The Suffragettes
In 1900 no woman In Britain had the right vote. Men ruled the nation from
Parliament and women were expected to keep out of the way. lt was widely believed
that a woman's place was in the home, looking after her children and the husband. If
any woman had a job, it would always be lower paid than a man's, and women were
restricted to jobs as teachers, nannies, cleaners, nurses and factory workers.
By 1900, many people were beginning to think that the lowly status of women in
British society was wrong. Increasingly, it was felt that the way to improve their
status was to get women to vote. As early as 1867, an MP named John Stuart Mill
tried to introduce a law allowing women to vote. He was defeated, but similar bills
were introduced nearly every year after that, and each time they were defeated.
Several groups even started campaigning to get women the vote.
By 1900, the largest suffrage group was the National Union of Women's Suffrage
Societies (NUWSS) led by Millicent Fawcett, who joined up 500 local suffrage groups.
They were nicknamed the suffragists and used peaceful tactics to try to secure the
vote. They organized petitions, held meetings, published posters and wrote letters to
politicians. They didn't make much progress but they certainly turned women's
suffrage into a hot political issue.
In 1903, a member of a suffrage group In Manchester got fed up at the lack of
progress made by the suffragists. Her name was Emmeline Pankhurst and along with
her daughters, Sylvia and Christable, they decided to change tactics. They felt that
the only way to gain the country's attention was to get violent and become a
nuisance. If enough people are annoyed, they thought, then Parliament might give in
and give women the vote. Officially, the new militant group was known as the
Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) - but they were more commonly known
as the suffragettes and their new motto was ‘deeds, not words'.
The suffragettes did all they could to get public attention. They smashed shop
windows, threw eggs at politicians and chained themselves to the railings outside
Buckingham Palace. Despite all the publicity, women were still not given the vote.
Politicians who supported the idea of votes for women introduced bills in Parliament
in 1907, 1908 and twice in 1910 — but they were all defeated.
The suffragettes’ response to these setbacks was to get more violent. In April 1913,
they set fire to several schools, a lighthouse, dozens of post boxes, churches, houses
and sports grounds. They let off four bombs and slashed famous paintings with
knives. Someone even threw an axe at the Prime Minister. Most famously of all,
suffragette Emily Davison was killed when she ran out in front of the King's horse at
the Derby. Inside the dead woman's coat was sewn the suffragette colours of green,
white and purple.The suffragettes believed the increase in violence worked.
However, some believed the violence worked against their cause. It was argued that
the suffragette violence made the government even more stubborn — they didn't
want to be seen to give in to violence.
