Sufragista

Member of the Woman's Social and Political Union who advocated for women's right to vote

Este artículo trata sobre el sufragio femenino en Gran Bretaña e Irlanda. Para la película, vea Suffragette (película) . Para el movimiento estadounidense, vea el sufragio femenino en los Estados Unidos . No confundir con las bandas Suffrajett y The Suffrajets .

Sufragistas

Un póster de 1910 de Alfred Pearce para la WSPU que muestra a una sufragista alimentada a la fuerza
Primeras sufragistas	Unión Social y Política de Mujeres
Lleva el nombre de	Sufragio
Formación	10 de octubre de 1903 ; Hace 117 años (1903-10-10)
Fundador	Emmeline Pankhurst (WSPU)
Grupos posteriores	Women's Freedom League (fundada en 1907) Federación de sufragistas del este de Londres (fundada en 1914)
Propósito	Votos para las mujeres
Métodos	Marchas, abucheos, desobediencia civil , acción directa , huelga de hambre , terrorismo (ver bombardeo de sufragistas e incendios provocados )
Gente clave	Emmeline Pankhurst , Christabel Pankhurst , Sylvia Pankhurst , Teresa Billington-Greig , Emily Davison , Charlotte Despard , Flora Drummond , Annie Kenney , Constance Lytton , Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence , Evaline Hilda Burkitt

Una sufragista fue miembro de una organización de mujeres activistas a principios del siglo XX que, bajo el lema "Votos por las mujeres", luchó por el derecho al voto en las elecciones públicas . El término se refiere en particular a los miembros de la Unión Política y Social de Mujeres Británicas (WSPU), un movimiento solo para mujeres fundado en 1903 por Emmeline Pankhurst , que se involucró en la acción directa y la desobediencia civil . ^{[1] [2]} En 1906, un reportero que escribía en el Daily Mail acuñó el término sufragista para la WSPU, de sufragista , ^αmenospreciar a las mujeres que defienden el sufragio femenino. Los militantes abrazaron el nuevo nombre, incluso adoptándolo como título del periódico publicado por la WSPU.

Las mujeres habían ganado el derecho al voto en varios países a fines del siglo XIX; en 1893, Nueva Zelanda se convirtió en el primer país autónomo en otorgar el voto a todas las mujeres mayores de 21 años. ^[3] Cuando en 1903 las mujeres en Gran Bretaña no habían obtenido el derecho al voto , Pankhurst decidió que las mujeres tenían que "hacer el trabajo nosotros mismos "; ^[4] el lema de la WSPU se convirtió en "hechos, no palabras". Las sufragistas interrumpieron a los políticos, intentaron asaltar el parlamento, fueron agredidas y agredidas sexualmente durante las batallas con la policía, se encadenaron a rejas, rompieron ventanas, llevaron a cabo una campaña nacional de bombardeos e incendios provocados , y se enfrentaron a la ira y el ridículo en los medios de comunicación. Cuando fueron encarcelados se declararon en huelga de hambre, a lo que el gobierno respondió alimentándolos a la fuerza . La primera sufragista en ser alimentada a la fuerza fue Evaline Hilda Burkitt . La muerte de una sufragista, Emily Davison , cuando corrió frente al caballo del rey en el Derby de Epsom de 1913 , fue noticia en todo el mundo. La campaña de la WSPU tuvo distintos niveles de apoyo dentro del movimiento sufragista; Se formaron grupos disidentes, y dentro de la propia WSPU no todos los miembros apoyaron la acción directa. ^[5]

La campaña de sufragistas se suspendió cuando estalló la Primera Guerra Mundial en 1914. Después de la guerra, la Ley de Representación del Pueblo de 1918 otorgó el voto a las mujeres mayores de 30 años que cumplían con ciertos requisitos de propiedad. Diez años más tarde, las mujeres obtuvieron la igualdad electoral con los hombres cuando la Ley de representación del pueblo (igualdad de derecho al voto ) de 1928 otorgó el voto a todas las mujeres a los 21 años.

Antecedentes

Sufragio femenino

Aunque la Isla de Man (una dependencia de la Corona británica) había otorgado el derecho al voto a mujeres que poseían propiedades para votar en las elecciones parlamentarias (Tynwald) en 1881, Nueva Zelanda fue el primer país autónomo en otorgar a todas las mujeres el derecho al voto en 1893, cuando las mujeres a los mayores de 21 años se les permitió votar en todas las elecciones parlamentarias. ^{[3] Las} mujeres en Australia Meridional obtuvieron el mismo derecho y se convirtieron en las primeras en obtener el derecho a presentarse al parlamento en 1895. ^[6] En los Estados Unidos, a las mujeres blancas mayores de 21 años se les permitió votar en los territorios occidentales de Wyoming desde 1869 y en Utah desde 1870.

