The Suffragettes

Women fighting for women's rights

Women’s rights are the fundamental human rights that were established by the United Nations for every human being on the planet 70 years ago.

These rights include the right to live free from violence, slavery, and discrimination;the rightto be educatedto own propertyto voteto earn a fair and equal wage

Despite great progresses made by women over the years, women and girls around the world are still married as children or forced to sex slavery.

They are refused access to education and political participation.

Malala Yousafzai

They can't live free from violence – including domestic violence, sexual assault, and terrible practices such as female genital mutilation.

In many countries around the world, women's condition is not very different from what it was in England or Italy in the 19th century...

London matchgirls 1888

In the 19th century England was ruled by a woman:Queen Victoriabut women had just a few civil or political rights.

Queen Victoria 1937-1901

• In 1857 the Parliament introduced the Matrimonial Causes Act according to which a woman could divorce her husband if he beat her or committed adultery.

• In 1882 the Parliament introduced the Married Woman’s Property Act according to which married women could own property and keep their own earnings.

But by 1900 they had still not been given the right to vote in Parliamentary elections.

In the late 19th century women started to campaign for women’s rights.

They focused on the right to vote.

Two main political groups formed:,

NationalUnion ofWomen’sSuffrageSocieties

Women’sSocial andPoliticalUnion

The Suffragists The Suffragettes

• Their leader was Millicent Fawcett

• They held meetings• They went on peaceful

marches• They wrote letters and

prepared petitions• They campaigned

peacefully and Parliament took no notice of them.

The Suffragists (the NUWSS)

Millicent Fawcett (1847–1929)

• Their leader was Emmeline Pankhurst (a former member of the NUWSS)

• They were determined to make the Parliament take notice

• Their motto was  ‘Deeds Not Words‘

• They began using more aggressive tactics

The Suffragettes (the WSPU)

Emmeline Pankhurst (1858–1928)

WSPU

Emmeline Pankhurst arrested outside Buckingham Palace in May 1914

• They began to interrupt debates in the House of Parliament, heckling from the Ladies Gallery

• They began chaining themselves to railings

• Next they started to smash windows

• Then they began to set Post Boxes on fire

The Suffragettes (the WSPU)

More violence...

• After 1910 the Suffragettes increased their violence;

• They burned down churches and bombed Lloyd George’s house;

•  In 1913, Emily Davison threw herself under the king’s horse on Derby Day and died.

The Suffragettes (the WSPU)

Emily Davison's funeral. A procession of 5,000 suffragettes accompanied her coffin and 50,000 people lined the route through London

The Reaction to the Suffragettes

• Many men opposed women getting the vote

• The violent action of the Suffragettes turned many more men and some women against them

• Posters ridiculing the Suffragettes were made

What happened to the Suffragettes who were arrested?

• They claimed that they were political prisoners and should be given special rights

• The Prison system treated them as common criminals and so the women started to go on hunger strike

• At first, when the women became weak they were released, then the government introduced force-feeding

Force Feeding• The women were

strapped into a chair

• A tube was forced down their throats, so that food could be poured down

Because of this treatment there was new wave of support for the suffragettes!

The First World WarWhen the war broke out both Emmeline Pankhurst and Millicent Fawcett stopped campaigning and encouraged women to work alongside men to defeat the enemy.

Before the war, a woman’s place was in the home, cooking, washing, cleaning and raising her children, but WW1 drastically  changed women’s role in society.

Millions of men were sent away to fight, leaving vacant jobs: many women went to work for the first time in lots of different industries

Women joined the armed forces as cook, carpenters and drivers. They served as nurses on the Front. They worked in arms factories, as firemen, and bus drivers.

Without the women of Britain, the war could not have been won.

End of the warand votes for women

• In May 1917 the Representation of the People Bill passed by a large majority

• Women over 30 were finally given the vote in 1918, and all women in 1928

Lesson: SuffragettesResource: Postcardswww.parliament.uk/education

When did women get the right to vote in each country around the world?