Lesson: Suffragettes Resource: Glossary

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Suffragettes - Glossary Suffragette Word given to the militant members of the women’s suffrage movement. The term comes from the word suffrage, which means to vote. Cat & Mouse Act An act of Parliament passed in 1913. It made legal the hunger strikes that Suffragettes were undertaking at the time and stated that they would be released from prison as soon as they became ill. Police were free to re-arrest the Suffragettes once their health had improved. National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) Suffrage group formed in 1897. The group was lead by Millicent Fawcet and aimed to achieve women’s suffrage through peaceful and legal means. Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) A militant organisation campaigning for women’s suffrage. It was the first group where women were known as Suffragettes. Formed in 1903 as a breakway group from the NUWS, the organisation was lead by mother and daughter, Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst. Herbert Henry Asquith Served as Liberal Prime Minister from 1908 to 1916.