Label the picture
You have 60 seconds…
Convict
Padlock
Sum up this picture in one sentence:
 At the start of the
twentieth century, women
were not equal with men.
 Women were seen as in
charge of the home, while
the man went out to work.
 Most importantly, they
were not allowed to vote
in national General
Elections.
 Some people began to
support the campaign to
give women the vote
(women’s suffrage).
 The Victorians thought
that the ideal wife was:
Angelic
Obedient
Pale and delicate
Silent
A possession (when a
woman married her
husband, her
possessions and even
the woman herself
legally became her
husband’s property)
 Women had made
progress in some areas.
 They were allowed to
vote in local elections.
 In 1865, Elizabeth Garrett
Anderson became the
first qualified female
doctor.
 In 1879, Somerville
College opened at Oxford
University – the first
female college.
Politically
From 1850 women gained educational, civil and political equality.
•1867 – John Stuart Mills proposed bill to give women the vote – laughed
out of parliament. 71 votes for 123 against – but most abstained.
•These bills were proposed more and more yet never passed. From then
on these bills were proposed nearly every year.
•1869 – Municipal Franchise Act gave single women the right to vote in
local elections.
•1870-1894 – women are allowed to be elected to school boards, poor law
guardianship, parish and district councils.
•1870 Married Women’s Property Acts meant husbands no longer owned
their property. Women were able to sue for desertion without going to the
workhouse.
•1870 Education Act ( 1872 Scotland) assured girls the same basic
education as boys.
Miss Stockdill CDHS 2004
Suffrage
Suffrage means the right to vote.
When the Industrial Revolution began, the
right to vote was limited to a small group of
Anglican, upper class, land-owning men.
The economic and social changes of the
Industrial Revolution will slowly force the
British government to give the right to vote to
middle class men, then working class men,
then married women, and then all women.
“Suffragettes who have never been kissed.”
Women seeking the vote were an easy target for
low-grade humour.
Did women deserve the vote?
Women can be teachers, lawyers and
doctors.
Women are not able to fight in the army
so cannot defend the country.
The number of women in work was
increasing.
Women do not want to vote.
Women are increasingly involved in
political activities, like trade unions.
If women could vote they might abandon
their families for politics.
Not giving women the vote means that
they are treated the same as criminals.
If women could vote, Britain would seem
weaker to the other world powers.
Women were allowed to vote in Australia,
New Zealand and some parts of the USA.
Past experience shows that men are
perfectly capable of governing without
women.
If more people could vote, the government
would be able to say that it was more
democratic and represented more people.
Women can already vote in local
elections which deal with ‘female’ issues.
Women would be more likely to want
social reforms which would better the
conditions of the country.
Women would be told how to vote by
their husbands.
Women could vote in local elections and
had proven that they didn’t vote for
radical or ‘wacky’ people.
Step 2: Think
Stepabout
Step
1: Look
3:different
Try
at to
both
answer
people
sidesthe
ofhaving
the
question
argument
different opinions
An Anti-Suffrage
Campaign Poster
Which step does each statement match up to?
Step 1: Look at both
sides of the
argument
Most women would have supported the
arguments in favour of women’s suffrage, because
they wanted to gain more power and influence.
Step 2: Think
about different
people having
different opinions
There were arguments in favour of women getting
the vote, but there were also some arguments
against it – mainly a fear of the unknown and that
it was tradition that women did not vote.
Step 3: Try to
answer the
question
On
proved
that
they
On the
thewhole,
whole,women
womenhad
had
proved
that
they
deserved
they
hadhad
shown
that
deservedthe
thevote
votebecause
because
they
shown
they
were were
capable
of playing
an intelligent
role in
that they
capable
of playing
an intelligent
society.
role in society.
1
Reforming Parliament
In 1815, Britain was a constitutional monarchy. Yet, it was far
from democratic:
• Less than five percent of the people had the right to
vote.
• Wealthy nobles and squires dominated politics.
• The House of Lords could veto any bill passed by the
House of Commons.
• Catholics and non-Anglican Protestants could not vote
or serve in Parliament.
• Populous new cities had no seats in Parliament, while
rural towns with few or no voters still sent members to
Parliament.
• In 1832, Parliament finally passed the Great Reform Act.
• It redistributed seats in the House of Commons.
• It enlarged the electorate by granting suffrage to more
men.
1
A New Era in British Politics
•In the 1860s, the old political parties regrouped under new leadership:
• The Tories became the Conservative party, led by Benjamin
Disraeli.
• The Whigs evolved into the Liberal party, led by William
Gladstone.
•In the late 1800s, these two parties pushed little by little for suffrage to
be extended.
•By century’s end, almost-universal male suffrage had been achieved.
•In 1911, a Liberal government passed measures to limit the power of
the House of Lords.
•In time, the House of Lords would become a largely ceremonial body,
while the elected House of Commons would reign supreme.
Social and Political Reforms
During the 1830s industrialization led to rapid changes in British society, and
some began to call for social and political reform.
Industrial Revolution
• Growing prosperity of working,
middle classes led to greater
demands for political reform
• 1800, landowning aristocrats
made up most of Parliament
• Some industrial cities had no
representatives at all
• Only wealthy male property
owners could vote; public office
restricted to men of wealth
Reform Act of 1832
• 1830s, demands for reform too
strong to ignore
• Liberals challenged old
aristocratic, conservative order
• Reform Act of 1832 gave
industrial cities representation
• Also gave voting rights to middleclass men who owned certain
amount of property
• Women excluded from voting
Other Reforms
New Laws
• 1833, Parliament abolished slavery in Great Britain, all British Empire
• Government compensated slave owners depending on how many they freed
• Parliament also passed new public health and crime laws
Chartism
• 1839, group called Chartists worked for voting rights for all men
• Name from People’s Charter, petition sent to Parliament demanding voting
rights, secret ballot, annual elections, pay for representatives in Parliament
Parliamentary Reaction
• People’s Charter rejected; Chartists gained wide popular support, staged
uprisings; large revolt, 1848
• Chartists did not see immediate results but many reforms passed eventually
Compare
How did the demands of Chartism compare
to the voting reforms passed in 1832?