Sufragistas británicas

En 1865 John Stuart Mill fue elegido para el Parlamento sobre una plataforma que incluía el voto de las mujeres, y en 1869 publicó su ensayo a favor de la igualdad de sexos The Subjection of Women . También en 1865 , se formó un grupo de discusión de mujeres, The Kensington Society . Tras las discusiones sobre el tema del sufragio femenino, la sociedad formó un comité para redactar una petición y reunir firmas, que Mill acordó presentar al Parlamento una vez que hubieran reunido 100 firmas. ^[7] En octubre de 1866, la científica aficionada Lydia Becker asistió a una reunión de la Asociación Nacional para la Promoción de las Ciencias Sociales celebrada en Manchester.y escuché a una de las organizadoras de la petición, Barbara Bodichon , leer un documento titulado Razones para el derecho al voto de las mujeres . Becker se inspiró para ayudar a reunir firmas en Manchester y unirse al comité de Manchester recién formado. Mill presentó la petición al Parlamento en 1866, momento en el que los partidarios habían reunido 1499 firmas, incluidas las de Florence Nightingale , Harriet Martineau , Josephine Butler y Mary Somerville . ^[8]

En marzo de 1867, Becker escribió un artículo para Contemporary Review , en el que decía:

Seguramente no se negará que las mujeres tienen, y deben tener, opiniones propias sobre temas de interés público y sobre los acontecimientos que surgen a medida que el mundo avanza. Pero si se concede que las mujeres pueden, sin ofender, tener opiniones políticas, ¿por qué motivo se puede negar el derecho a dar a sus opiniones la misma expresión o efecto que disfrutan sus vecinos varones? ^[9]

En mayo de 1867 se presentaron dos peticiones más al parlamento y Mill también propuso una enmienda a la Ley de Reforma de 1867 para otorgar a las mujeres los mismos derechos políticos que a los hombres, pero la enmienda fue tratada con burla y rechazada por 196 votos contra 73. ^[10]

La Sociedad de Manchester para el sufragio femenino se formó en enero de 1867, cuando Jacob Bright, el Rev. SA Steinthal, la Sra. Gloyne, Max Kyllman y Elizabeth Wolstenholme se reunieron en la casa del Dr. Louis Borchardt. Lydia Becker fue nombrada Secretaria de la Sociedad en febrero de 1867 y el Dr. Richard Pankhurst fue uno de los primeros miembros del Comité Ejecutivo. ^[11] Un evento de oratoria de 1874 en Manchester organizado por Becker, contó con la presencia de Emmeline Goulden, de 14 años, que se convertiría en una ardiente defensora de los derechos de las mujeres y más tarde se casó con la Dra. Pankhurst, que se hizo conocida como Emmeline Pankhurst . ^[12]

Durante el verano de 1880, Becker visitó la Isla de Man para dirigir cinco reuniones públicas sobre el tema del sufragio femenino ante audiencias compuestas principalmente por mujeres. Estos discursos inculcaron en las mujeres de la Isla de Man la determinación de asegurar el derecho al voto, y el 31 de enero de 1881, las mujeres de la isla que poseían propiedades por derecho propio recibieron el voto. ^[13]

Formación de la WSPU

Artículo principal: Unión social y política de mujeres

Emmeline Pankhurst fundó la WSPU en 1903 y se convirtió en la más destacada de las sufragistas británicas.

En Manchester, el Comité de Sufragio de la Mujer se formó en 1867 para trabajar con el Partido Laborista Independiente (ILP) para asegurar los votos de las mujeres, pero, aunque el ILP local era un gran apoyo, a nivel nacional el partido estaba más interesado en asegurar la franquicia para trabajar. hombres de clase y se negó a hacer del sufragio femenino una prioridad. En 1897, el comité de sufragio femenino de Manchester se había fusionado con la unión nacional de sociedades de sufragio femenino (NUWSS), pero Emmeline Pankhurst, que era miembro del comité original de Manchester, y su hija mayor Christabelse había impacientado con el ILP, y el 10 de octubre de 1903, Emmeline Pankhurst celebró una reunión en su casa de Manchester para formar un grupo separatista, la Unión Política y Social de Mujeres (WSPU). Desde el principio, la WSPU estaba decidida a alejarse de los métodos de campaña serios de NUWSS y, en cambio, tomar medidas más positivas: ^[14]

Fue el 10 de octubre de 1903 que invité a varias mujeres a mi casa en Nelson Street, Manchester, por motivos de organización. Votamos para llamar a nuestra nueva sociedad Unión Social y Política de Mujeres, en parte para enfatizar su democracia, y en parte para definir su objeto como político en lugar de propagandista. Decidimos limitar nuestra membresía exclusivamente a mujeres, mantenernos absolutamente libres de afiliación partidista y quedarnos satisfechos con nada más que una acción sobre nuestra pregunta. 'Hechos, no palabras' iba a ser nuestro lema permanente.

