SUFF
RAGETTES
Give
Women the Vote!
This page is to help you find out more about the Suffragettes and the Suffragists: the people who were determined to win the vote for women in the later part of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century.
Although giving women the vote became a topical theme of the 1800s it wasn’t until 1893 that New Zealand became the first country in the world to award it. In 1902 Australia followed. It wasn’t until 1918 that Britain followed suit, and even then the vote was given only to certain groups of women, such as householders.
Suffragists believed passionately in giving women the vote but refused to break the law.
Suffragettes believed in direct action and would do almost anything to get their way.
The Swan and Edgar store in London is tidied up in 1912 after suffragettes shattered its windows.
Suffragettes found a leader in
Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928). In 1903 she founded the Women’s Social and Political Union to fight for votes for women. Suffragettes found themselves up against the Liberal government, led by the Prime Minister, H.H. Asquith, and plenty of ordinary people (men and women) who opposed their aims and methods.Many of the women were imprisoned. In order to get released, some adopted hunger strikes. The government introduced a new law under the Cat and Mouse Act of 1913 to deal with this: once a woman was restored to health, she was put back in prison. These events led to the death of
Emily Davison in 1913 when she fell beneath the hooves of the King’s horse in the Derby at Epsom.
Suffragettes stand guard over Emily Davison’s coffin at Victoria Station where it was brought from Epsom.
The First World War changed everything. Suffragettes abandoned their campaign in order actively to support the war. Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter
Christabel became committed to the war effort. Her other daughter Sylvia was a pacifist but remained a committed suffragette.
Meanwhile many women found their lives changed forever by having to fend for themselves while so many men were away. Not only did they have to look after their families but were encouraged to go out and work in jobs which had been traditionally men’s.
At
Biographies you’ll find a list of some of the most important people and organisations.