THE MILITANT SUFFRAGETTES
                                                       (1900~1914)
                                  Serkan BAYKUSOGLU
                                          London 2000

I- INTRODUCTION

The Suffrage movement started slowly with some people believing similar statements in the different parts of the country.

The year of 1832 is accepted by some historians as the beginning of the movement, when Mary Smith presented the first women’s suffrage formal request to Parliament.[1] Also, A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792) was one of the major feminist documents of the 18th century, written by Mary Wollstonecraft.

London and Manchester were the major suffragist centres. During the 1830s and 1840s the British suffrage movement received remarkable support and encouragement from the Chartists.

Chartism was a political movement in Great Britain between 1838~1948. Chartists fought for human rights. Their struggles were rejected several times by Parliament after requesting a petition. Many Chartist leaders were arrested and imprisoned due to a general strike.[2] This in turn was a positive move towards the emancipation of women. Women were very positive and tried a number of different methods, for example: hunger strikes, breaking windows, interrupting government meetings and arson attacks, as well as boycotting and bombing.

The Women’ Suffrage movement in the late 19th century was led by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Sylvia and Christabel. They used both legal and illegal methods throughout their suffrage movement and were sent to prison repeatedly.

The suffrage movement was suspended during the 1st World War and in 1918. Britain became the first western democracy to give permission to vote to women, all women householders; householders’ wives and women university graduates over 30 years of age. Women also became eligible to get a place in Parliament after gaining the vote in 1918. The first woman who took a place in the House of Commons was Lady (Nancy) Astor (1879~1964). She later mentioned: “Men whom I had known for years would not speak to me if they passed me in the corridors. They said I would not last six months. But I stuck it out.”[3]

The right to vote was granted, Parliament lowered the voting age of women to 21 in 1928, with the result that complete political equality was given to women.


II-SUFFRAGISTS AND SUFFRAGETTE MOVEMENT

a) Emmeline Pankhurst (1858~1928)

Emmeline Pankhurst was a British Suffrage leader who managed the movement with her daughters Sylvia and Christabel to win the right to vote for women in Great Britain. She was born in Manchester. She studied at the École Normale in Paris in 1898. She married left-wing lawyer Dr. Richard Marsden Pankhurst[4] who worked with her for the equality of women. In 1889, she was one of the founders of the Women’s Franchise League. She was also a member of the NUWSS in the Manchester branch. However, she was upset by the lack of success of the Union so she established the Women’s Social and Political Union, WSPU in Manchester (1903). The group became widely known when she moved its centre to London. WSPU held public meetings and planned a military strategy. Pankhurst became a militant and she was arrested and sentenced to prison several times between 1908~1913[5]; two of the three prison sentences were in 1908. She was sent to prison for leading an attack on Parliament and for provoking the public to ‘rush’ the House of Commons. She was sentenced to nine months in prison because of window smashing in March 1912. During these periods in prison she used the hunger strike as a way of protest.

In 1914, World War I caused Pankhurst and the WSPU to come to an end and then they worked for the war.

Emmeline Pankhurst died in London on 14 June 1928. A couple of weeks after British women were granted full voting rights.[6]

Emmeline Pankhurst told of her life and the Suffragette movement in her book “My Own Story” (1914). She mentioned:

“I have not personally suffered from the deprivations, the bitterness and sorrow which bring so many men and women to a realisation of social injustice. My childhood was protected by love and a comfortable home. Yet, while still a very young child, I began instinctively to feel that there was something lacking, even in my own home, some false conception of family relations, some incomplete ideal.”[7]

Mrs. Pankhurst also explained in her book the people who used to vote after 1882 and under which act.