-  Emmeline Pankhurst ^[15]

El término "sufragista" fue utilizado por primera vez en 1906 como un término de burla por el periodista Charles E. Hands en el London Daily Mail para describir a los activistas del movimiento por el sufragio femenino , en particular a los miembros de la WSPU. ^{[16] [17] [18]} Pero las mujeres a las que pretendía ridiculizar adoptaron el término, diciendo "suffraGETtes" (endureciendo la 'g'), lo que implica no solo que querían el voto, sino que tenían la intención de 'conseguirlo' . ^[19]

Campañas WSPU

Annie Kenney y Christabel Pankhurst de la WSPU , c. 1908

Ver también: Campaña de bombardeos e incendios sufragistas y lista de bombardeos sufragistas

En una reunión política en Manchester en 1905, Christabel Pankhurst y la obrera Annie Kenney , interrumpieron los discursos de los prominentes liberales Winston Churchill y Sir Edward Gray , preguntando dónde se encontraban Churchill y Gray con respecto a los derechos políticos de las mujeres. En un momento en que solo asistían hombres a las reuniones políticas y se esperaba que los oradores tuvieran la cortesía de exponer sus puntos de vista sin interrupción, la audiencia se indignó y cuando las mujeres desplegaron una pancarta de "Votos para las mujeres", ambas fueron arrestadas por un asalto técnico a un policía. Cuando Pankhurst y Kenney comparecieron ante el tribunal, ambos se negaron a pagar la multa impuesta y prefirieron ir a prisión para ganar publicidad para su causa. ^[20]

In July 1908 the WSPU hosted a large demonstration in Heaton Park, near Manchester with speakers on 13 separate platforms including Emmeline, Christabel and Adela Pankhurst. According to the Manchester Guardian:

Friends of the women suffrage movement are entitled to reckon the great demonstration at Heaton Park yesterday, arranged by the Women's Social and Political Union, as somewhat of a triumph. With fine weather as an ally the women suffragists were able to bring together an immense body of people. These people were not all sympathisers with the object, and much service to the cause must have been rendered by merely collecting so many people and talking over the subject with them. The organisation, too, was creditable to the promoters...The police were few and inconspicuous. The speakers went by special [tram]car to the Bury Old Road entrance, and were escorted by a few police to several platforms. Here the escorts waited till the speaking was over, and then accompanied their respective charges back to the special car. There was little need, apparently, for the escort. Even the opponents of the suffrage claim who made themselves heard were perfectly friendly towards the speakers, and the only crowding about them as they left was that of curiosity on the part of those who wished to have a good look at the missioners in the cause.^[21]

Stung by the stereotypical image of the strong minded woman in masculine clothes created by newspaper cartoonists, the suffragettes resolved to present a fashionable, feminine image when appearing in public. In 1908 the co-editor of the WSPU's newspaper, Votes for Women, Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, designed the suffragettes' colour scheme of purple for loyalty and dignity, white for purity, and green for hope. Fashionable London shops Selfridges and Liberty sold tricolour-striped ribbon for hats, rosettes, badges and belts, as well as coloured garments, underwear, handbags, shoes, slippers and toilet soap.^[22] As membership of the WSPU grew it became fashionable for women to identify with the cause by wearing the colours, often discreetly in a small piece of jewellery or by carrying a heart-shaped vesta case^[23][22] and in December 1908 the London jewellers, Mappin & Webb, issued a catalogue of suffragette jewellery in time for the Christmas season.^[24] Sylvia Pankhurst said at the time: "Many suffragists spend more money on clothes than they can comfortably afford, rather than run the risk of being considered outré, and doing harm to the cause".^[22] In 1909 the WSPU presented specially commissioned pieces of jewellery to leading suffragettes, Emmeline Pankhurst and Louise Eates.^[24]

The suffragettes also used other methods to publicise and raise money for the cause and from 1909, the "Pank-a-Squith" board game was sold by the WSPU. The name was derived from Pankhurst and the surname of Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, who was largely hated by the movement. The board game was set out in a spiral, and players were required to lead their suffragette figure from their home to parliament, past the obstacles faced from Prime Minister H. H. Asquith and the Liberal government.^[25] Also in 1909, suffragettes Daisy Solomon and Elspeth McClelland tried an innovative method of potentially obtaining a meeting with Asquith by sending themselves by Royal Mail courier post; however, Downing Street did not accept the parcel.^[26]

Sophia Duleep Singh, the third daughter of the exiled Maharaja Duleep Singh,^[27] had made a trip from her home in London to India, in 1903, to see the celebrations for the accession of King Edward VII as emperor of India and was shocked by the brutality of life under British rule. On her return to the UK in 1909, Singh became an ardent supporter of the cause, selling suffragette newspapers outside her apartment at Hampton Court Palace, refusing to pay taxes, fighting with police at protests and attacking the prime minister's car.^[28][29]

Emily Davison

1912 was a turning point for the suffragettes, as they turned to using more militant tactics and began a window-smashing campaign. Some members of the WSPU, including Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence and her husband Frederick, disagreed with this strategy but Christabel Pankhurst ignored their objections. In response to this, the Government ordered the arrest of the WSPU leaders and, although Christabel Pankhurst escaped to France, the Pethick-Lawrences were arrested, tried and sentenced to nine months' imprisonment. On their release, the Pethick-Lawrences began to speak out publicly against the window-smashing campaign, arguing that it would lose support for the cause, and eventually they were expelled from the WSPU. Having lost control of Votes for Women the WSPU began to publish their own newspaper under the title The Suffragette.^[30]

