The Suffrage Campaign
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The early campaign
Role of socialism and the Labour Party
Suffrage reinvigorated
Anti Suffragism
Men in the suffrage movement
Women’s organisations and methods
Gaining the vote
Conclusion
The Early Campaign
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In 1867 J. S. Mill hands a petition signed by 1,500 women to the House of
Commons to have a women’s suffrage amendment added to the 1867
Reform Act. The petition fails. Many more working class men enfranchised by
the Act and again by a further Reform Act in 1884.
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Organised suffrage campaign starts in 1867 in response, with the founding of
two major women’s suffrage committees, one in London the other in
Manchester: The London Society for Women’s Suffrage and the Manchester
Society for Women’s Suffrage.
Depiction of J.S Mill
being presented with
the suffrage petition in
1867
• The London Society had J.S Mill as its president and included
Millicent Garrett Fawcett who later became leader of the
law abiding National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies
(NUWSS). It was a conservative group Most members were
middle class Liberals.
• The Manchester Society sought to develop a large scale,
nationwide campaign inspired by the anti corn law
movement. Lydia Becker did much to inspire this by
travelling and speaking up and down the country. Emeline
Pankhurst who was later to become the charismatic leader
of the ‘militant’ Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU)
was part of the Manchester movement. The Society had links
with the working class and industrial politics of the north.
Tensions
• Disagreement on how to run the campaign and on what women’s suffrage
demands should be. Had to rely on convincing male members of parliament
to take up their cause if they were to succeed.
• Differences over whether married women should be included in suffrage
demands or not. Becker and Fawcett would not insist on their inclusion.
Other more radical suffragists such as Emily Wolstenholme Elmy who would
later join the WSPU when in her seventies, thought this contributed to the
ongoing degradation of married women.
• Disagreements over extending the vote to all women. Many middle class
women found it objectionable that working class men had the vote when
they, as property owners, did not
• This slowed the progression of the campaign and it continued to rely on low
key lobbying rather than mass campaigning.
Women’s Suffrage and Socialism.
• Women’s suffrage had been a feature of
early socialist debate among Owenite and
Chartist movements.
• Socialist ideology became more
influential. Several socialist organisations
formed including the Independent Labour
Party (1893).
• ILP advocated universal suffrage (the vote
for men and women). This meant a lack of
support within the Party for a separate
women’s suffrage bill.
• ILP ambivalence also because suffragists
demand for the vote, ‘on same terms as
men’ would have mostly enfranchised
propertied middle and upper class women
who traditionally voted Conservative.
• Some influential voices within the ILP, such as
Keir Hardie, pushed the Party to adopt a
separate women’s bill
• Many suffragists including the Pankhursts were
early ILP members. Sylvia Pankhurst became a
committed socialist and suffragist which caused
a split between her and her mother and sister,
Emmeline and Christabel, who moved the
WSPU away from its working class and socialist
origins.
• Many socialist women were torn throughout
the campaign between class and gender
Women’s Suffrage and the Labour Party
• In 1900, the ILP and other socialist and trade union
organisations joined together to form a group to work for
universal suffrage inside the House of Commons hence the
Labour Party was formed.
• A number of Labour MPs, eg George Lansbury, supported the
idea of introducing a separate women’s suffrage bill. Overall,
Party reluctant to commit to a separate women’s bill.
• Conciliation Bill debacle of 1910-12. Bill proposed a women’s
suffrage amendment to the existing franchise which the Liberal
government pledged to consider. After several readings, the bill
failed and the government proposed further extension to male
suffrage instead.
• 1912 - Labour Party announced it ‘could find no [government]
bill acceptable that does not include women’.
• NUWSS now believed the Labour Party offered the best
prospect for women’s suffrage and formed an influential
alliance. Sylvia Pankhurst split from the WSPU to form the East
London Federation of Suffragettes (ELF) which was aligned to
the Labour Party.
The Suffrage Movement reinvigorated
• Suffrage movement reinvigorated in the twentieth century with formation of the
WSPU. Employed more radical tactics to put suffrage on the public as well as the
political agenda.
• This resulted in more women joining the campaign which benefitted all suffrage
organisations even those that did not agree with the WSPU’s tactics.
• Movement attracted a more diverse range of support. It incorporated broad
national societies alongside a host of smaller associations based around specific
localities, institutions, professions or religious beliefs.
• Liddington and Norris among first to show greater level of working class
involvement than previously thought: Annie Kenney and Hannah Mitchell high
profile examples.
• Movement relied heavily on propaganda techniques to convey its message
including banners, posters, postcards, suffrage plays and dramas, processions
and newspapers. These were used by all societies and were mostly produced by
the Artists Suffrage League (NUWSS) and The Suffrage Atelier.
