Their forming, their purpose and impact.
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, men in the UK had the right to vote but women did not. Many people, including women, didn’t believe that women should be able to vote. Even Queen Victoria called the fight for women’s rights a “mad, wicked folly” even though she was a powerful woman herself.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many women started to fight and campaign for women’s rights. The focus of their attention as to win their right to vote. This became known as the suffragist movement.
During this time, two main political groups formed, the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies and the Women’s Social and Political Union. It all mostly happened and took place in the United Kingdom and America. These groups came to be known by two different nicknames, made up by newspaper companies to judge and put down the movement: the Suffragists and the Suffragettes.
A suffragette was a woman in the early 20th century who though they should have the right to vote by using mainly peaceful methods. They used petitions, leaflets, letters and rallies to try win and get the same voting rights as men. Some women frustrated by the lack of progress, decided more direct action was required and were willing to break the law to try and force change. They set up militant groups. Between 1912 and 1914, a group of British suffragettes called the Women's Social and Political Union, or WSPU, launched a campaign of militant action. Lead by Emmeline Pankhurst, who in 1999, the Times named her as one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century they avoided harming people but committed various crimes, it heckled politicians, held demonstrations and marches, broke the law to force arrests, broke windows in famous and public buildings, set fire to post boxes, committed night-time arson of unused houses and churches. Many protesting Suffragettes were arrested for law-breaking, and many went to prison. In further protest, Suffragettes would go on hunger strike in prison. To stop them from becoming ill, they would often be held down and force-fed by prison staff in a particularly unpleasant procedure!
To stop any Suffragettes on hunger strike from dying in prison, Parliament introduced the “Cat and Mouse” Act. This act meant that hunger-strikers were temporarily released from prison until they recovered and then being re-arrested and sent back to jail again.
In 1918, the efforts of the women’s suffrage movement finally had a huge breakthrough. A Bill was passed through Parliament that got some women the right to vote. They had to be over the age of 30 and own property or be married to someone who owned property. Even though there were these restrictions, it was still a big victory, giving 8.4 million women the vote.
However, there was still a long way to go until all women had the same voting rights as men, who could vote from the age of 21 even if they didn’t own property. In fact, it took another ten years until women got equal suffrage with men, in 1928. There are some people who don’t think that the violent tactics the Suffragettes used to spread their message was ok. On several occasions, they were lucky that no one was seriously injured, or even killed, by the bombs they planted. But there is no doubt that they are remembered as incredibly courageous, forward-thinking women who stood up for what they believed in, often laying their lives on the line in the process.
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