The campaign was then escalated, with the suffragettes chaining themselves to railings, setting fire to post box contents, smashing windows and eventually detonating bombs, as part of a wider bombing campaign.^[31] Some radical techniques used by the suffragettes were learned from Russian exiles from tsarism who had escaped to England.^[32] In 1914, at least seven churches were bombed or set on fire across the United Kingdom, including Westminster Abbey, where an explosion aimed at destroying the 700-year-old Coronation Chair, only caused minor damage.^[33] Places that wealthy people, typically men, frequented were also burnt and destroyed whilst left unattended so that there was little risk to life, including cricket pavilions, horse-racing pavilions, churches, castles and the second homes of the wealthy. The also burnt the slogan "Votes for Women" into the grass of golf couses.^[34] Pinfold Manor in Surrey, which was being built for the Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George, was targeted with two bombs on 19 February 1913, only one of which exploded, causing significant damage; in her memoirs, Sylvia Pankhurst said that Emily Davison had carried out the attack.^[34] There were 250 arson or destruction attacks in a six-month period in 1913 ^[34] and in April the newspapers reported "What might have been the most serious outrage yet perpetrated by the Suffragettes":

Policemen discovered inside the railings of the Bank of England a bomb timed to explode at midnight. It contained 3oz of powerful explosive, some metal, and a number of hairpins - the last named constituent, no doubt to make known the source of the intended sensation. The bomb was similar to that used in the attempt to blow up Oxted Railway Station. It contained a watch with attachment for explosion, but was clumsily fitted. If it had exploded when the streets were crowded a number of people would probably have been injured.^[35]

There are reports in the Parliamentary Papers which include lists of the 'incendiary devices', explosions, artwork destruction (including an axe attack upon a painting of The Duke of Wellington in the National Gallery), arson attacks, window-breaking, postbox burning and telegraph cable cutting, that took place during the most militant years, from 1910 to 1914.^[36] Both suffragettes and police spoke of a "Reign of Terror"; newspaper headlines referred to "Suffragette Terrorism".^[37]

One suffragette, Emily Davison, died under the King's horse, Anmer, at The Derby on 4 June 1913. It is debated whether she was trying to pull down the horse, attach a suffragette scarf or banner to it, or commit suicide to become a martyr to the cause. However, recent analysis of the film of the event suggests that she was merely trying to attach a scarf to the horse, and the suicide theory seems unlikely as she was carrying a return train ticket from Epsom and had holiday plans with her sister in the near future.^[38]

Imprisonment

In the early 20th century until the outbreak of World War I, approximately one thousand suffragettes were imprisoned in Britain.^[39] Most early incarcerations were for public order offences and failure to pay outstanding fines. While incarcerated, suffragettes lobbied to be considered political prisoners; with such a designation, suffragettes would be placed in the First Division as opposed to the Second or Third Division of the prison system, and as political prisoners would be granted certain freedoms and liberties not allotted to other prison divisions, such as being allowed frequent visits and being allowed to write books or articles.^[40] Because of a lack of consistency between the different courts, suffragettes would not necessarily be placed in the First Division and could be placed in the Second or Third Division, which enjoyed fewer liberties.

This cause was taken up by the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), a large organisation in Britain, that lobbied for women's suffrage led by militant suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst.^[41] The WSPU campaigned to get imprisoned suffragettes recognised as political prisoners. However, this campaign was largely unsuccessful. Citing a fear that the suffragettes becoming political prisoners would make for easy martyrdom,^[42] and with thoughts from the courts and the Home Office that they were abusing the freedoms of the First Division to further the agenda of the WSPU,^[43] suffragettes were placed in the Second Division, and in some cases the Third Division, in prisons, with no special privileges granted to them as a result.^[44]

Hunger strikes and force-feeding

Suffragette being force-fed

Suffragettes were not recognised as political prisoners, and many of them staged hunger strikes while they were imprisoned. The first woman to refuse food was Marion Wallace Dunlop, a militant suffragette who was sentenced to a month in Holloway for vandalism in July 1909.^[45] Without consulting suffragette leaders such as Pankhurst,^[46] Dunlop refused food in protest at being denied political prisoner status. After a 92-hour hunger strike, and for fear of her becoming a martyr,^[46] the Home Secretary Herbert Gladstone decided to release her early on medical grounds.^[43] Dunlop's strategy was adopted by other suffragettes who were incarcerated.^[47] It became common practice for suffragettes to refuse food in protest for not being designated as political prisoners, and as a result they would be released after a few days and could return to the "fighting line".^[48]

After a public backlash regarding the prison status of suffragettes, the rules of the divisions were amended. In March 1910, Rule 243A was introduced by the Home Secretary Winston Churchill, allowing prisoners in the Second and Third Divisions to be allowed certain privileges of the First Division, provided they were not convicted of a serious offence, effectively ending hunger strikes for two years.^[49] Hunger strikes began again when Pankhurst was transferred from the Second Division to the First Division, inciting the other suffragettes to demonstrate regarding their prison status.^[50]

