SUFFRAGETTES
The Suffragettes demanded public attention by chaining themselves to railings, breaking windows and
shouting: "Votes for Women'. Many militant suffragists were sent to prison and some of them adopted the
tactic of hunger striking. Women's suffrage was granted in 1918 and extended to all women on the same
basis as men in 1928.
The Suffragettes were only a small, extreme branch of a wider movement. Even at the height of the
agitation the majority of suffrage campaigners preferred a moderate approach.
Late Victorian feminists had campaigned for better rights since the 1860s, and in 1897 local 'suffragist'
groups came together under the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS).
In 1903 Emmeline Pankhurst founded the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in Manchester. The
motto of the movement was 'deeds not words'; militancy was the only way to attract public attention and
force MPs to support suffrage legislation.
But the Liberal government continued to ignore their demands, leading the Suffragettes to adopt more
radical action.
Mary Leigh broke windows in Downing Street and attacks on property became a common tactic. In 1910
the WSPU sent a deputation to the House of Commons. In the following clash with police, protesters were
assaulted. In this incident, known as Black Friday', hundreds of suffragettes were arrested. In July Marion
Dunlop Wallace, who was in Holloway Prison for stamping slogans on the walls of Parliament, went on
hunger strike. When other rebels followed her example, the authorities, so as not to create martyrs, began
force-feeding them.
In June 1913 Emily Davison was killed by the king's horse at the Epsom Derby when she threw herself in
front of it during a race. By the summer of 1914 with an election in view, campaigners hoped that a new
government would support their cause. When the First World War broke out, both the WSPU and the
NUWSS ceased political activities and women became involved in the work in the fields and factories.
Their vital contribution to the war effort was one of the many reasons why, on 6 February 1918, the
coalition government granted the vote to women through the Representation of the People Act. However,
only women over thirty, property owners and graduates from British universities could vote. In June of
1928 the government extended the right to vote to include all women over the age of twenty-one.