Answer(s): 1832 voting reforms redrew borough lines,
extended vote to many middle-class property owners, gave
parliamentary representation to many industrial towns, but
not to industrial workers; Chartists called for additional
reforms, extending the vote to all men, vote by secret
ballot, annual elections, payment of representatives in
Parliament
Victorian Era Voting Reforms
In 1837 Queen Victoria became the ruler of Great Britain. The Victorian Era
lasted until 1901. It was a time of great change, including voting reforms that
made the country more democratic.
Disraeli and
Gladstone
Liberal vs.
Conservative
• 1868–1885, two
influential prime
ministers, William
Gladstone, Benjamin
Disraeli, elected
several times
• Gladstone, Liberal
party, took more
progressive approach
to solving society’s
problems
• Disraeli, Conservative
party, wanted to
preserve traditions of
past
Male Suffrage
• Disraeli put forth new
reform bill to extend
voting rights to more
working men; passed
1867
• Another law created
the secret ballot;
discouraged bribery,
intimidation
Women’s Suffrage
Question of Rights
1867 Reform Bill
• 1800s, women not seen as equals
to men; could not own property, not
legal guardians of their children
• Disraeli argued that if a woman
could be queen, she should be able
to vote
• Many women thought right to vote
would increase power in society
• Tried to add women’s suffrage to
1867 reform bill but did not
succeed
• Queen Victoria against women’s
suffrage, called it “mad, wicked
folly”
• Suffragists tried but made little
progress for nearly 40 years;
lobbied, signed petitions, educated
public
First wave feminism 1800’s - 1920’s
Concerns:
•women's social and legal inequalities
•education, employment, the marriage laws, and
• the plight of intelligent middle-class single women.
•They were not primarily concerned with the problems
•of working-class women, nor did they necessarily see
•themselves as feminists in the modern sense
•(the term was not coined until 1895).
•First Wave Feminists largely responded to specific injustices
•they had themselves experienced.
Women’s right to
vote was an issue
raised from the
1830’s through
1918 / 1928.
Improvements:
•opening of higher education for women;
•reform of the girls' secondary-school system,
including participation in formal national examinations
• the widening of access to the professions, especially medicine;
• married women's property rights,
recognized in the Married Women's Property Act of 1870
• some improvement in divorced and separated women's child custody rights.
Mary Wollstonecraft’s book “Vindication of the rights of women” 1792
In the book she attacked the educational restrictions that kept women in a state of "ignorance
and slavish dependence."
She was especially critical of a society that encouraged women to
be "docile and attentive to their looks to the exclusion of all else."
Wollstonecraft described marriage as "legal prostitution" and added that women
"may be convenient slaves, but slavery will have its constant effect, degrading the master
and the abject dependent."
Mary Wollstonecraft, Frances Wright, and
Margaret Fuller believed that giving women
an equal education to that of men would do
more to improve women’s position in
society than voting rights.
The Origins of the Suffragist Movements
 Female suffrage - emerged as a political issue in Britain in the 1860s
following Parliament’s refusal to replace ‘man’ with person in what
would become the 1867 Reform Act bill.
 19th century: loose groupings of suffragists drawing on ideas and
members from other campaigns, such as the Chartists and the
Abolitionists – no dominant individuals or groups until the turn of the
century.
 Trans-national movement, sought to redress the social injustice of
male repression.
 British society – support for the idea that suffragism was a mental
disorder ‘akin to epidemic hysteria, with its attendant symptoms of a
loss of the normal sense of decency and of the normal use of reasoning
powers’.
 Edward VII’s surgeon: ‘sexually embittered women’ who were clearly
‘life-long strangers to joy’.
A bit of background……
•In 1850 women were thought of as second class citizens.
•People believed women were inferior to men – physically and mentally.
•Women were paid less than men, and tended to do less skilled work.
• They were excluded from many professions and it was thought that ‘a
woman’s place is in the home’.
•Women were not allowed to vote in general elections.
•Women would lose their femininity in politics.
•Women weren’t well educated enough to vote.
•If women became involved in politics the home would suffer.
•Women were too emotional to handle the responsibility of the vote.
 Caption: What a Woman may be, and yet not have
the vote: Mayor, Nurse, Mother, Doctor or Teacher,
Factory Hand
 What a man may have been, and yet not lose the
vote: Convict, Lunatic, Proprietor of white slaves,
Unfit for Service, Drunkard
Anti-Suffrage
Caption: “WHAT! DINNER NOT READY YET!
WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING?
Anti Suffrage
A bit of background…
Conservatives – against women voting, worried they would vote
for liberal or labour.
Liberals worried if property owning women were given the vote
then they would vote conservative.
Labour, started in 1900, were in favour of female suffrage but
wanted all working class women to get the vote first.
Miss Stockdill CDHS 2004
 The National Union of
Women’s Suffrage Societies
(NUWSS) was founded by
Millicent Fawcett.
 It was an organisation set
up to win the vote for
women.
 By the beginning of the
twentieth century it had over
500 branches.
 Members of the NUWSS
were nicknamed suffragists.
The NUWSS
• 1897, National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies by by
Millicent Fawcett - grew to have over 50,000 members.
