank
of England. It was defused before it could detonate in what was then one of the busiest public streets
in the capital, which likely prevented many victims.
- In June 1913 a suffragette called Emily Davison, died under the King's horse in the attempt of
attaching a scarf with the colours of the movement to the horse, becoming at that time a sort of
martyr.
- Arson and bombing attacks continued into 1914. In this period churches were a common target for
suffragette attacks, as it was believed that the Church of England was complicit in reinforcing
opposition to women's suffrage. Between 1913 and 1914, 32 churches were the subject of suffragette
attacks, Westminster Abbey, where a bomb exploded damaging the Coronation Chair. The Abbey
was busy with visitors at the time, and around 80–100 people were in the building when the bomb
exploded. No serious injuries were reported. Moreover, in 1914 Mary Richardson slashed the
Rokeby Venus painted by Diego Velázquez in the National Gallery with an axe, protesting that she
was maiming a beautiful woman just as the government was maiming Emmeline Pankhurst with
force feeding

Imprisonment, hunger strikes and force-feeding

Suffragettes were not recognised as political prisoners, and many of them staged hunger strikes while they
were imprisoned. The first woman to refuse food was Marion Wallace Dunlop, a militant suffragette who
was sentenced to a month in for vandalism in 1909. After a 92-hour hunger strike, and for fear of her
becoming a martyr, the Home Secretary Herbert Gladstone decided to release her early on medical grounds.
Dunlop's strategy was adopted by other suffragettes who were incarcerated. It became common practice for
suffragettes to refuse food in protest for not being designated as political prisoners, and as a result they
would be released after a few days and could return to the "fighting line".
Unwilling to release all the suffragettes refusing food in prison, in the autumn of 1909, the authorities began
to adopt more drastic measures to manage the hunger-strikers. Prisons began the practice of force-feeding the
hunger strikers through a tube, most commonly via a nostril or stomach tube or a stomach pump. Force-
feeding had previously been practised in Britain but its use had been exclusively for patients in hospitals who
were too unwell to eat or swallow food. Despite the practice being deemed safe by medical practitioners for
sick patients, it posed health issues for the healthy suffragettes.
The process of tube-feeding was strenuous without the consent of the hunger strikers and after the practice
was observed and studied by several physicians, it was deemed to cause both short-term damage to
the circulatory system, digestive system and nervous system and long-term damage to the physical and
mental health of the suffragettes.

The cat and mouse act

In April 1913, The Prisoners Act, or the Cat and Mouse Act as it was commonly known, was passed. The act
made the hunger strikes legal. In this way suffragettes would be temporarily released from prison when their
health began to diminish, to be readmitted when they regained health to finish their sentence. The act enabled
the British Government to be absolved of any blame resulting from death or harm due to the self-starvation
of the striker and ensured that the suffragettes would be too ill and too weak to participate in demonstrative
activities while not in custody.
World war I
At the beginning of World War I, the suffragette movement in Britain moved away from suffrage activities
and focused on the war effort. In August 1914, the British Government released all prisoners who had been
incarcerated for suffrage activities on an amnesty. Pankhurst halted all militant suffrage activities soon after.
The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), which had always employed "constitutional"
methods, continued to lobby during the war years and compromises were worked out between the NUWSS
and the coalition government.
Achievements
In 1918, The Representation of the People Act, widened suffrage by abolishing practically all property
qualifications for men and by enfranchising women over 30 who met minimum property qualifications.
Asquith, an opponent, was replaced as prime minister in late 1916 by David Lloyd George who had, for his
first ten years as an MP, argued against women having the franchise.
In 1928, the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928 widened suffrage by giving women
electoral equality with men. It gave the vote to all women over 21 years old, regardless of property
ownership.
Impact and effectiveness
It is debatable how much effect the suffragette movement had on bringing about changes in voting laws.
During the war there was a serious shortage of able-bodied men and women were able to take on many of the
traditionally male roles. With the approval of the trade unions, complicated factory jobs handled by skilled
men were diluted that they could be handled by less skilled men and women. The result was a large increase
in women workers, concentrated in munitions industries essential to win the war. This led to an increased
societal understanding of what work women were capable of and, according to many historians, this new
kind of awareness would have contributed to women’s enfranchising. Indeed, it seems that women’s
enfranchisement was approved due to the active role of women during the war work rather than the previous
suffragettes’ violent campaign Actually, the impact of the WSPU's violent attacks drove many members of
the general public away from supporting the cause, and some members of the WSPU itself were also
alienated by the escalation of violence. Even 34 MPs who voted the 1911 Conciliation Bill changed their
mind and voted against the 1912 Bill. A further 70 former supporters abstained. While bill’s supporting
women’s suffrage in 1904, 1908 and 1911 had all achieved majorities, only failing for want of parliamentary
time. On the contrary, in 1912 the Conciliation bill did not even reach the majority, which demonstrates that
suffragettes’ more violent campaigns, had largely alienated public opinion from the suffrage question.
However, other historians believe that politicians had to cede at least some women the vote so as to avoid the
promised re-resurgence of militant suffrage action. For instance, the feminist historian June Purvis has also
renewed the arguments that militancy succeeded, arguing that that assertions about the counter-
productiveness of militancy deny or diminish the achievements of Pankhurst. Revisionist historians such as
Harrison and Martin Pugh have also attempted to draw greater attention to the role of the non-militants, such
as those in the anti-violence National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) (suffragists), and
emphasised their understated role in gaining votes for women.
Conclusion
Militancy may have been successful in attracting public attention but it never won the suffragettes wider
public support: actually, the WSPU was not trying to win a popularity contest. Their clearly stated aim was
to force the government’s hands, not to change its heart or appeal to its head. The Pankhursts’ believed that
the government would have had to back down to restore order and protect property. However, enfranchising
women on equal terms as men prior to 1918 without at the same time extended the vote to more men would
have meant a large number of conservative voters.