Sources for Part A
You may choose any 5 sources
How useful and reliable are these sources in explaining why some people
did not support the methods used by the suffragettes to get the vote?
Source A1
I was determined to join the Pankhursts' organisation, the Women's Social
and Political Union, but was held up in this resolve for three months by the
fact that my father, who had considerable foresight and realised pretty well
what joining that body was likely to mean, was inclined to be opposed to the
idea.
[From a book written by Margaret Haig Thomas who a suffragette and wrote
This is my World in 1933]
Source A2
The first militant protest was decided upon by Miss Christabel Pankhurst,
and announced by mother or daughter to a small number of the more active
members of the Union. The body of members knew nothing of the plans until
they heard with the public that it had been carried out… It was at this point
that the sense of difference of outlook, of which I had always been
conscious in my association with Mrs. Pankhurst and her daughter, became
acute. I did not approve the line of protest determined upon. It seemed to
me to provide a very inadequate outlet for the expression of our rebellion.
[From an article written by Charles Mansell-Moulin that appeared in the Daily
Mirror on November 22nd 1910. He supported women’s suffrage but believed
that it should be achieved by peaceful means]
Source A3
[Cartoon by Will Dyson – appeared in the Daily Herald in 1914 – the cartoon was
titled Miss Davison]
Source A4
In December 1911 and March 1912, Emily Wilding Davison and Nurse Pitfield
had committed spectacular arson on their own initiative, both doing their
deeds openly and suffering arrest and punishment. In July 1912, secret
arson began to be organised under the direction of Christabel Pankhurst.
Women, most of them very young, toiled through the night across unfamiliar
country, carrying heavy cases of petrol and paraffin. Sometimes they failed,
sometimes succeeded in setting fire to an untenanted building - all the
better if it were the residence of a notability - or a church, or other place
of historic interest. Occasionally they were caught and convicted, usually
they escaped.
[In her book, The Suffrage Movement (1931), Sylvia Pankhurst described the
start of the WSPU arson campaign]
Source A5
So long as these women confined their activities to such ingenuous
performances as tying themselves to street lamps and park railings, throwing
leaflets from the Gallery of the House on the heads of members, or getting
themselves arrested for causing obstruction, the public were more amused
than angry, though the opponents of women suffrage never failed to point to
these antics as proof of the unfitness of women to vote. When they began
to destroy property and risk the lives of others than themselves the public
began to turn against them
[In his book, An Autobiography, published in 1934, Phillip, Viscount Snowden
criticised the WSPU]
Source A6
The window smashing has roused great hostility against the women. No
greater blunder could be conceived. Everything was looking favourably for
the women's amendment to the Government Bill being carried. The last
outbreak has however endangered all. It seems as if devised purposely to
show that women are incapable of political restraint. My conviction is now
and always has been that the Pankhursts have been the bane of the women's
movement
[From the diary of Bruce Glasier, written in April 1912. Glasier was a politician
although he was not elected to Parliament]
Source A7
These actions by the WSPU, while attracting huge amounts of publicity, had
the opposite effect intended; the public began to disapprove of the
suffragettes, as well as their cause. While most people, before the
outbreak of rampant militancy, supported the cause of women's suffrage,
once the new actions started, began to disapprove. Opponents of women's
suffrage in Parliament used the terrorist actions the women were using to
their advantage in debate, citing the insane actions as a very good reason
why women should not get the vote.
[ Marcie Kligman, The effect of British Militancy in the Suffragette movement
(1996), from a Welsh communist website]
Source A8
[ The front cover of a pro suffragette newspaper showing their opposition. The
cartoon is called the Suffrage and was published on October 17th 1913]
Source A9
The prospect of votes for women seemed remote at the end of 1909. The
Prime Minister and senior politicians were by now openly hostile to the
women’s demands... Unwomanly’ tactics like heckling and pestering
politicians, hurling missiles at the police and rowdy demonstrations outside
halls from which they were banned, had alienated the more cautious
sympathisers.
[Diane Atkinson, Votes for Women, (1988) – a school textbook from the 1980s