• Adherents of peaceful protest - pragmatic rather than
ideological as she thought that violent behaviour would only fuel
traditional notions that women were too irrational to be worthy
of suffrage.
• Strategy - the patient use of logical arguments to gain the vote.
Argued that if women were bound by laws, surely they should
have a say in their making.
• \And women even employed men who could vote when they
could not!
• Very slow progress – converted some but the predominant
feeling was still that women would not be able to understand
the workings of Parliament.
National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies.
•Established 1897 by Millicent Fawcett.
•Methods
•Peaceful protest.
•Petitions to parliament
• E.g. 1910 presented petition with 250,000 signatures in favour of
female suffrage.
•Propaganda
•Newspaper ‘The Suffragist’. Leaflets etc. In 1913 spend £45,000
on publicity.
Miss Stockdill CDHS 2004
NUWSS Large membership
•1909 13,000 members
•1913 100,000 members and 500 branches nationwide.
•Maintained support for peaceful
respectful methods.
• Processions gained publicity.
•Large membership and propaganda
meant they had a wide influence across
Britain. Benefits of male membership.
•Peaceful methods easy to ignore.
•By 1905 the press had were virtually
ignoring them.
•Concentrated on a wide range of issues
– not just female suffrage.
•Lost essential political support from
Liberals from 1910.
•S. Holten argues pre war campaigning
before the war was important for bringing
women’s issues to the fore.
Miss Stockdill CDHS 2004
 The suffragists followed
traditional political
methods in their fight to
get the vote.
 They held meetings and
demonstrations, signed
petitions and wrote letters
to MPs.
 The suffragists made
people aware of the
campaign for women’s
rights, but not everybody
was impressed.
The WSPU
 1903, Women’s Social and Political Union founded by Emmeline
Pankhurst and her daughters, Christabel and Sylvia.
 The Union’s members became known as the Suffragettes - not
prepared to be patient, willing to use violence.
 Peaceful until 1905, Christabel and Annie Kenney arrested for
interrupting a political meeting. They refused to pay a fine, preferring a
prison sentence to highlight the injustice that was being done to them.
Emmeline Pankhurst’s autobiography:
‘..this was the beginning of a campaign the like of which was never
known in England, or for that matter in any other country…we
interrupted a great many meetings…and we were violently thrown out
and insulted. Often we were painfully bruised and hurt.’
 Violence committed by the WSPU members – burned down churches
(CofE opposed to their appeals), planted a bomb in Westminster
Abbey, vandalised Oxford Street shops and golf courses, firebombed
the homes of politicians and sailed down the Thames hurling abuse at
Parliament.
 Also used some non-violent measures however, such as refusing to
pay taxes, chaining themselves to Buckingham Palace and welcoming
arrests.
 Emmeline Pankhurst
started the Women’s
Social and Political Union
(WSPU) in 1903.
 Its members were called
the suffragettes.
 They set up a
headquarters in London
and hoped to draw more
attention to women’s
suffrage.
Emmeline
Pankhurst
 Central leaders in the suffrage
movement in Britain included
Emmeline Pankhurst, a leader of the
National Union of Women’s Suffrage
Societies.
 Various women’s organizations in the
West had circulated petitions, led
marches, and held demonstrations to
support their demands for the right
to vote.
 After the refusal of government
officials to offer full suffrage,
Pankhurst advocated extreme
militancy in pursuit of woman’s
rights.
 She helped to organize assaults on
private property and hunger strikes
to promote her cause.
 Her militancy and the less radical
activities of others helped women
achieve suffrage.
WSPU
Member’s Card
Women’s Social and Political Union - 1903
•Founded by Emmeline Pankhurst
•Motto ‘deeds not words’.
•Methods
•Believed in using militancy to gain the vote.
•Gained publicity through propaganda, leaflets, newspapers,
marches and demonstrations.
•Series of 6 meetings in 1908 attracted more than 25,000 women
to attend.
•1908 Demonstration Hyde Park – £1,000 spent on publicity.
Miss Stockdill CDHS 2004
 When the suffragettes
moved to London, it
provided opportunities for
staging spectacular
demonstrations.
 Women’s Sunday on 21st
June 1908 was a large
meeting held by the
WSPU.
 It brought suffragettes
from all over the UK to
march in seven different
processions through
central London to Hyde
Park.
 It was a highly organised
demonstration attracting a
crowd of 200,000 – one of the
largest single demonstrations
ever up to that time.
 Many dressed in the suffragette
colours of purple, white and
green and over 700 banners
were carried.
 Emmeline Pankhurst spoke to
the crowds and demanded that
the government supported a bill
for women’s suffrage.
 The organisers
persuaded the authorities
to remove a quarter of a
mile of park railings to
accommodate the
processions that gathered
in Hyde Park.
 Amongst the brass
bands, singers and
parades were 20
temporary platforms
erected in a circle around
the park for 80 different
speakers to address the
crowds.
Which of these sources is the most useful to
somebody trying to find out about Women’s
Sunday?
“I am sure a great many people
never realised until yesterday
how young and dainty and
elegant and charming most of
the leaders of the movement are.
And how well they spoke – with
what free and graceful gesture;
never at a loss for a word or an
apt reply to an interruption; calm
A photograph of Women’s Sunday taken
and collected; forcible, yet so far
by a suffragette photographer in 1908
as I heard, not violent; earnest
but happily humorous as well.”
Daily Mail,
1908
Step
StepJune
2:3:How
How
reliable
useful isiseach
eachsource?
source?
Step
1: What
does
each
source
say/show?
(Think
(Think
about
about
about
what
itwho
shows
made
andit,what
when
is and
missing)
why)
Which step does each statement match up to?
Step 1: What does
each source
say/show?
Step 2: How reliable
is each source?
