What was a suffragette?

BEFORE 1918, women had almost no role in British politics – they didn’t even have the right to vote. A woman’s role was domestic, encompassing little outside having children and taking care of the home. The suffragettes changed this.

The 19th century was an era of massive change. The Industrial Revolution and numerous reforms, including the abolition of slavery in 1833, saw society changed forever. Women did see some progress – in 1859 the first female doctor was registered, in 1878 women could graduate from university and in 1882 women were allowed to keep inherited property and wages. But they still couldn’t vote.

Campaigns for women’s rights, including the right to vote, started around the mid-19th century, after Mary Smith delivered the first women’s suffrage petition to parliament in 1832. But it wasn’t until 1897, when Millicent Fawcett founded the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, that the campaign for women’s suffrage really gained momentum.

These campaigners were known as suffragists and they believed debate, petitions and peaceful protest were the keys to success. But they failed to get results, and many campaigners decided a more militant approach was required.

In 1903, Emmeline Pankhurst, and her two daughters Christabel and Sylvia, set up the Women’s Political and Social Union in Manchester with its slogan ‘deeds not words’. These women became known as suffragettes and soon made headlines up and down the country.

Suffragettes were a shock to Edwardian society. They interrupted political meetings, chained themselves to railings, yelled while waving banners emblazoned with ‘VOTES FOR WOMEN’, were regularly arrested, went on hunger strike, cut phone lines and one, Emily Davidson, even threw herself under a horse to get the suffragette message heard.

But the suffragettes’ fight paid off. In 1918, the Representation of the People Act was passed, giving women over the age of 30, and who owned a certain amount of property, the right to vote. It would be a further 10 years until the vote was extended to all women, when the Equal Franchise Act was passed, but it was a major step in the right direction.