How did women gain the right to
vote?
Aim: To revise key details
about the battle for
women’s suffrage
A revision presentation from http://www.mrallsophistory.com/
Votes for women?
Arguments For
Arguments Against
Women’s Campaign Groups
• Over the next few pages
are statements about the
two different women’s
campaign groups.
• See if you can remember
whether the statement
describes the suffragettes
or the suffragists.
Women’s Campaign Groups
A. The Suffragists
B. The Suffragettes
Also called the NUWSS
(National Union of
Women’s Suffrage
Societies)
Women’s Campaign Groups
A. The Suffragists
B. The Suffragettes
Also called the WSPU
(Women’s Social and
Political Union)
Women’s Campaign Groups
A. The Suffragists
B. The Suffragettes
Led by
Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst
Women’s Campaign Groups
A. The Suffragists
B. The Suffragettes
Led by
Mrs Millicent Fawcett
Women’s Campaign Groups
A. The Suffragists
B. The Suffragettes
Used peaceful
campaigning
Women’s Campaign Groups
A. The Suffragists
B. The Suffragettes
Used radical and militant
methods
The Suffragettes
Click here to watch the clip on
YouTube
Reactions to the Suffragettes
• The next slide shows a
cartoon drawn in reaction
to the suffragettes.
• What does it show
• What does it suggest
about the artist’s opinion of
suffragettes?
• Who do you think drew it?
• Why?
Reactions to the Suffragettes
1911 Conciliation Bill
• The government promised
to “conciliate” (make
peace) by introducing
votes for women
• It got an enormous
majority…
• …but was then dropped!
Suffragist response
A. Try to persuade the Prime
Minister to change his
mind
B. Support the Labour Party
at the new election
C. Organise a march from
Carlisle to London
D. Offer free membership to
all women
E. All of the above
Suffragette response
A. Escalated their campaign
of violence
B. Escalated their campaign
of violence
C. Escalated their campaign
of violence
D. Escalated their campaign
of violence
E. All of the above
Suffragette response
s
Drawing of a force-feeding published in the
Suffragette magazine, 1909
• The Temporary
Discharge of
Prisoner’s Act (1913)
• This meant that
prisoners who were
weak from hunger
striking could be
released from prison
• When they were
stronger, they were
re-arrested and
brought back to
prison to finish their
sentence
Emily Davison
• Wanted to publicise the
suffragettes
• Tried to pin a flag on the
King’s horse at the Derby
at Epsom racecourse
• She was killed in the
collision
Emily Davison
A. An extreme protest to
martyr herself for the
suffragettes?
B. A publicity stunt that went
terribly wrong?
How effective were the
suffragettes?
• They had raised the public
profile of the issue
• The government only started
taking the issue seriously after
militancy started
• Increasing violence reduced
support
• Supported the view that
women were irrational
• If the government gave in
violence here, what other
violence might happen
– Would Ireland mount violent
protests for Home Rule?
How effective were the
suffragettes?
• Vote on a scale of 1-10
Women in WW1
• When war broke out, both
suffragettes and suffragists
suspended their
campaigns for the vote
• They began actively trying
to recruit men for the army
– white feather, etc.
• As more and more men
went to war, industry
began to suffer a shortage
of workers
Women in WW1
• In which order did women
enter “men’s” jobs?
A. Munitions factories
B. Women’s Army Auxiliary
Corps
C. Women’s Land Army
D. Office jobs
Women in WW1
• In which order did women
enter “men’s” jobs?
D. Office jobs
A. Munitions factories
C. Women’s Land Army
B. Women’s Army Auxiliary
Corps
Women in WW1
• Women began working in
offices
• Industry was reluctant at
first to take on women
– Did they have the skills?
– Unions feared that women
would be cheaper, and so
men would be too expensive
when they returned
Women in WW1
• By 1916, the number of
industrial workers was
desperate
– More and more munitions
and supplies needed at the
front
– Less and less men working in
factories, because they’d all
joined the army
Women in WW1
• Women began working in
munitions factories
• By the end of the war
almost 800,000 women
were working in them
– They proved they were just
as skilled and capable as
men
Women in WW1
• As the war went on, more
women started to work in
“men’s” jobs
• Bus conductors, postal
workers, etc.
• Women’s Land Army
• A kind of social revolution
was taking place
(Some) women get the vote…
• In 1918 the Representation
of the People Act was
passed
• Older and/or richer women
were given the vote
• Younger, working-class
women may still have
been too “radical”
• All women got the vote in
1928