“I was very young when the Reform act of 1866 was passed, but I very well remember the agitation caused by certain circumstances attending it. This Reform act, known as the Household Franchise Bill, marked the first popular extension of the ballot in England since 1882. Under its terms, householders paying a minimum of ten pounds a year rental were given the Parliamentary vote.”[8]

“I was fourteen years old when I went to my first suffrage meeting.”[9]

She also tells of militant attacks, which were an important part of the suffrage campaign. She said:

“Within a few days the newspapers rang with the story of the attack made on letter boxes in London, Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol and half a dozen other cities. In some cases the boxes, when opened by postmen, mysteriously burst into flame; in others the letters were destroyed by corrosive chemicals; in still others the addresses were rendered illegible by black fluids. Altogether it was estimated that over 5,000 letters were completely destroyed and many thousands more were delayed in transit.”[10]

III-THE SUFFRAGE CAMPAIGNS

Introduction

The Women’s Suffrage Movement was seen to be separate from The National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, the NUWSS and Women’s Social and Political Union, the WSPU. All the suffrage groups used peaceful and legal methods. In the meantime women published their own newspapers, which contained plays, short stories and poems. The Women’s Suffrage Journal (from 1870) and Votes for Women (from 1907) started publishing. However then the suffrage movement used violent and illegal methods, particularly the WSPU. As a result, the suffragettes were considered as militant.[11]

a) Legal Methods

Different types of methods were used in order for women to gain the right to vote between the period 1860 and 1914. Suffragists used different political ways for the campaigns, which were organising public meetings, demonstrating and formal requests to Parliament etc.

1-Meetings

Public meetings were organised by women. They also announced their rights

as women. The NUWSS organised conferences at trade unions and visited most of the major cotton towns. The WSPU also organised public meetings throughout the country to get support, collect money and sell newspapers. One of the most important meetings was planned by the WSPU and took place in London on February 13th 1907.

2-Demonstrations and visiting the Holy Places

NUWSS organised the first of the big suffrage demonstration in 1907. It was called “Mud March” because of the rain, which poured down on the demonstrators.[12] In the same year more then 3,000 women marched from Hyde Park Corner taking the risk of loosing their jobs. It was found to be very successful.

Another large demonstration was planned for Sunday the 21st June 1908. This was advertised in “Votes for Women”[13] as a “Monster meeting”. The next major demonstration took place on 17 June 1911. It was called ‘The Women’s Coronation Procession’[14].

NUWSS also organised a pilgrimage in August 1913. The demonstrators visited holy places in all parts of Britain through to London.

b) Illegal Methods (Militant)

1-The Refusal to Pay Tax and the Boycott of the Census

The Suffragists refused to pay taxes so they lost their property and were fined for non-payment of taxes.

They also disturbed the censuses, which were organised by the government to count the population every ten years. The large houses were prepared for overnight accommodation so many people were not found in their homes on the day of the census. It was not possible to conduct the census accurately.

2-Window Smashing

One of the first illegal movements was breaking windows. It started after the Prime Minister, Mr. Asquith, had refused to receive a group of suffragettes in 1908.

The next window smashing happened when Emmeline Pankhurst and a group of suffragists were evicted from the House of Commons. As a result of this, they were arrested when trying to deliver a petition.

Initially window breaking was not authorised by the WSPU leadership, but then it became an official policy of the WSPU.

In November 1911, Mr. Asquith rejected a conciliation bill for women’s suffrage whereupon suffragists smashed the windows of the Home Office, the War Office and the Foreign Office.

3-Interrupting the Government Meeting

In 1905 a meeting was held in Manchester. It was organised to support Winston Churchill for the North-West Manchester election. Edward Grey was the main speaker. Christabel Pankhurst asked Mr. Grey: “What would the Liberal government do regarding to the emancipation of women?”[15]. The question was not answered by Mr. Grey. The women suffragists were ignored after a second time trying and then they wanted to interrupt the meeting, and so they were evicted and were arrested outside the meeting place. They refused to be fined and so Annie Kenney was sentenced to three days and Christabel Pankhurst to seven days. However, they were sure that they would achieve their goals by going to prison. The method was to interrupt, whenever possible, by asking what the liberal government was going to do to give women the vote.

The Liberals won the general election. However, for the first time 29 Labour candidates[16] were chosen to be member of the Parliament, which was really important for the future of the suffrage campaign.

4-Arson Attacks and Other Damages

It was an individual attack like window breaking that changed the official WSPU policy. Christabel Pankhurst started organizing the arson campaigns in July 1912. Thus, WSPU increased its arson attacks in 1913. Railway stations, cricket pavilions, racecourse stands and golf clubhouses (no votes, no golf) were destroyed by fire. Suffragettes also cut telephone wires and damaged letters by putting chemicals into post boxes.