(Think about about
who made it, when
and why)
Step 3: How useful
is each source?
(Think about what it
shows and what is
missing)
Since the source appeared in a newspaper
and was written by a journalist, it should
accurately reflect the events of the day and
shouldn’t twist things to make them out to be
better or worse.
The photograph only shows one street
leading up to Hyde Park. It doesn’t show the
park itself or what is going on behind the
camera – it is only a single snapshot of a
single view.
This
that
thethe
campaigners
were
Thissource
sourcethinks
thinks
that
campaigners
“elegant
and charming”
and seems
were “elegant
and charming”
andsurprised
seems
by
the success
of the
demonstration.
surprised
by the
success
of the
demonstration.
 Prime Minister Herbert
Asquith sent a letter to
Emmeline Pankhurst saying
that he had nothing further to
add to his previous statement:
the government intended, at
some point in the future, to
bring in a general reform bill
which might be amended to
include female suffrage.
 Emmeline Pankhurst was
disappointed and wrote: “our
wonderful demonstration, it
appeared, had made no
impression on him”.
18 November 1910---Black Friday
 The British suffragettes were ladies with a fighting
spirit.
 The women of the Women's Social and Political Union
(WSPU) were used to throwing stones and smashing
the windows of government buildings.
 In 1910 their anger increased when a limited suffrage
bill stalled in parliament.
 On 18 November a procession of women on their way
to parliament came to blows with the police.
 On this 'Black Friday' 120 ladies were arrested and
many others were assaulted.
 They had a weekly
newspaper called Votes
for Women which had a
circulation of 40,000 by
1914.
 They sold WSPU
merchandise and chalked
messages on pavements
and buildings.
 However, “Deeds not
Words” became their
motto and they were
prepared to act violently
too.
Emmeline Pankhurst, Why We Are
Militant, 1913
 In the following document Pankhurst explains the reasons for the
rise in militant behavior.
 “Know that in your minds there are questions like these; you are
saying, "Women Suffrage is sure to come and how is it that some
women are using violence to attain their end? Let me try to explain
to you the situation. During the '80's [1880s], women, like men,
were asking for the franchise more meetings were held, and larger,
for Woman Suffrage than were held for votes for men, and yet
women did not get it. Men got it because they were and would be
violent want to say here and now that the only justification for
violence for damage to property for risk to the comfort of other
human beings is the fact that you have tried all other available
means and have failed to secure justice from the moment we began
our militant agitation to this day I have felt absolutely guiltless I tell
you that in Great Britain there is no other way.”
Christabel Pankhurst “inviting members of
the public to ‘rush’ the House of Commons
on October 13th”
Deeds, not Words!---Violent Acts
Chaining themselves to park railings
Breaking shop windows
Setting mailboxes on fire
Sending a note on a cow to the prime
minister
Digging up golf courses
Burning down railway stations and churches
Knocking off policemen helmets
Militant Tactics
•1905 Christabel Pankhurst arrested for pretending to spit at a police man.
•1908 started stone throwing
•1909 First Scottish militant demonstration takes place in Glasgow and Dundee.
•1909 Imprisoned suffragettes start hunger striking. When government introduces
force feeding 150 councils sent petitions to the government protesting about this
action.
•1910 18th November ‘Black Friday’ – 150 suffragettes hurt in violence outside
parliament.
•1912-14 Wild Period begins – arson attacks, acid on golf courses, letter boxes.
Telephone wires cut. David Lloyd George’s house burnt.
• Emily Wilding Davison, Slasher Mary Richardson attacked painting in National
Gallery. 1,000 imprisoned by 1914.
The Swan and Edgar store in
London is tidied up in 1912 after
suffragettes shattered its windows.
Go to Prison!
By breaking the law, the WSPU knew that they
risked being punished.
To prevent being recognized and photographed
to protect their identity, they wore the
fashionable big hats or veils to hide their face.
Each time they took part in a violent protest,
they were arrested, put on trial, found guilty,
and sent to prison.
There they were treated harshly, because the
British government thought this would stop
them from protesting again.
Spies
 To protect their identity from spies
for the government taking pictures
of them as they protested, the
women wore large hats and
fashionable veils.
 The hats also became a symbol
for the suffragette.

Secret Weapon of the Suffragette.
The evolution of the ladies hat with
the emancipation of women.
An informative and humorous look
at the ladies hat fashion as it
reflected the early suffrage
movement and became a
visual weapon of empowerment.
The consequences of the potential
threat that a ladies hat had in the
British courts that led to a change in
court etiquette. The change of
design of the ladies hat to reflect her
new 'serious' position as she won
her recognition and place in the
white collar work force.
State Response
 Evidence of their movements – Scotland Yard ordered a
camera lens to carry out the first secret surveillance
photography in Britain against the Suffragists.
 Also, attended meetings and kept detailed notes on them.
 1871 – became policy for all inmates to be photographed in
prison, but civil disobedience continued by refusing to have
their photographs taken, so they were either captured
surreptitiously whilst exercising or forcibly held in front of the
lens.
J.Doyle
59
 The suffragettes chained
themselves to railings
outside Parliament, broke
windows and aimed to
cause a nuisance.
 They even firebombed
churches and attacked
the house of David Lloyd
George, the Chancellor of
the Exchequer.
 As a result, many
suffragettes spent time in
prison.
 As suffragettes became
more militant and violent,
arrests became common.
 When they were in prison,
many suffragettes went
on hunger strike and had
to be force fed.
 This was very unpopular
and used by the
suffragettes in their
propaganda.
 The following day,
Mary Richardson, a
Canadian
suffragette living in
London, went to the
National Gallery.
 She attacked the
Rokeby Venus, a
famous painting of a
nude woman by
Velazquez.
