The Development of the Women's Suffrage Movement (AQA GCSE History)

Summary

Although the franchise had been extended to many groups by the start of the 20^th century, women still could not vote in British general elections. Calls for this to change increased but there were differences in opinion over how the campaign should be fought. Both the law-abiding, nonviolent approaches of the Suffragists and the militant, attention-grabbing tactics of the Suffragettes faced long-established and widely held sexist prejudices that were difficult to overcome

The women’s suffrage groups

• Throughout the 19^th century, there had been demands for the right to vote to be extended to women

  • This was also known as suffrage 

• There had been some progress in improving women’s lives during the 1800s

  • The Married Women’s Property Act of 1870 allowed women to keep their property and money after marriage rather than handing them over to their husbands

  • Women were also given the right to vote in local elections

• Demands to extend the franchise to women in general elections had been unsuccessful

  • This led to the formation of three different groups

• As a result, in 1897, Millicent Fawcett brought together several groups that had been campaigning for women’s suffrage to form the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS)

Key features of the NUWSS

• Founded in 1897 and led by Millicent Fawcett

• Strictly law-abiding and non-violent

• The group was known as the Suffragists and they:

  • Produced leaflets, held rallies and marches

  • Tried to convince MPs from all political parties to argue on their behalf in Parliament

  • Tried to counter the sexist argument that women were too irrational and emotional to vote by campaigning in a calm and considered way

• The NUWSS gained many supporters and thousands joined its ‘pilgrimage’ from Carlisle to London in 1913

• The lack of progress made by the NUWSS convinced some campaigners to set up a rival organisation called the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU)

Key features of the WSPU

• Founded in 1903 and led by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Sylvia and Christabel, they:

  • Adopted a more militant approach summed up by their motto ‘deeds not words’

  • These deeds included throwing acid on golf courses, breaking windows, setting fire to post boxes and chaining themselves to railings

  • Became known as the Suffragettes

  • They were frequently arrested and imprisoned

• The militant tactics of the WSPU appalled some campaigners who decided to set up a third female suffrage pressure group called the Women’s Freedom League (WFL)

Key Features of the WFL

• Founded in 1907 and led by Teresa Billington-Greig and Charlotte Despard

• This was a breakaway group from the WSPU, they:

  • Were pacificists and had a democratic structure

  • Also believed in ‘deeds not words’ but was against attacks on property or people

  • Protested with acts such as refusing to pay tax or to give information to the census

The actions of the WSPU

• Although all three organisations campaigned for women’s suffrage, it was the actions of the WSPU that grabbed the most attention

  • Their stone-throwing campaign of 1912 led to thousands of broken windows and over 200 Suffragettes were arrested

• It was the death of Emily Wilding Davison at the 1913 Epsom Derby horse race that put the suffragettes on the front page of newspapers all over the world

  • Davison stepped in front of the King’s horse in the middle of the race

  • She was struck down and died from her injuries

  • Many people believed she had sacrificed herself for the cause of women’s suffrage 

  • Over 50,000 people lined the route of her funeral procession

  • The words ‘deeds not words’ were carved into her gravestone

The Cat and Mouse Act

• The government came under pressure to stop what many saw as the extreme actions of the Suffragettes

• Once arrested, many Suffragettes went  on hunger strike

  • This meant they refused to eat until they were released

  • The government did not want the bad publicity of Suffragettes starving to death, so it ordered them to be force-fed

  • This was dangerous and led to claims that the government was torturing women

• In response to these claims, the government passed the Prisoners Temporary Discharge for Ill Health Act in 1913

  •  This allowed prisoners to be released when they were weak from starvation and rearrested when they recovered their health

• Critics of the Act said it was like a cat cruelly toying with a mouse and it became widely known as the ‘Cat and Mouse Act’

• The force-feeding and imprisonment led to people becoming sympathetic and supportive towards the Suffragettes

Opposition to women’s suffrage

• Although the campaign for women’s suffrage had many thousands of supporters, others were fiercely opposed to it

  • Some of these opponents were women and included Florence Nightingale and Queen Victoria – the two most famous women in Victorian Britain

• It was common to view men as being responsible for public life and that a woman’s place was in the home

• Some believed that women were too irrational and emotional to make serious decisions about politics

• The Prime Minister Herbert Asquith was also opposed to women’s suffrage