Memories of Winson Green Gaol, 18 September 1909; illustration from Mabel Capper's WSPU prisoner's scrapbook

Militant suffragette demonstrations subsequently became more aggressive,^[43] and the British Government took action. Unwilling to release all the suffragettes refusing food in prison,^[47] in the autumn of 1909, the authorities began to adopt more drastic measures to manage the hunger-strikers. In September 1909, the Home Office became unwilling to release hunger-striking suffragettes before their sentence was served.^[48] Suffragettes became a liability because, if they were to die in custody, the prison would be responsible for their death. Prisons began the practice of force-feeding the hunger strikers through a tube, most commonly via a nostril or stomach tube or a stomach pump.^[47] Force-feeding had previously been practised in Britain but its use had been exclusively for patients in hospitals who were too unwell to eat or swallow food. Despite the practice being deemed safe by medical practitioners for sick patients, it posed health issues for the healthy suffragettes.^[46]

The process of tube-feeding was strenuous without the consent of the hunger strikers, who were typically strapped down and force-fed via stomach or nostril tube, often with a considerable amount of force.^[51] The process was painful, and after the practice was observed and studied by several physicians, it was deemed to cause both short-term damage to the circulatory system, digestive system and nervous system and long-term damage to the physical and mental health of the suffragettes.^[52] Some suffragettes who were force-fed developed pleurisy or pneumonia as a result of a misplaced tube.^[53] Women who had gone on hunger strike in prison received a Hunger Strike Medal from the WSPU on their release.^[54]

Legislation

Cat and Mouse Act WSPU poster (1914)

In April 1913, Reginald McKenna of the Home Office passed the Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act 1913, or the Cat and Mouse Act as it was commonly known. The act made the hunger strikes legal, in that a suffragette would be temporarily released from prison when their health began to diminish, only to be readmitted when she regained her health to finish her sentence.^[51] The act enabled the British Government to be absolved of any blame resulting from death or harm due to the self-starvation of the striker and ensured that the suffragettes would be too ill and too weak to participate in demonstrative activities while not in custody.^[47] Most women continued hunger striking when they were readmitted to prison following their leave.^[55] After the Act was introduced, force-feeding on a large scale was stopped and only women convicted of more serious crimes and considered likely to repeat their offences if released were force-fed.^[56]

The Bodyguard

In early 1913 and in response to the Cat and Mouse Act, the WSPU instituted a secret society of women known as the "Bodyguard" whose role was to physically protect Emmeline Pankhurst and other prominent suffragettes from arrest and assault. Known members included Katherine Willoughby Marshall, Leonora Cohen and Gertrude Harding; Edith Margaret Garrud was their jujitsu trainer.

The origin of the "Bodyguard" can be traced to a WSPU meeting at which Garrud spoke. As suffragettes speaking in public increasingly found themselves the target of violence and attempted assaults, learning jujitsu was a way for women to defend themselves against angry hecklers.^[57] Inciting incidents included Black Friday, during which a deputation of 300 suffragettes were physically prevented by police from entering the House of Commons, sparking a near-riot and allegations of both common and sexual assault.

Members of the "Bodyguard" orchestrated the "escapes" of a number of fugitive suffragettes from police surveillance during 1913 and early 1914. They also participated in several violent actions against the police in defence of their leaders, notably including the "Battle of Glasgow" on 9 March 1914, when a group of about 30 Bodyguards brawled with about 50 police constables and detectives on the stage of St Andrew's Hall in Glasgow. The fight was witnessed by an audience of some 4500 people.^[58]

World War I

At the commencement of World War I, the suffragette movement in Britain moved away from suffrage activities and focused on the war effort, and as a result, hunger strikes largely stopped.^[59] In August 1914, the British Government released all prisoners who had been incarcerated for suffrage activities on an amnesty,^[60] with Pankhurst ending all militant suffrage activities soon after.^[61] The suffragettes' focus on war work turned public opinion in favour of their eventual partial enfranchisement in 1918.^[62]

Women eagerly volunteered to take on many traditional male roles – leading to a new view of what women were capable of. The war also caused a split in the British suffragette movement; the mainstream, represented by Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst's WSPU calling a ceasefire in their campaign for the duration of the war, while more radical suffragettes, represented by Sylvia Pankhurst's Women's Suffrage Federation continued the struggle.

Countess Markiewicz (1868–1927)

The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, which had always employed "constitutional" methods, continued to lobby during the war years and compromises were worked out between the NUWSS and the coalition government.^[63] On 6 February, the Representation of the People Act 1918 was passed, enfranchising all men over 21 years of age and women over the age of 30 who met minimum property qualifications,^[64][65] gaining the right to vote for about 8.4 million women.^[65] In November 1918, the Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act 1918 was passed, allowing women to be elected into parliament.^[65] The Representation of the People Act 1928 extended the voting franchise to all women over the age of 21, granting women the vote on the same terms that men had gained ten years earlier.^[66]

1918 general election, women Members of Parliament

The 1918 general election, the first general election to be held after the Representation of the People Act 1918, was the first in which some women (property owners older than 30) could vote. At that election, the first woman to be elected an MP was Constance Markievicz but, in line with Sinn Féin abstentionist policy, she declined to take her seat in the British House of Commons. The first woman to do so was Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor, following a by-election in November 1919.