 Richardson slashed the
painting with an axe
seven times before
being overpowered by a
policeman and gallery
attendant.
 She was sentenced to
six months in prison, the
maximum allowed by
law.
 The newspapers
nicknamed her Slasher
Richardson.
Which of these sources is the most useful to an
historian trying to find out about the attack on the
Rokeby Venus?
Suffragette outrage - Rokeby Venus
slashed with a chopper
At the National Gallery, yesterday
morning, the famous Rokeby Venus, the
Velasquez picture which eight years ago
was bought for the nation by public
subscription for £45,000, was seriously
damaged by a militant suffragist
connected with the WSPU. The woman,
producing a meat chopper from her cloak,
smashed the glass of the picture, and
rained blows upon the back of the Venus.
Manchester Guardian, 11th March 1914
I have tried to destroy the picture of the
most beautiful woman in history as a
protest against the Government for
destroying Mrs Pankhurst, who is the
most beautiful character in modern
history. Justice is an element of beauty
as much as colour and outline on
canvas. Mrs Pankhurst seeks to procure
justice for womanhood, and for this she
is being slowly murdered by a
government of betraying politicians.
Statement by Mary Richardson released
by the WSPU after her arrest
Step
Step
2:3:
How
How
reliable
useful isiseach
eachsource?
source?
Step
1:about
What
does
each
source
(Think
(Think
about
about
what
who
it says
made
and
it,what
whensay?
isand
missing)
why)
Which step does each statement match up to?
Step 1: What does
each source
say/show?
Step 2: How reliable
is each source?
(Think about about
who made it, when
and why)
Step 3: How useful
is each source?
(Think about what it
shows and what is
missing)
The statement by Mary Richardson is useful
because it tells us the motivation behind the
attack and why she thought it was necessary.
The newspaper describes the attack in
negative terms, calling it an “outrage”, while
Mary Richardson calls it “justice”.
The newspaper should describe the
events without bias, because it is
designed to inform its readers. Mary
Richardson is trying to justify the attack,
so presents her opinion and not those of
the people against the suffragettes.
Were the suffragettes too violent?
The suffragettes’ own newspaper was
sold on street corners and spread the
reasons why women should vote.
They suffragettes chained themselves to
Buckingham Palace as the Royal Family
were seen to be against women voting.
The suffragettes wrote petitions to
Parliament – one in 1910 had 250,000
signatures.
Golf courses were vandalised by the
suffragettes.
Some suffragettes refused to pay taxes.
Suffragettes hired out boats, sailed up the
Thames and shouted abuse through loud
hailers at Parliament.
Suffragette meetings and demonstrations
could be very large – one in 1908 had
200,000 attendees.
One suffragette attacked a valuable
painting at the National Gallery.
The suffragettes would chalk slogans on
pavements and buildings.
Emily Davison, a suffragette, was killed as
she tried to disrupt the running of the
Derby.
The suffragettes tried to gatecrash
political meetings and heckle the
speakers.
Churches were firebombed by the
suffragettes because they thought the Church
of England was against giving women the
vote.
The suffragettes attacked politicians who
they thought blocked female suffrage
laws in Parliament.
The suffragettes sold WSPU merchandise
– tea sets, postcards, scarves.
The suffragettes broke windows along
London’s famous Oxford Street.
Step 2: Think
Stepabout
Step
1: Look
3:different
Try
at to
both
answer
people
sidesthe
ofhaving
the
question
argument
different opinions
Which step does each statement match up to?
Step 1: Look at both
sides of the
argument
It is true that they did use some violent tactics –
they firebombed churches and attacked politicians.
However, they used violent tactics alongside
peaceful ones.
Step 2: Think
about different
people having
different opinions
Suffragettes were not only violent campaigners. By
using both types of tactics, the suffragettes hoped
to win support from a cross section of people.
Step 3: Try to
answer the
question
People
affected
by by
thethe
violence
Peoplewho
whowere
weredirectly
directly
affected
would
have
thought
that
the violence
was
over the
violence
would
have
thought
that the
violence
top.
convinced
other
people thatother
the
was However,
over the it
top.
However,
it convinced
suffragettes
determined to
succeed.
people that were
the suffragettes
were
determined
to succeed.
EMILY
DAVISON
J.Doyle
68
EMILY DAVISON
 Daughter of Charles Davison
and Margaret Davison
 Born at Blackheath, London in
1872
 Successful at school
 Won a place at Holloway College
 Had to give up because mother
was ill and could not afford fees.
 Became a schoolteacher in
Worthing.
 Paid for herself to go to London
University
 Became a private teacher
 Became a suffragette, 1906.
Joined the WSPU.
J.Doyle
69
EMILY’S PRISON RECORD
March 30th 1909
One month in prison for
obstruction
July 30th 1909
Two months in prison for
obstruction
September 4th 1909
Two months for stone throwing
at White City, Manchester
October 20th 1909
One month for stone throwing at
Radcliffe near Manchester
One month for breaking
windows in the House of
Commons
November 19th 1910
Six months for setting fire to
postal boxes at Holloway,
London
January 10th 1912
November 30th 1912
J.Doyle
Ten days for assaulting a vicar
who she mistook to be David
70
Lloyd George (PM)
EMILY IN PRISON
 On June 19th 1909 Emily Davison decided to make a protest
against forcible feeding. Emily explained her actions in a
statement issued by the WSPU.

In my mind was the thought that some desperate protest must be
made to put a stop to the hideous torture, which was now our lot.
 Therefore, as soon as I got out I climbed on to the railing and
threw myself out to the wire-netting, a distance of between 20 and
30 feet.
 The idea in my mind was "one big tragedy may save many
others".
J.Doyle
71
THE BIG
IDEA??