Among the supporters of the women was Mr. Frederick Pethick-Lawrence. Though not officially a member of the WSPU, he spent his time and money as a speaker, campaigner and legal adviser.[17]

Emmeline Pethick-Lawrance[18] was one of the leaders of the WSPU who did not agree with this arson campaign so she was dismissed from the organisation.

During these arson attacks;

~Lady White’s House burnt down on 20 March 1913. (No humans or pets were killed in these attacks)[19]

~The House of Mr. Arthur du Cros MP at St. Leonards, Hastings was burnt down by suffragettes on 14 April 1913.[20]

~Rusholue Exhibition Centre, Manchester, was destroyed on 7 December 1913.[21]

~A portrait of Thomas Carlyle was damaged at the National Portrait Gallery on 17 July 1914.[22]

~Mary Richardson attacked with an axe the painting of Venus by Velasquez in the National Gallery.[23]

5-Hunger Strike and Cat and Mouse Act.

During the suffragette campaign hundreds of women were sent to prison and many went on hunger strikes. To stage a hunger strike was an individual decision. They were not authorised by the leaders. Many suffragettes suffered long term health problems as a result of their time in prison.[24]

The first hunger striker was Marien Wallace in June 1909. In September of the same year suffragette prisoners went on hunger strike in the Winson Green Prison, Birmingham and they had to be forcibly fed. Lady Constance Lytton went on hunger strike too. She was forcibly fed four times.

The Home Secretary Herbert Gladstone was responsible for forcible feeding being introduced.[25]

As their health was seen to be a risk, The Prisoner’s Temporary Discharge for III-Health Act (1913)[26] was passed in the Parliament. The reason for this act was to give them time to recover, after which they were required to return to prison. Of course, women never wanted to go back to prison.[27]

IV-CONCLUSION

Why did women want the vote? This should be the key question for researchers of women’s history.

Women had poor political and social rights from birth to death in Britain. In law, women did not exist as persons. They were under the direction of their fathers and through marriage, their husbands. They could not sue and could not be sued. They even had no power to sign contracts. When married, all their property, including personal property, belonged the husbands.

Women had no right to earn money. If a woman earned money it had to be paid directly to her husband. It was not possible to survive under these conditions, so they had to struggle or die.

Women thought that the vote would give them all of their rights. This would include the same equality as men, to be able to work in the same conditions with the same level of wages as men, to be educated and finally to be an elected member in parliament.

They tried all different legal methods. These had a positive affect on society but the government and Parliament ignored them. Men were afraid of losing their status against women in society as well as in Parliament.

As a result after the long and hard struggle, men’s authority was broken via the movement. They could not run the country without considering women. For that reason, women took considerable status in society and Parliament. They established their life of the future under equal opportunities.

BIBLIOGRAPHY


BARTLEY, Paula, Votes for Women 1860-1928, Hodder~Stoughton, 1988.

BIGG, Louisa, Should the Parliamentary Franchise be Granted to Women

Householders ?, W.R.King 1879.

BILLINGTON-GREIG, Teresa, The Militant Suffrage Movement, Frank Palmer,

1911.

BLEASE, W.Lyon, The Emancipation of English Women, Constable 1910.

BROOKS, D.C., The Emancipation of Women, Macmillan, London 1970.

CADBURY, Edward and others, Women’s Work and Wages, T.Fisher Unwin,

1909

COUNT, William, Electoral Reform, George Vickers, London 1881.

FULFORD, Roger, Votes for Women, Faber~Faber, London 1958.

HAMILTON, Mary, Women At Work, Routledge and Sons Ltd, 1941.

HOLTON, Sandra Stanley, Suffrage Days, Stories from the Women’s Suffrage

Movement, Routledge 1966.

KENNY, Annie, Memories of a Militant, Edward Arnold and Co. 1924

O’NEILL, W.L., The Women Movement, George Allen~Unwin, London 1969.

PANKHURST, Emmeline, My Own Story (1914), N.Y., Hearst International

Library, Kraus Reprints, 1971.

PANKHURST, E.Sylvia, The Suffragette, Gay and Hancock Ltd. 1911.

