Did the suffragettes win women the vote?

Secondary Resources > KS3 History / GCSE History > People Power

1. Deeds not words

With fewer freedoms and rights than men, in 1900 women were second-class citizens in Britain.

Hundreds of thousands of ers held meetings and signed petitions. However, some women believed that only direct action could force change. Derisively labelled ‘suffragettes’ by Daily Mail journalist Charles E Hands, they formed a new militant wing of the women's suffrage movement.

These women staged headline-grabbing stunts, chaining themselves to railings and attacking property. Yet they risked turning the press and public against their cause. Would their tactics prove effective when war was looming?

2. Why women needed the vote

Women had argued for – and won – new rights in the 19th Century. However, without the vote campaigners thought there was little incentive for politicians to improve the lot of women further. They believed MPs only cared about issues that affected the men who were able to vote for them.

3. Moderates and militants

The campaign for women's suffrage - the right to vote in elections - involved both moderates and militants. At first they worked well together to reinforce each other but as suffragette actions became more extreme some observers thought they might derail the campaign.

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In Edwardian Britain, men and women were thought to belong to separate public and private spheres, as cartoons of the time show. Those against votes for women argued bringing women into the public sphere would overturn this 'natural order'.
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In 1897 17 groups fighting for votes for women ed up to form the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). They used petitions, leaflets, letters and rallies to demand the same voting rights as men.
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Some women were willing to break the law to try and force change. They set up militant groups. The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was founded by Emmeline Pankhurst (pictured) in 1903. The Women's Freedom League (WFL) split off in 1907.
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Direct protests created immense publicity and saw a hip boost to all suffrage groups. The societies often worked together and held mass demonstrations. Despite all this the Liberal Prime Minister Herbert Asquith still opposed women voting.
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Campaigners had made huge progress, from 1886 the majority of MPs voted in of women's suffrage bills put before Parliament. But frustration grew as the Liberal government repeatedly stopped them from becoming law.
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The militants, labelled suffragettes by the media, reacted with violent protests attacking politicians and smashing windows. This alienated some moderate ers of their cause. Many suffragettes were sent to prison and went on hunger strike.
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The government reacted by force-feeding suffragettes. This caused public outrage, so in 1913 the government introduced the 'Cat and Mouse' Act. Women on hunger strike were released when they fell ill but rearrested once they recovered.
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Peaceful ers of votes for women were worried suffragette actions would derail their constitutional demands. In 1913 the NUWSS organised a pilgrimage to London. Here 50,000 law-abiding met to show suffragettes didn't represent them.

4. CLICKABLE: Dangerous women

Militant suffragettes forced the public to think about votes for women. But their violent actions were used by opponents to justify withholding votes from women.

Click the hand to watch suffragettes explain their actions in remarkable BBC archive.

5. How WW1 changed women's fortunes

By 1914 it was clear women would eventually get the vote. Years of peaceful protest had convinced an increasing number of MPs to female suffrage.

Other countries including Australia had extended voting rights to women, making Britain look behind the times.

However, the First World War had a huge impact on the ongoing struggle.

Many suffragettes gave up campaigning to the war effort. When peace returned, Britain felt like a very different place.

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Suffragettes Forever! The Story of Women and Power (BBC Two, 2015).

Rethinking British democracy

Millions of British men fought in the First World War, but a third of them had no right to vote. Women, who had proved they could do the same jobs as men in factories, offices and on the land, also had no representation. David Lloyd George's coalition government knew it was time for a fundamental rethink of who had access to the ballot box. MPs from different parties who ed female suffrage could now band together to such a decision.

Women win a partial victory

In 1918 the Representation of the People Act extended the vote to all men over 21, and to some groups of women over 30. However, this was not simply a reward for the vast sacrifice that women had made for the war effort. Some historians have suggested the government intended these women to be a 'moderating' influence on radical younger male voters. It had the added advantage of taking the heat out of the female suffrage movement.

Yet more than half of women still did not have a say in electing their government. Moderate campaigning would continue until 1928 when women were finally granted the vote on equal to men.