???
J.Doyle
72
THE NIGHT BEFORE
 On the eve of the Derby she went with
two friends to a WSPU event in the
Empress Rooms, Kensington.
 With a fellow-militant in whose flat she
lived, she had planned a Derby protest
without tragedy - a mere waving of the
purple-white-and-green at Tattenham
Corner, which, by its suddenness, it was
hoped would stop the race.
 Whether from the first her purpose was
more serious, or whether a final impulse
altered her resolve, I know not.
 Her friend declares that she would not
thus have died without writing a
farewell message to her mother.
 Yet she sewed the WSPU colours inside
her coat as though to ensure that no
mistake could be made as to her motive
when her dead body should be J.Doyle
examined.
EVIDENCE FROM
SYLVIA PANKHURST
73
THE WITNESS
 She stood alone there, close to the whitepainted rails where the course bends
round at Tattenham Corner; she looked
absorbed and yet far away from everybody
else and seemed to have no interest in
what was going on round her.
 A minute before the race started she
raised a paper of her own or some kind of
card before her eyes. I was watching her
hand. It did not seem to shake. Even when
I heard the pounding of the horses hoofs
moving closer I saw she was still smiling.
 And suddenly she slipped under the rail
and ran out into the middle of the
racecourse. It was all over so quickly.
 Emily was under the hoofs of one of the
horses and seemed to be hurled for some
distance across the grass.
 The horse stumbled sideways and its
jockey was thrown from its back.
 She lay very still.
J.Doyle
Mary Richardson –
A suffragette.
74
Picture of the Derby tragedy.
Most people are oblivious, still
watching the race.
Emily Davison
Davison’s body
trampled by the horse
THE GUARDIAN REPORT
 The derby and the suffragette ---Tuesday May 13, 1913
 "They had just got round the Corner, and all had passed but the King's horse, when a
woman squeezed through the railings and ran out onto the course.
 She made straight for Anmer, and made a sort of leap for the reins. I think she got hold
of them, but it was impossible to say. Anyway the horse knocked her over, and then they
all came down in a bunch.
 They were all rolling together on the ground. The jockey fell with the horse, and struck
the ground with one foot in the stirrup, but he rolled free. Those fellows know how to
tumble.
 The horse fell on the woman and kicked out furiously, and it was sickening to see his
hoofs strike her repeatedly. It all happened in a flash. Before we had time to realise it
was over. The horse struggled to its feet - I don't think it was hurt - but the jockey and
the woman lay on the ground. The ambulance men came running up, put them on
stretchers, and carried them away. Most of the other jockeys saw nothing of it. They
were far ahead. It was a terrible thing.“
 Another version has it that the woman did not come from behind the rails, but had
managed to stay outside when the mounted policemen cleared the course, and had
concealed herself by crouching down, and that she ran towards the horse bending low
without trying to seize the reins.
 All the accounts agree that she was struck with terrible force by the galloping horse, and
that she rolled several yards before the horse lost its footing and fell upon her.
 The jockey, said one man, 'flew from the horse's back like a stone from a sling,' and it
was doubtless only owing to his jockey's skill
J.Doylein knowing just how to fall that he was not
77
far more seriously injured.
THE GUARDIAN (continued)
 The woman was far more seriously hurt, and the first report that spread about the course
was that she was killed. She turned out to be one of the best known of the militant
suffragists, Miss Emily Wilding Davison. It is said that underneath her jacket was found a
suffragette flag tied round her body. A house surgeon at the Epsom Cottage Hospital a
couple of hours after the accident reported that she was suffering from severe concussion
of the brain.
 'She has lain unconscious since the time of her admission,' he said, 'and it is impossible to
say for a few hours whether her life will be saved.' The first clue to her identity was the
finding of a paper in her possession bearing the words 'W.S.P.U. Helpers.' The people who
were near enough to see what happened could not believe at first that the woman ran out
deliberately. They thought she must have had the idea that all the horses had gone by, and
had rushed on the course, as everyone does, as soon as the racers have passed. The only
alternative to this theory in the mind of the crowd was that it was the deed of a mad
person or a suicide, for it was about as dangerous a thing to do as it would be to throw
oneself in the track of an express train.
 Anmer was the last of the string, and the last but one was Mr. Bronson's Agadir, ridden by
Earl. The woman just missed Agadir, and Earl was the only jockey who got a glimpse of
what happened. The race had been over for some moments before the news reached the
stands and the King learnt what had befallen his jockey. He was standing in the Jockey
Club at the time, and soon afterwards he looked on with great concern at the spectacle of
the jockey, bleeding and with closed eyes, carried past on a stretcher towards the hospital.
The King then went to tell the Queen what had happened. The doctor afterwards reported
to the King that Jones had had a wonderful escape. One of his arms was injured and he
was bruised all over, and one of his ribs was broken.
J.Doyle
78
THE NEWSPAPER REPORT
1. Which newspaper is this report from?
2. What does it tell us about the attitude of the king to Emily?
3. What evidence is there to suggest that the witnesses were not sure about
what happened in the race?
4. Why do you think the witnesses were not sure what had happened?
5. Jones (the jockey) refused to attend Emily’s funeral. Why do you think he
did this and was he right not to attend? – give your reasons.
6. Do you think that people in 1913 would be impressed with Emily’s
sacrifice? – give your reasons.
J.Doyle
79
King’s horse
Anmer
Jockey
Herbert Jones
J.Doyle
81
Suffragettes stand guard over
Emily Davidson’s coffin
The suffragette campaign got its first martyr. Emily Davison
threw herself under the hooves of King Edward's horse,
Anmer, at the Derby and suffered fatal injuries.
