The women’s suffrage movement began in England and spread to the United States. Millicent Fawcett founded the National Union of Women’s Suffrage and advocated peaceful protest. The Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) was founded by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters, who were willing to use violence. The WSPU employed more aggressive tactics, including smashing windows and setting fires. Suffragettes were often physically and verbally assaulted, and Emily Wilding Davison became a martyr for the movement when she threw herself under the King’s racehorse. In 1918, women over 30 were granted the right to vote if they met certain criteria, and in 1928, all women aged 21 and over could vote.
A suffragette was a woman in the early 20th century who wanted the right to vote. The women’s suffrage movement had its beginnings in England, but it also boasted supporters in places like the United States. One of the first influential suffragettes was a woman named Millicent Fawcett. In 20, she founded the National Union of Women’s Suffrage.
Fawcett advocated peaceful protest to win people over to the cause of women’s suffrage. She believed that violence would only harm the cause by making men feel that women could not be trusted to participate in the political process. Despite Fawcett’s peaceful measures to advance the union agenda, men in Parliament persisted in thinking that women were incapable of understanding how government worked; thus, women should not have the right to vote.
Eventually, some women who supported voting rights for women grew impatient with Fawcett’s non-confrontational tactics. In 1903, Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Sylvia and Christabel founded the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). The union became known as the Suffragettes. This new organization was willing to use violence to gain the right to vote. WSPU membership was limited to women only, and the group began peacefully speaking at social and business gatherings, parks, and fairgrounds.
It wasn’t until 1905 that the group began employing more aggressive tactics to gain widespread attention for the movement. That year, Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kennedy disrupted a political meeting involving Winston Churchill and Sir Edward Grey. The two women asked politicians whether they think women should have the right to vote. Instead of answering, the politicians ignored the question. The two suffragettes held up a banner proclaiming “Votes for Women” and asked politicians to answer their question.
As a result, Pankhurst and Kennedy were ejected from the meeting and arrested for disorderly conduct. Both agreed to go to jail instead of paying a fine. This event brought widespread publicity to the WSPU, causing women sympathizers to join the movement.
Following this event, the WSPU proceeded to employ more militant methods to force the British government to grant them the right to vote. Members of the suffragette group smashed the windows of London’s most famous shops, set fire to empty buildings, cut telephone and telegraph wires, burned golf courses and chained themselves to railings.
When a suffragette was sentenced to prison, she often went on hunger strike. In response, prison officials force-fed the prisoner. This practice ended following public outcry, as force-feeding tactics were traditionally used for prisoners suffering from mental problems. In April 1913, Parliament passed the Temporary Discharge of Prisoners for Ill Health Act (also known as the Cat and Mouse Act). This act made it possible to release a prisoner weakened by the hunger strike to improve her health. Once the suffragette was sane enough to resume her sentence, she was once again imprisoned.
A suffragette was often physically and verbally assaulted by both the police and ordinary citizens. Suffragette sashes or badges in purple, white, and green made them easily recognizable on city streets. They staged lavish demonstrations and marches to raise awareness of their cause, often leading to violent reactions from the police. A suffragette named Emily Wilding Davison became a martyr for the movement when she threw herself under the hooves of the King’s racehorse during the Epsom Derby. After her death four days later, crowds of people attended her funeral.
In 1918, Parliament granted women over the age of 30 the right to vote if they owned a house, were married to a landlord, occupied a property paying an annual rent of at least £5, or were a university graduate. British. On July 2, 1928, Parliament declared that all women aged 21 and over could vote. Sadly, Emmeline Pankhurst, who had been so instrumental in the suffrage movement, died weeks before the bill became law.
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