Legacy

Nineteen-year-old Fay Hubbard selling suffragette papers in New York, 1910

"Votes for Women", a penny defaced by suffragettes in the UK, 1930 or later. One penny of Edward VII, obverse, copper, 1903. On display at the British Museum

In the autumn of 1913 Emmeline Pankhurst had sailed to the US to embark on a lecture tour to publicise the message of the WSPU and to raise money for the treatment of her son, Harry, who was gravely ill. By this time the suffragettes' tactics of civil disorder were being used by American militants Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, both of whom had campaigned with the WSPU in London. As in the UK, the suffrage movement in America was divided into two disparate groups, with the National American Woman Suffrage Association representing the more militant campaign and the International Women's Suffrage Alliance taking a more cautious and pragmatic approach^[67] Although the publicity surrounding Pankhurst's visit and the militant tactics used by her followers gave a welcome boost to the campaign,^[68] the majority of women in the US preferred the more respected label of "suffragist" to the title "suffragette" adopted by the militants.^[69]

Many suffragists at the time, and some historians since, have argued that the actions of the militant suffragettes damaged their cause.^[70] Opponents at the time saw evidence that women were too emotional and could not think as logically as men.^{[71][72][73][74][75]} Historians generally argue that the first stage of the militant suffragette movement under the Pankhursts in 1906 had a dramatic mobilizing effect on the suffrage movement. Women were thrilled and supportive of an actual revolt in the streets. The membership of the militant WSPU and the older NUWSS overlapped and were mutually supportive. However, a system of publicity, Ensor argues, had to continue to escalate to maintain its high visibility in the media. The hunger strikes and force-feeding did that, but the Pankhursts refused any advice and escalated their tactics. They turned to systematic disruption of Liberal Party meetings as well as physical violence in terms of damaging public buildings and arson. Searle says the methods of the suffragettes harmed the Liberal Party but failed to advance women's suffrage. When the Pankhursts decided to stop their militancy at the start of the war and enthusiastically support the war effort, the movement split and their leadership role ended. Suffrage came four years later, but the feminist movement in Britain permanently abandoned the militant tactics that had made the suffragettes famous.^[76][77]

After Emmeline Pankhurst's death in 1928, money was raised to commission a statue, and on 6 March 1930 the statue in Victoria Tower Gardens was unveiled. A crowd of radicals, former suffragettes and national dignitaries gathered as former Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin presented the memorial to the public. In his address, Baldwin declared: "I say with no fear of contradiction, that whatever view posterity may take, Mrs. Pankhurst has won for herself a niche in the Temple of Fame which will last for all time".^[78] In 1929 a portrait of Emmeline Pankhurst was added to the National Portrait Gallery's collection. In 1987 her former home at 62 Nelson Street, Manchester, the birthplace of the WSPU, and the adjoining Edwardian villa (no. 60) were opened as the Pankhurst Centre, a women-only space and museum dedicated to the suffragette movement.^[79] Christabel Pankhurst was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1936, and after her death in 1958 a permanent memorial was installed next to the statue of her mother.^[80] The memorial to Christabel Pankhurst consists of a low stone screen flanking her mother's statue with a bronze medallion plaque depicting her profile at one end of the screen paired with a second plaque depicting the "prison brooch" or "badge" of the WSPU at the other end.^[81] The unveiling of this dual memorial was performed on 13 July 1959 by the Lord Chancellor, Lord Kilmuir.^[82]

In 1903, the Australian suffragist Vida Goldstein adopted the WSPU colours for her campaign for the Senate in 1910 but got them slightly wrong since she thought that they were purple, green and lavender. Goldstein had visited England in 1911 at the behest of the WSPU. Her speeches around the country drew huge crowds and her tour was touted as "the biggest thing that has happened in the women movement for sometime in England".^[83] The correct colours were used for her campaign for Kooyong in 1913 and also for the flag of the Women's Peace Army, which she established during World War I to oppose conscription. During International Women's Year in 1975 the BBC series about the suffragettes, Shoulder to Shoulder, was screened across Australia and Elizabeth Reid, Women's Adviser to Prime Minister Gough Whitlam directed that the WSPU colours be used for the International Women's Year symbol. They were also used for a first-day cover and postage stamp released by Australia Post in March 1975. The colours have since been adopted by government bodies such as the National Women's Advisory Council and organisations such as Women's Electoral Lobby and other women's services such as domestic violence refuges and are much in evidence each year on International Women's day.^[84]

The colours of green and heliotrope (purple) were commissioned into a new coat of arms for Edge Hill University in Lancashire in 2006, symbolising the university's early commitment to the equality of women through its beginnings as a women-only college.^[85]

During the 1960s the memory of the suffragettes was kept alive in the public consciousness by portrayals in film, such as the character Mrs Winifred Banks in the 1964 Disney musical film Mary Poppins who sings the song Sister Suffragette and Maggie DuBois in the 1965 film The Great Race. In 1974 The BBC TV series Shoulder to Shoulder portraying events in the British militant suffrage movement, concentrating on the lives of members of the Pankhurst family was shown around the world. And in the 21st century the story of the suffragettes was brought to a new generation in the BBC television series Up the Women, the 2015 graphic novel trilogy Suffrajitsu: Mrs. Pankhurst's Amazons and the 2015 film Suffragette.