At the time, her sacrifice horrified her opponents but
inspired her supporters.
Tens of thousands lines the streets of London as her coffin
was borne past on its way to her final resting place in
Northumberland.
J.Doyle
83
In 1988 the contents of Emily Davison's handbag
were examined.
In it was found a return ticket to Epsom and a
diary with appointments for the following weeks
J.Doyle
84
The press continued
to ridicule the
movement.
The caption says:
“SHOULD WOMEN
MIX IN POLITIX?
NIX!”
Miss Stockdill CDHS 2004
 An edition of
The Daily Mirror
reporting on the
arrest of
Emmeline
Pankhurst and
other
Suffragettes
who marched at
Buckingham
Palace.

Go to Prison!
They were handled roughly when arrested.
They were then body-searched and bathed.
Prison guards and female warders treated
them like they were murderers.
Poor food: Bread and water---led to getting
sick
Long nights---lights went out at 8PM and
could not speak until morning
Hunger strikes and forced-feedings
Emmeline &
Christabel
Pankhurst
released from
Holloway Jail,
London, 22
December 1908
 Jailed for Freedom Pin
 This prison door symbol
was modeled after Sylvia
Pankhurst's Holloway
Brooch, representing the
portcullis gate of
Holloway Prison where
British suffragettes were
incarcerated.[20]
Emmeline Pankhurst
arrested outside
Buckingham Palace
in 1914
A Suffragette
demonstrates.
The arrow at the
top of the poster
indicates that
she has been
imprisoned and
earned the
“Holloway
Degree."
THE HUNGER STRIKE
 Started by a suffragette,
Marion Dunlop 1909.
 Freed by the government
who did not want her to
become a martyr.
 Other suffragettes
followed to get out of
prison.
 Winsom Green prison,
Birmingham started force
feeding
J.Doyle
95
Suffragettes Hunger Strikes
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
On 25th June 1909 Marion Wallace-Dunlop was charged "with willfully damaging the
stone work of St. Stephen's Hall, House of Commons, by stamping it with an indelible
rubber stamp, doing damage to the value of 10s.“
According to a report in The Times Wallace-Dunlop printed a notice that read: "Women's
Deputation. June 29. Bill of Rights.
It is the right of the subjects to petition the King, and all commitments and prosecutions
for such petitionings are illegal."
Wallace-Dunlop was found guilty of willful damage and when she refused to pay a fine she
was sent to prison for a month.
Christabel Pankhurst later reported: "Miss Wallace Dunlop, taking counsel with no one
and acting entirely on her own initiative, sent to the Home Secretary, Mr. Gladstone, as
soon as she entered Holloway Prison, an application to be placed in the first division as
befitted one charged with a political offence.
She announced that she would eat no food until this right was conceded."
Marion Wallace-Dunlop refused to eat for several days.
Afraid that she might die and become a martyr, it was decided to release her after fasting
for 91 hours.
Soon afterwards other imprisoned suffragettes adopted the same strategy.
Unwilling to release all the imprisoned suffragettes, the prison authorities force-fed these
women on hunger strike. In one eighteen month period, Emily Pankhurst, who was now in
her fifties, endured ten of these hunger-strikes
EMILY DAVISON ON HUNGER STRIKE
Emily Davison was sent to Strangeways Goal in September 1909, for throwing stones
at the windows of the Liberal Club. Emily decided to go on hunger strike. This account
was included in a letter that she wrote to a friend in Switzerland.
In the evening the matron, two doctors, and five or six wardresses entered the cell. The
doctor said "I am going to feed you by force." The scene, which followed, will haunt
me with its horror all my life, and is almost indescribable.
While they held me flat, the elder doctor tried all round my mouth with a steel gag to
find an opening. On the right side of my mouth two teeth are missing; this gap he
found, pushed in the horrid instrument, and prised open my mouth to its widest extent.
Then a wardress poured liquid down my throat out of a tin enamelled cup. What it was
I cannot say, but there was some medicament, which was foul to the last degree. As I
would not swallow the stuff and jerked it out with my tongue, the doctor pinched my
nose and somehow gripped my tongue with the gag.
The torture was barbaric
J.Doyle
98
SUFFRAGETTES on FORCE FEEDING
 Constance Lytton was force-fed in October 1909. An account of her
experiences was included in her book Prison and Prisoners.

Two of the wardresses took hold of my arms, one held my head and one my feet.
The doctor leant on my knees as he stooped over my chest to get at my mouth. I
shut my mouth and clenched my teeth…
 The doctor seemed annoyed at my resistance and he broke into a temper as he
pried my teeth with the steel implement. The pain was intense and at last I must have
given way, for he got the gap between my teeth, when he proceeded to turn it until
my jaws were fastened wide apart.
 Then he put down my throat a tube, which seemed to me much too wide and
something like four feet in length. I choked the moment it touched my throat. Then
the food was poured in quickly; it made me sick a few seconds after it was down. I
was sick all over the doctor and wardresses.
 As the doctor left he gave me a slap on the cheek. Presently the wardresses left me.
Before long I heard the sounds of the forced feeding in the next cell to mine.
 It was almost more than I could bear, it was Elsie Howley. When the ghastly process
was over and all quiet. I tapped on the wall
J.Doyle and called out at the top of my voice.
99'No
Surrender', and then came the answer in Elsie's voice, 'No Surrender'.
Forced Feedings of Suffragettes
Prison doctors force-fed hunger
strikers by pouring liquid food, milk
and raw eggs, down a tube through
their noses and into their stomachs.
The doctors said this was done to
save the protesters’ lives.
The suffragettes said it was torture.
Proposed Bills
•1910
•1st conciliation bill
•300 MP’s voted for it on 1st reading
•Passed 2nd reading by 100 votes.