____________, The Importance of the Vote, 8th ed., Women’s Press, London

1913.

PANKHURST, Sylvia, The Suffragette Movement, Virago 1977.

PUGH, Martin, Women and the Women’s Movement in Britain, 1914-1959,

Macmillan 1992.

RAMELSON, Marian, Petticoat Rebellion, Unwin Brothers Limited, London
1976.
WHITE, Cynthia L., Women’s Magazines 1963-1968, Michael Joseph, London

1970

WYNNE NEVISON, Margaret, Five Years of Struggle for Freedom, Women’s

Freedom League, 1908.





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[1] BARTLEY, Paula, Votes for Women 1860-1928, Hodder~Stoughton, London 1998, p.30

[2] Funk~Wagnalls Multimedia Encyclopedia.

[3] ROOKE, Patrick, Women’s Rights, The Wayland Documentary History Series, Wayland (Publishers)

Ltd, London 1972, p.115

[4] Who called ‘Red Doctor’ a radical feminist barrister. ATKINSON, Diane, The Suffragettes In

Pictures, Foreward by Glenda Jackson, Museum of London, 1996

[5] ATKINSON, Diane, The Suffragettes In Pictures, Foreward by Glenda Jackson, Museum of London,

1996, p.117

[6] Funk~Wagnalls Multimedia Encyclopedia

[7] PANKHURST, Emmeline, My Own Story (N.Y: Hearst International Library, 1914, Kraus Reprints,

1971), p.4-9, 270-283.

[8] PANKHURST, Emmeline, My Own Story (N.Y: Hearst International Library, 1914, Kraus Reprints,

1971), p.4-9, 270-283.



[9] PANKHURST, Emmeline, My Own Story (N.Y: Hearst International Library, 1914, Kraus Reprints,

1971), p.4-9, 270-283.



[10] PANKHURST, Emmeline, My Own Story (N.Y: Hearst International Library, 1914, Kraus Reprints,

1971), p.4-9, 270-283.



[11] BARTLEY, Paula, Votes for Women 1860~1928, Hodder~Stoughton, London 1998, p.46.

[12] BARTLEY, Paula, Votes for Women 1860-1928, Hodder~Stoughton, London 1998, p.49

[13] It was a weekly newspaper.

[14] ATKINSON, Diane, The Suffragettes In Pictures, Foreward by Glenda Jackson, Museum of London,

1996, p.99

[15] RAMELSON, Marian, Petticoat Rebellion, Unwin Brothers Limited, London 1976, p.133

[16] They were supported by the women organisations. Amongst them J.Keir Hardie and Philip Snowden were strong supporter of the women. Also Prime Minister Campbell-Bannerman was a supporter of women until his death in 1908.

[17] RAMELSON, Marian, Petticoat Rebellion, Unwin Brothers Limited, London 1976, p.135.

[18] She was the WSPU’s business manager and editor of the weekly newspaper “Votes for Women”. ATKINSON, Diane, The Suffragettes In Pictures, Foreward by Glenda Jackson, Museum of London,

1996, p.9

[19] ATKINSON, Diane, The Suffragettes In Pictures, Foreward by Glenda Jackson, Museum of London,

1996, p.144

[20] ATKINSON, Diane, The Suffragettes In Pictures, Foreward by Glenda Jackson, Museum of London,

1996, p.145

[21] ATKINSON, Diane, The Suffragettes In Pictures, Foreward by Glenda Jackson, Museum of London,

1996, p.152

[22] ATKINSON, Diane, The Suffragettes In Pictures, Foreward by Glenda Jackson, Museum of London,

1996, p.163

[23] BARTLEY, Paula, Votes for Women 1860~1928, Hodder~Stoughton, London 1998, p.59

[24] ATKINSON, Diane, The Suffragettes In Pictures, Foreward by Glenda Jackson, Museum of London,

1996, p.124

[25] RAMELSON, Marian, Petticoat Rebellion, Unwin Brothers Limited, London 1976, p.164

[26] It is known ‘Cat and Mouse Act’. It was introduced by Home Secretary McKenna.

[27] RAMELSON, Marian, Petticoat Rebellion, Unwin Brothers Limited, London 1976, p.165