In February 2019, female Democrat members of the US Congress dressed predominantly in white when attending President Trump's State of the Union address. The choice of one of the colours associated with the suffragettes was to signify the women's solidarity.^[86]

Notable people

Great Britain

• Margaret Aldersley
• Mary Ann Aldham
• Doreen Allen
• Gertrude Ansell
• Joan Beauchamp
• Edith Marian Begbie
• Rosa May Billinghurst
• Elsie Bowerman
• Janet Boyd
• Lady Constance Bulwer-Lytton
• Evaline Hilda Burkitt
• Mabel Capper
• Georgina Fanny Cheffins
• Ada Nield Chew
• Anne Cobden-Sanderson
• Leonora Cohen
• Rose Cohen
• Jessie Craigen
• Emily Wilding Davison
• Violet Mary Doudney
• Katherine Douglas Smith
• Flora Drummond
• Sophia Duleep Singh
• Norah Elam also known as Norah Dacre Fox^[87]
• Edith Margaret Garrud
• Katie Edith Gliddon
• Cicely Hamilton
• Jane Ellen Harrison
• Edith How-Martyn
• Clemence Housman
• Elsie Inglis
• Annie Kenney
• Grace Kimmins
• Lilian Lenton
• Lizzy Lind af Hageby
• Mary Lowndes
• Florence Macfarlane
• Margaret Macfarlane
• Nellie Martel
• Selina Martin
• Emmeline Pankhurst
• Christabel Pankhurst
• Sylvia Pankhurst
• Adela Pankhurst
• Frances Parker
• Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence
• Pleasance Pendred
• Isabella Potbury
• Mary Richardson
• Edith Rigby
• Bertha Ryland
• Myra Sadd Brown
• Genie Sheppard
• Alice Maud Shipley
• Jane Short
• Ethel Smyth
• Ethel Snowden
• Janie Terrero
• Dora Thewlis
• Catherine Tolson
• Helen Tolson
• Florence Tunks
• Leonora Tyson
• Vera Wentworth
• Olive Wharry
• Gertrude Wilkinson
• Laetitia Withall
• Celia Wray

Ireland

• Louie Bennett
• Mary Fleetwood Berry
• Helen Chenevix
• Frances Power Cobbe
• Margaret "Gretta" Cousins
• Charlotte Despard
• Norah Elam
• Katharine Gatty
• Eva Gore-Booth
• Anna Haslam
• Mary Hayden
• Kathleen Lynn
• Constance Markievicz
• Margaret McCoubrey
• Mary Ann McCracken
• Mary MacSwiney
• Helena Molony
• Florence Moon
• Mary Donovan O'Sullivan
• Sarah Persse
• Jenny Wyse Power
• Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington
• Isabella Tod
• Anna Wheeler

Gallery

• UK WSPU Hunger Strike Medal 30 July 1909 including the bar 'Fed by Force 17 September 1909'. The Medal awarded to Mabel Capper records the first instance of forcible feeding of Suffragette prisoners in England at Winson Green Prison.

• Portrait badge of Emmeline Pankhurst (c. 1909) sold in large numbers by the WSPU to raise funds

• 1910 Suffragette calendar held in the collections of the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Coventry

• Suffragette Banner (c. 1910)

• Votes for Women poster (1909)

• 7 October 1913 edition of The Suffragette

• Gold earrings in suffragette colours

• An illustration of a suffragette on a horse, waving an American flag, in the 1916 novel The Fifth Wheel by Olive Higgins Prouty

See also

• Women's suffrage organisations
• Suffragette bombing and arson campaign
• List of women's rights activists
• Pankhurst Centre
• Suffragetto, a board game
• Women's suffrage in the United States
• List of suffragette bombings

Notes

^α The Oxford English Dictionary has this, "Originally a generic term, suffragist came to refer specifically to those advocates of women's suffrage who campaigned through peaceful, constitutional measures, in distinction to the suffragettes who employed direct action and civil disobedience."