•Asquith stopped the bill by calling a general
election.
•1911
•2nd Conciliation bill
•Passed 1st reading
•2nd reading failed to get a majority.
Miss Stockdill CDHS 2004
•Presented again in 1912 but ruled out.
•1913
•Bill presented to parliament again
•Passed 1st reading
•Failed 2nd reading by 47 votes.
•Restricted Suffragette activity in wild period. E.g. banned hall
owners from renting them to suffragettes.
Government was busy with other issues.
oNaval race with Germany in the lead up to W.W.I
oMiners and Dockers strike
oFrom 1910 Liberals depended on support from Irish nationalists.
They would lose this support if they debated women instead of
Ireland.
Miss Stockdill CDHS 2004
The ‘Cat-and-Mouse’ Act
 Hunger strikes in prisons responded to by force-feeding huge public outcry as this was traditionally meted out to
lunatics rather than educated women.
 1913 the ‘Cat-and-Mouse’ Act was introduced, which ordered
that hunger-strikers should be released when they fell ill and
re-arrested once they had recovered sufficient strength.
 If these women did not recover and instead died whilst on
release then the government was able to exonerate itself from
any blame or embarrassment.
 Their weakened state also meant that they could not engage
in any violent activities whilst on release, so it provided the
government with a very powerful weapon against the
suffragettes.
 Edgar Holt: ‘it was an effective measure… and there were
no more deaths from hunger strikes until 1920’.
Why do you think sources E and F were produced? Use the
sources and your own knowledge to explain your answer. [8]
Source E: A Suffragette poster showing a
hunger-striking Suffragette being force-fed
Source F: A Suffragette poster from 1913,
attacking the Liberal Government
 A poster protesting
against the Cat and
Mouse Act!
Public Response
• 1913 – movement gained it’s first real martyr when Emily
Davison threw herself under the king’s horse during the
Epsom Derby.
• This was however quite counter-productive – if this is what
an educated woman does, surely no women should be
allowed to vote?
• Most photographs issued in the press however showed
police and mob brutality which increased public sympathy.
• Central to non-violence is an awareness that brutal
repression can produce opposition to their opponents.
• Suffragists realised that they were gaining more than they
were losing due to these incidents generating sympathy.
• Then deliberately tried to incite violent reprisals in order to
unease and embarrass their opponents and encourage
them to grant them their demands.
This was one of
the Anti-Suffrage
Propaganda
Posters that
appeared about
the Hunger Strikes
and ForcedFeedings.
Government
Attitudes and
Actions.
Attitude of public
and press.
Actions of the
suffragists.
Why did women
not have the
vote by 1914?
Actions of the
Suffragettes.
Splits in the
suffrage
movement.
To answer this essay question you need to explain how the factors above made it hard
for women to get the vote.
E.g. What were the splits in the movement AND how did this make it hard for women to
get the vote.
Miss Stockdill CDHS 2004
World War One and the Extension of
the Franchise
 It is arguable that, had it not been for the First World War, the
violent actions of the militant suffragists might have escalated
even further
 February 1913, blew up part of David Lloyd George’s house – a
man who was widely considered to be a supporter of women’s
rights
 But when war broke out break out, Pankhurst and Fawcett told
their members to cease their campaigns and lend their full
support to the war effort and the government.
 Certain groups did continue campaigning but far less publicly
and often carried out war-work simultaneously.
 1918, ‘Representation of the People Act’ extended the
franchise to certain women – result of campaigns or the work
done by women during the war years?
Key points
Before the war, the most common
employment for a woman was as a
domestic servant. However, women
were also employed in what were
seen to be suitable occupations e.g.
teaching, nursing, office work.
Key points
When war broke out in August 1914,
thousands of women were sacked
from jobs in dressmaking, millinery
and jewellery making.They needed
work – and they wanted to help the
war effort.
Key points
Suffragettes stopped all militant
action in order to support the war
effort.
Women proved they were more
than able to adapt to supposedly
‘men only’ environments.
A woman working in a munitions
factory in Wrexham
Key points
The shell shortage crisis in 1915
began to change the situation.
Women were taken on to work in
munitions factories. The government
did a deal with the trade unions,
known as the Treasury Agreements.
The unions agreed to accept female
labour in place of men ‘for the
duration of the war’.
Key points
The armed forces also employed
women, but the jobs were mainly of
a clerical and domestic nature.
Key points
Women were in great demand for
the ‘caring’ side of employment and
became nurses in the First Aid
Nursing Yeomanry, and drivers and
clerks in Voluntary Aid Detachments.
VAD’s
After the War
1
Women were expected to give way to men returning from the forces
and return to pre-war ‘women’s work’.
2
The assumption that ‘a woman’s place is in the home’ returned.
3
The percentage of women at work returned to pre-war levels.
4
More women than before worked in offices.
After the War
5
Shorter skirts and hair became fashionable.
6
Women went out with men without a chaperone.
7
Women smoked and wore make-up in public for the first time.
8
In 1919: being female or married was no longer allowed to disqualify
someone from holding a job in the professions or civil service.
•
Right to Vote Given
1918, Parliament granted vote to
women over age 30
By 1928 voting rights for British
women over the age of 21 were
on the same basis as British
men.
February 6th 1918
The Representation of the
People Act decreed :
All women over 30 who were
married to property owners
or who owned property
themselves were allowed to
vote in parliamentary
elections.
ERH
This enfranchised 8 million women
Miss Stockdill CDHS 2004
Olive Schreiner 1918
“Many women
have now the
vote and are
part of the
governing
power of their
nation – all will
have it soon”.
Miss Stockdill CDHS 2004
Emmeline
Pankhurst’s
statue in
Westminster,
London