The Women's Suffrage Movement

The Women’s Suffrage Movement Emmeline Pankhurst was born in Manchester on the 15th July 1858 and had a good grasp on the topic of suffrage as her mother, Sophia Crane, started taking Emmeline to suffrage meetings when she was only ten years old. In 1879 Emmeline married Richard Pankhurst who happened to share a similar perspective towards women’s suffrage. In 1903, the Women’s Social and Political Union, or W.S.P.U., was set up by Emmeline Pankhurst and her two daughters Christabel and Sylvia. The main goal of the W.S.P.U. was to recruit workingclass women into the fight for suffrage. Emmeline wanted the W.S.P.U. to get some action done rather than host meetings to discuss suffrage so she came up with the union’s motto which was “Deeds, not words”. However, women were seen to be little more than simple house workers. They were expected to clean the house, work in factories, cook and look after the children. They were not regarded with much respect. The Women’s Suffrage Movement consisted of three phases. Phase one was the peaceful suffragist phase. During this time, suffragettes would do many things to attract attention to their cause. This included putting up posters, pinning signs to horses, distributing leaflets and many more things. I think that this wasn’t the most effective way to draw attention to the movement but on the other hand, it could’ve been seen to be very effective in the perspectives of others. I don’t think phase one was that helpful because most men and nearly all of the government were ignoring the attempts of the suffragettes. 1910 was the start of phase two of the Women’s Suffrage Movement. This was the violent phase. In 1910, women were promised the right to vote by the prime minister. However, there was a general election that year and the votes resulted in a

new prime minister. The new PM didn’t think women deserved the right to vote and so didn’t give them it. Most men were fine with this as some of them had voted for a new prime minister just so women wouldn’t get to vote but on the other hand, some men wanted women to have the vote. Because of this, women, suffragettes especially, became very angry and annoyed. They ended up becoming violent in order to get suffrage and stopped most of the activities they did in phase one. This included starting riots, locking themselves to bars and even setting government buildings on fire. On the 4th June 1913, a woman named Emily Davison, a suffragette, died as a martyr at the derby. Midway through the race she stepped out from the crowd and onto the track. She waited on the track as horses went by then blocked the path of the King’s horse. She was knocked down and died at hospital later. When she was searched, a return train ticket, a large banner and other items were found. I don’t think that Emily meant to die or become a martyr. I think that she wanted to pin the banner to the King’s horse, get away and return home. On the other hand, she may have originally wanted to go home, but when she was on the track she decided that being a martyr was a better way to earn women’s suffrage than a banner. When everyone saw what happened, I think it had a big effect on them as they saw that some women were willing to die for the right to vote. The final third phase of the Women’s Suffrage Movement was the war effort.