The Suffragettes

The Suffragettes were part of the votes for women campaign that had long fought for women’s right to vote in the UK. They used art, debate, propaganda and attacks on property to fight for female suffrage. Suffrage means the right to vote in parliamentary and general elections.

Emmeline Pankhurst, her daughters Christabel, Sylvia and Adela, and a group of other women based in Manchester founded the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1903. They aimed to “wake up the nation” through “deeds not words”. This was the beginning of the Suffragette movement as we know it.

In 1906, the WSPU moved their headquarters to London, starting a highly public, increasingly confrontational struggle. Paid and volunteer staff organised fundraising events and huge demonstrations known as “monster meetings”. By 1909 their weekly newspaper had a circulation of 22,000. There were 90 UK offices, with 34 concentrated in London.

The Suffragettes targeted the government in Whitehall by petitioning Downing Street, heckling MPs and chaining themselves to government buildings. Suffragettes also damaged London landmarks and works of art, smashed windows and bombed and burned buildings.

Over a thousand Suffragettes were sent to prison. At Holloway Prison in north London, some went on hunger strike. The government introduced force-feeding, then a release and re-arrest law known as the Cat and Mouse Act.

When the First World War began in 1914 the Suffragettes paused militant action to throw themselves into supporting the war effort instead. All Suffragette prisoners were released.

The WSPU didn’t win women the vote, but its campaigning style eased the way for women to take a more public role in society during the war. This role was recognised in 1918 when the vote was granted to a limited number of women over the age of 30.