The first suffragists movements: “The Cause”
Soon the movement to gain votes for women divided in two wings:
the suffragists
and the Suffragettes
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Mrs Pankhurst’s daughters,
Sylvia and Christabel, also
joined the group. The motto
of the suffragettes was
deeds not words and from
1912 onwards they became
more militant and violent in
their methods of campaign.
In a period of only
eighteen months
Emmeline Pankhurst,
who was at the time
50 years old,
endured 10 of these
hunger strikes.
Many women were imprisoned for
breaking the law, and in prison a lot of
them went on hunger strikes to keep the
movement going and draw attention to
their campaign. The prison authorities
had to force feed them although this was
harmful for their health.
As peaceful methods didn’t
seem to work, the W.S.P.U. began
to break the law to gain publicity
and support. They disrupted
political meetings of leading
Liberal politicians and harassed
MP’s, began a campaign of
vandalism – smashing shop
windows, painted slogans on
buildings, cut telephone wires
and slashed paintings in art
galleries, chained themselves to
railings near Parliament in
London, and set fire to letter
boxes and empty public
buildings.
Hunger Strikes
The Pankhursts provided a strong example of women’s fighting for
women’s rights, this has inspired many feminists and women
politicians ever since.
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She studied in Paris
and at the age of 20,
she married Dr Richard
Pankhurst, a liberal
lawyer that supported
her society.
The Suffragettes
“deeds not words!”
In the nineteenth century women had no
place in national politics, as they could
not stand as candidates for Parliament.
They were not even allowed to vote; A
woman's role was only raising children
and taking care of the home.
the social and political
conditions of women
A group of feminists started a
movement for women's rights
called “The Cause” and it had no
particular political focus. The
first suffragists movements
wanted the vote for middle
class women. They believed
they would achieve it using
peaceful tactics - non-violent
demonstrations and petitions to
the Parliament.
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In 1903 started to grow impatient with the
middle class, respectable tactics of this group,
so she founded her own society:
WSPU (Women’s Social and Political Union).
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The outbreak of World War I
In 1914, when the war broke out, Emmeline stopped the
campaign and urged other women to support the war instead.
Later, in 1918, many MP’s were replaced with younger men who
supported the Suffragettes cause and things started to
change.
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