The history of the suffragettes

Dominic Casciani BBC News Online

The votes-for-women
movement exploded in popularity the UK in 1903 -- but the story of the campaign
begins before the reign of Queen Victoria.
In 1832, the Great Reform Act extended the right to vote but women were still excluded from the vote. The first leaflet
5advocating votes for women appeared in 1847, and suffrage societies began to appear throughout the country. Twenty
years later, an unsuccessful attempt to secure votes for women led to the founding of the National Society for Women's
Suffrage.
The following year Richard Pankhurst, an MP and Manchester lawyer, made a fresh attempt to win votes for women. His
wife and daughter, Emmeline and Christabel, went on to become the two most important figures in the movement.
10The first country to give the vote to women was New Zealand in 1893, a move which acted as a major stimulus to British
campaigners. Australia took nine more years to do the same.
In 1903, the campaign for women's suffrage was intensified by the founding of the Women's Social and Political Union
(WSPU), whose - motto was "Deeds not words". Associated particularly with Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters
Christabel and Sylvia, it was far more militant than the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies.
15At the WSPU's inaugural meeting, the suffragettes declared that the situation was so serious it would have to pursue
extreme measures of civil disobedience
Women began chaining themselves to railings, and within five years the campaign had extended to smashing windows.
The most determined - and the first to be jailed - were Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kennedy. They disrupted a Liberal
Party meeting, got themselves arrested and then refused to pay fines so their jailing created headlines.
Arson attacks
20By 1911, the UK had witnessed the first act of suffragette arson and two years later Emily Davison died at the Derby as she
rushed out in front of the King's horse.
In Parliament, pressure for change was led by some liberal MPs, who were the leading figures in a suffrage committee.
But away from the debate of Westminster, prisons filled with women prepared to go to jail for the right to vote. The civil
disobedience continued behind bars, with many women force-fed to prevent them hunger striking.
25While the authorities tried to present them as insane, their families campaigned for the prisoners to be given political status,
including the right to wear their own clothes, study and prepare their own food.
War effort
World War I proved to be the turning point for the campaign.
The suffragettes effectively stopped their campaign of civil direct action in the interests of national unity. As men went to
the Western Front, women proved how indispensable they were in the fields and armaments factories.
30By 1918, no government could resist and the Representation of the Peoples Act allowed women over 30 the right to vote. It
would take a further 10 years to abolish the age qualification and put men and women on an equal footing.
At its height it became one of the few political movements in the history of Britain to cut across all classes - for no woman
could vote, regardless of her position. Many of the upper-middle class women jailed for suffragette protests found
themselves sharing prison with the poorest in society, an experience which greatly influenced much of their future politics.
In groups

adapted from BBC NEWS http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/3153388.stm

Published: 2003/10/02 16:07:06 GMT

1. Describe the pictures , what do they tell us about the suffragette movement.
 2. Make sure you know the meaning of the words in bold  wordreference
Check any other word you don’t understand
3. Prepare at least ten questions for another group :
 Wh questions
 Right or wrong + justify by quoting from the text
 Multiple choice questions
! you must write the answers on a separate piece of paper
 Add a question where you have to give your opinion in 40/50 words

----------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Describe the pictures , what do they tell us about the suffragette movement.
2. Make sure you know the meaning of the words in bold  wordreference
Check any other word you don’t understand
In groups

3. Prepare at least ten questions for another group :

 Wh questions
 Right or wrong + justify by quoting from the text
 Multiple choice questions
! you must write the answers on a separate piece of paper
 Add a question where you have to give your opinion in 40/50 words

----------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Describe the pictures , what do they tell us about the suffragette movement.
2. Make sure you know the meaning of the words in bold  wordreference
Check any other word you don’t understand
In groups

3. Prepare at least ten questions for another group :

 Wh questions
 Right or wrong + justify by quoting from the text
 Multiple choice questions
! you must write the answers on a separate piece of paper
 Add a question where you have to give your opinion in 40/50 words

----------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Describe the pictures , what do they tell us about the suffragette movement.
2. Make sure you know the meaning of the words in bold  wordreference
Check any other word you don’t understand
In groups

3. Prepare at least ten questions for another group :

 Wh questions
 Right or wrong + justify by quoting from the text
 Multiple choice questions
! you must write the answers on a separate piece of paper
 Add a question where you have to give your opinion in 40/50 words

----------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Describe the pictures , what do they tell us about the suffragette movement.
2. Make sure you know the meaning of the words in bold  wordreference
Check any other word you don’t understand
In groups

3. Prepare at least ten questions for another group :

 Wh questions
 Right or wrong + justify by quoting from the text
 Multiple choice questions
! you must write the answers on a separate piece of paper
 Add a question where you have to give your opinion in 40/50 words