References

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54. Beverley Cook, Six things you should know about the Suffragette hunger strikes - Museum of London website
55. Geddes 2008, p. 88.
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57. Ruz, Camila; Parkinson, Justin (5 October 2015). "'Suffrajitsu': How the suffragettes fought back using martial arts". BBC News. Retrieved 9 December 2015.
58. Wilson, Gretchen With All Her Might: The Life of Gertrude Harding, Militant Suffragette (Holmes & Meier Publishing, April 1998)
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62. Jones, J. Graham. "Lloyd George and the Suffragettes", National Library of Wales Journal (2003) 33#1 pp. 1–34
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Works cited

• Bolt, Christine (1993). The Women's Movements in the United States and Britain from the 1790s to the 1920s. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press. ISBN 978-0-870-23866-6.
• Crawford, Elizabeth (1999). The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide, 1866–1928. London: UCL Press. ISBN 978-1-841-42031-8.
• Geddes, J. F. (2008). "Culpable Complicity: the medical profession and the forcible feeding of suffragettes, 1909–1914". Women's History Review. 17 (1): 79–94. doi:10.1080/09612020701627977. S2CID 145175769.
• Grant, Kevin (2011). "British suffragettes and the Russian method of hunger strike". Comparative Studies in Society and History. 53 (1): 113–143. doi:10.1017/S0010417510000642.
• Harrison, Brian (2013) [1978]. Separate Spheres: The Opposition to Women's Suffrage in Britain. Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-62336-0.
• Miller, Ian (2009). "Necessary Torture? Vivisection, Suffragette Force-Feeding, and Responses to Scientific Medicine in Britain c. 1870–1920". Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences. 64 (3): 333–372. doi:10.1093/jhmas/jrp008. PMID 19357183. S2CID 41978888.
• Pedersen, Susan (2004). Eleanor Rathbone and the Politics of Conscience. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-10245-1.
• Purvis, June (1995). "The Prison Experiences of the Suffragettes in Edwardian Britain". Women's History Review. 4 (1): 103–133. doi:10.1080/09612029500200073.
• Williams, John (2001). "Hunger Strikes: A Prisoner's Right or a 'Wicked Folly'?". Howard Journal. 40 (3): 285–296. doi:10.1111/1468-2311.00208.

Further reading

• Atkinson, Diane (1992). The Purple, White and Green: Suffragettes in London, 1906–14. London: Museum of London. ISBN 978-0-904-81853-6.
• Dangerfield, George. The Strange Death of Liberal England (1935), pp 133–205, 349–73; online free; classic account of how the Liberal Party ruined itself in dealing with the House of Lords, suffragettes, the Irish question, and labour unions, 1906–1914.
• Hannam, June (2005). "International Dimensions of Women's Suffrage: 'at the crossroads of several interlocking identities'". Women's History Review. 14 (3–4): 543–560. doi:10.1080/09612020500200438. S2CID 144792299.
• Leneman, Leah (1995). A Guid Cause: The Women's Suffrage Movement in Scotland (2nd ed.). Edinburgh: Mercat Press. ISBN 978-1-873-64448-5.
• Liddington, Jill; Norris, Jill (2000). One Hand Tied Behind Us: The Rise of the Women's Suffrage Movement (2nd ed.). London: Rivers Oram Press. ISBN 978-1-854-89110-5.
• Mayhall, Laura E. Nym (2000). "Reclaiming the Political: Women and the Social History of Suffrage in Great Britain, France, and the United States". Journal of Women's History. 12 (1): 172–181. doi:10.1353/jowh.2000.0023. S2CID 143508331.
• ——— (2003). The Militant Suffrage Movement: Citizenship and Resistance in Britain, 1860–1930. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-195-15993-6.
• Pankhurst, Sylvia (1911). The suffragette; the history of the women's militant suffrage movement, 1905–1910. New York: Sturgis & Walton Company.
• Purvis, June (2002). Emmeline Pankhurst: A Biography. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-23978-3.
• Purvis, June; Sandra, Stanley Holton, eds. (2000). Votes For Women. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-21458-2.
• Riddell, Fern."Sanitising the Suffragettes: Why is it so easy to forget an unsavoury aspect of Britain's recent past?" History Today (2018) 68#2 pp 8–11.
• Rosen, Andrew (2013) [1974]. Rise Up Women!: The Militant Campaign of the Women's Social and Political Union, 1903–1914 (Reprint ed.). Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-62384-1.
• Smith, Harold L. (2010). The British Women's Suffrage Campaign, 1866–1928 (Revised 2nd ed.). Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-408-22823-4.
• Wingerden, Sophia A. van (1999). The Women's Suffrage Movement in Britain, 1866–1928. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-66911-2.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Women's suffrage activists.

• UNCG Special Collections and University Archives selections of American Suffragette manuscripts
• Collection of Suffrage posters housed at Cambridge University.
• The struggle for democracy Visit the British Library learning resource pages to discover more about the suffragette movement
• Suffragettes versus Suffragists – website comparing aims and methods of Women's Social and Political Union (Suffragettes) to National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (Suffragists)
• Exploring 20th century London – Women's Social and Political Union (W.S.P.U.) Objects and photographs including hunger strike medal's given to activists.
• Antiques Journal Information on Suffragette jewellery
• Museum of Australian Democracy: Pank-a-Squith Information on the 1913 board game