Key Women’s Suffrage Organisations
No of Branches
NUWSS
WSPU
WFL
CUWFA
460
90
61
68
Lady Willoughby de Broke and Compton
Verney.
Lady de Broke was a leading member of
the CUWFA and active in a number of
other social and economic causes such
as enquiries into domestic service
Members of Warwickshire branches of women’s suffrage societies march
through Stratford in 1911
Anti suffrage campaign
• Reinvigoration of suffrage campaign led to similar
invigoration of anti suffrage movement.
• Anti arguments drew on notions of separate
spheres
• The most famous female anti suffragist was the
novelist Mrs. Mary Humphrey Ward (1851-1920).
She wrote on the topic, publishing an essay, ‘An
appeal against women’s suffrage’ in 1889.
• Supported the ‘forward policy’ which was
essentially to encourage women’s further
involvement in local politics
• Female anti suffragism became official with the
founding of the Women’s National Anti-Suffrage
League in 1908 later joined with the men’s
league to become the, National League for
opposing Women’s Suffrage.
• By 1910 they had over 100 branches, 16,000
members and 400,000 signatures on petitions.
Unsurprisingly, many men were anti suffragists and their arguments for women’s
exclusion from the franchise drew on: women’s lack of common sense; Their
tendency to be ruled by emotion or their physiological shortcomings due to
menstruation or child bearing; or, as in these examples of anti suffrage
propaganda, the neglect of the home and children or women’s questionable
mental capacity compared to men.
Men in the Suffrage Movement
• Men had always been involved in the
women’s suffrage campaign and many had
socialist, Labour Party or ‘left wing’
affiliations.
• Frederick Pethwick Lawrence - Cambridge
graduate, trained in law, started as Liberal
candidate. After meeting his wife, Emmeline,
he moved away from the Liberal Party
becoming immersed in the WSPU and left
wing politics.
• William Ball was an anomaly as a working
class man and trade unionist. Arrested for
window smashing in 1911 he was imprisoned
with hard labour and was force fed repeatedly
when he went on hunger strike. Eventually
suffered temporary mental breakdown.
• Men’s organised suffrage groups began to form in the mid 1900’s as auxiliaries
to women’s suffrage groups.
• The Men’s League for Women’s Suffrage (MLSW)(1907) was formed by a group
of largely middle class, left wing radicals. This was followed by the Men’s
Political Union – a male wing of the WSPU that carried out militant tactics and
acted as WSPU bodyguards.
• By 1910, the MLSW had
10 branches around the country.
• Men’s position in the movement
was difficult. Most work was
carried out ‘behind the scenes’
to avoid usurping or interfering
with the women’s actions.
Women’s Social and
Political Union
• Formed in 1903 in Manchester by Emmeline
Pankhurst.
• WSPU roots in ILP and working class politics.
Originally called the Women’s Labour Representation
Committee.
• WSPU intended to combine suffrage work with the
social goals of Labour and Socialist women activists.
• "Deeds, not Words" was to be our permanent motto.”
E. Pankhurst, 1903.
• Moved headquarters from Manchester to
London. Shot to prominence when
Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenney
initiated the militant phase of the
suffrage movement.
• ‘Unladylike’ tactics and arrest resulted in
widespread national and international
coverage and put the question of
women’s suffrage on the public as well as
political agenda.
• Suffragette actions graduated from
heckling to more violent methods
including sabotage, vandalism, looting,
arson, attacking MP’s and ultimately
death.
• The cause was given its first martyr in 1913 when Emily Wilding Davidson
‘threw’ herself under the King's horse on Derby Day, 1913.
• A martyr and hero to some, Emily represented to others why women shouldn’t
get the vote. If this was what educated women could do what would less
educated women be capable of if they did get the franchise?
• Violence was seen as state sanctioned
and often described in gender specific
terms.
• Women were physically abused by men
when giving public speeches on behalf of
women’s suffrage.
• Women complained that they were
sexually molested by police officers when
they were being arrested.
• In prison women were force fed under the
Liberal Government’s ‘Prisoners
Temporary Discharge for Ill Health Act’
(1913) better known as the ‘Cat and
Mouse’ Act. Likened by many suffragette
victims to rape.
• The WSPU’s continued support of ‘wilder’
acts by its members, dismayed many.
Pankhurst’s dictatorial leadership style also
problem
• 1907 – Teresa Billington-Greig and Charlotte
Despard breakaway from the WSPU to form
the Women’s Freedom League (WFL).
• WFL had links to the socialist world and
Labour politics as did another WSPU
dissident group the United Suffragists in
1914 .
