A RIGHT WORTH FIGHTING FOR
The first women won the right to vote in UK elections 100 years ago this week. MARION McMULLEN looks at their hard-earned battle to be heard
THE banners and sashes all carried the same message – “Votes For Women” – but it was a long struggle to achieve that aim. Imprisonment, hunger strikes and force-feeding through plastic tubes were all part of the battle in the fight for the right of women to vote.
Suffragettes chained themselves to the railings of Downing Street, smashed windows and set post boxes on fire as they fought to make their voices heard. There was even one audacious attempt to attack the House Of Commons by airship during the opening of Parliament in 1909.
Emmeline Pankhurst founded the Women’s Social And Political Union (WSPU) and groups like the Women’s Freedom League followed.
The British political activist once said: “The argument of the broken window pane is the most valuable argument in modern politics.”
The campaigners faced overwhelming male opposition and were ridiculed in political cartoons and postcards as frustrated spinsters and figures of fun. Women were expected to stay at home and bring up their children and leave the world of politics to men.
One 1913 cartoon featured England’s St George as the “Anti Suffrage Knight” declaring: “Back, thou vote-snatching hussy, or I shall carve thee to the chine in defence of my exclusive right to defend thee from all maid-devouring dragons.”
New Zealand was the first country in the world to challenge the traditional viewpoint by giving women the vote in 1893. Finland became the first European country in 1906, but UK women faced a longer battle. Their cause made headlines around the world in 1913 when Emily Davison was fatally injured when she tried to stop King George V’s horse Anmer on Derby Day to draw attention to the Women’s Suffragette movement.
She was trampled as she slipped under the rails of Epsom racecourse wearing a “Votes For Women” sash and suffered a fractured skull. She died of her injuries four days later.
The Daily Mirror reported the incident saying: “The horse struck the woman with its chest knocking her down among the flying hoofs and she was desperately injured ... blood running from her mouth and nose.”
Two years earlier she had hidden herself in a cupboard in the House of Commons on census night.
The WSPU slogan “Deeds Not Words” was later engraved on her grave.
The outbreak of the First World War saw protests put on hold, but the Suffragettes were finally able to celebrate their own victory 100 years ago. They were granted the right to vote in general elections on February 6, 1918, by the Representation Of The People Act.
It gave the vote to women aged over 30 – so long as they owned property or were married to someone who did or were graduates voting in a university constituency.
It added 8.5 million women – 40% of the total number of women in the UK – to the electoral roll and women were also allowed to stand as candidates when further legislation was passed later that year.
It was a momentous time for women. Russia, Austria, Germany, Poland, Latvia, Hungary, Estonia and Kyrgyzstan also gave women the vote the same year.
Scottish-born birth control pioneer Marie Stropes also created uproar in 1918 when she brought out her first two books – Married Love and Wise Parenthood, which supported birth control and sex education for women.
The First World War also opened up new jobs for women outside the home and gave them the chance to learn new skills.
Those doing outdoor and factory work even ditched traditional female attire in favour of more practical trousers.
Emmeline Pankhurst’s eldest daughter Christabel and 16 other women stood in the 1918 election.
She narrowly lost to the Labour Party candidate, but always said: “It is our duty to make this world a better place for women.”
Only one woman, Countess Markievicz, was elected. However, she chose not to take up her seat in London because she stood for the Sinn Fein party.
Women had to wait another year until American-born Viscountess Nancy Astor was elected to Parliament as the Conservative MP for the Sutton district of Plymouth – a post she went on to hold until 1945.
Her husband previously represented the constituency until he inherited the title of Viscount Astor.
She was met off the train in London by a group of Suffragettes on her first day in Parliament and one of them happily gave her a badge saying this was a “new era.”
Nancy, a supporter of women’s rights and also prison reform, said: “Women have got to make the world safe for men since men have made it so darned unsafe for women.”