• A more radical fringe turned to anarchism,
syndicalism and the politics of sexual
liberation. The Freewoman, founded by two
former WSPU organisers, Dora Marsden and
Mary Gawthorpe, was their principal forum.
1911 Census
• 1911 census took place at the height of
militant suffragette activity
• Campaigners viewed the census as another
method of non-violent resistance against the
government
• A number of methods were used to express
dissatisfaction with some avoiding registration
altogether (for more information see Jill
Liddington, Vanishing for the Vote)
Lillian Dove-Willcox census entry.
She headed out in her caravan to
Salisbury Plain but a civil servant
filled in this entry.
The women on the left camped
out on Wimbledon Common
There were mass evasions (see below the
schedule of Mildred Mansell in Bath.
A working-class protestor giving her
occupation as suffragette: Alice Clarke from
Lozells, Birmingham. And a middle-class
version: Phillis Dowson of Lapworth
Ada Florence Wightwick defaced the schedule and signed herself
as a non-militant suffragette (for now…) The enumerator pencilled
in No, No, No next to the Votes for Women!! slogan
National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies
• NUWSS formed in 1897 and led by Millicent Garrett Fawcett.
• NUWSS was the largest women’s suffrage organisation and ironically, its
substantial membership quadrupled following the WSPU’s publicity stunts.
• Between 1907 and 1910 the number of societies affiliated with the NUWSS
increased by more than 400, while its total membership increased by more than
50,000 and its income quadrupled.
• Continued tradition of earlier suffrage campaigning by persistently lobbying and
petitioning the government. Publicised its activities through its official paper the
Common Cause.
• Increasingly at odds with the WSPU. NUWSS and WSPU temporarily united to
publically support the Conciliation Bill. WSPU agreed to observe a cessation of
militant action to give the Bill the best chance of succeeding. When the
government stalled, the WSPU broke its pledge. This caused renewed tension
between the groups as many in the NUWSS held the WSPU responsible for the
Bill’s failure.
• The effect of its law abiding methods, perseverance, and its later work with the
Labour Party and working class activists are now recognised as having been
undervalued in early suffrage histories that focused on the more dramatic WSPU.
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The difference between women ‘militants’
and ‘none militants’ attached to organisations
like the WSPU and the NUWSS respectively,
have often been exaggerated in histories of
the campaign and must be treated cautiously.
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Women often belonged to several suffrage
organisations at the same time or shifted
their allegiances as the campaign progressed.
Regional branches often defied dictates from
the leadership.
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Militant has often been defined as ‘violent’. In
this case, not many suffrage supporters were
‘militant’ as violent acts were carried out by
very few women. Historical approaches to
women’s activities in the campaign are now
more nuanced.
Gaining the Vote
• By 1914 over 1,000 suffragettes had been imprisoned for destroying public
property. All the leading members of the WSPU were in prison, in very poor
health or were living in exile. The number of active members of the organisation
in a position to commit acts of violence was now very small.
• Outbreak of War in 1914 meant many organisations stopped campaigning for
women’s suffrage. NUWSS suspended all political activity until the war was over.
The leadership of the WSPU negotiated the release of suffragettes from prison
and in return agreed to end their militant activities and help the war effort.
• At the meeting, attended by 30,000 people, Emmeline Pankhurst called on
Trade Unions to allow women to work in traditionally male sectors.
• She denounced anti War socialist and Labour activists as ‘bolsheviks’ including
suffragists like Margaret Bondfield and Mary MacArthur.
• Limited women’s suffrage was eventually obtained with the 1917
Representation of the People Act. In the event, only women over the age of
thirty were given the vote, which enfranchised some 7 million British women
but left another 5 million still without the suffrage.
• It is therefore hard to argue that women’s War work resulted in the suffrage as
most young, female munitions workers were excluded.
Conclusion
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The early suffrage movements of the 1870s and 1880s were not large scale but
the differing approaches adopted by the London and Manchester Societies lay
the foundations for the later mass campaigns of the NUWSS and the WSPU.
Politics associated with socialism and working class movements at a national
and local level; at an organisational and individual level, had a significant
impact on women’s suffrage campaigning.
Many arguments for and against women’s suffrage relied on established
notions of gender roles and differences although some of these were
challenged by suffrage activists.
How influential the campaign was in women achieving the vote, is still the
subject of debate as are the pro’s, cons and definitions of militancy.
The suffrage campaign was long, complex and fluid. Women had hoped
achieving the vote would change their lives and wider society for the good.
However, little changed and women’s lives continued to be debated around
social and domestic issues rather than citizenship.
http://www.r4womeninprison.com/2016/03/womens-suffrage-campaignersprison-reform/