Suffragettes

1
Suffragettes
2

• Very Few Civil or Political Rights
• Until 1884, A woman was officially part of her
  husbands property
• In addition, Victorian women were expected to
  live up to an image of the perfect being
  beautiful, demure, loving and intelligent. Many
  women actively agreed with this attitude (Source
  A).

3
Source A

• Source A
• A woman should make a mans home delightful.
  Their sex should ever teach them to be
  subordinate. Women are like children the more
  they show they need looking after, the more
  attractive they are.
• Mrs John Sandford, Woman in her Social and
  Domestic Character (1837).  
• Notice that Elizabeth Poole Sandford, as she was,
  writes under her married name of Mrs John Sandford

4

• In 1897, the various womens societies joined
  together into the National Union of Womens
  Suffrage Societies (NUWSS).
• These Suffragists as they were called,
  campaigned peacefully for the vote. Although
  the number of pro-suffrage MPs in the House of
  Commons grew, the Suffragists got nowhere.

5
New employment opportunities were opening up for
middle-class women, who may have at least had
some education at home, or been lucky enough to
have had some schooling discrimination was
still possible

• Teaching female teachers had to be single
• Nursing but had to resign when they married
• Clerical work - answering telephones and typing

• In 1870s Sophia Jex-Blake completed a medical
  degree at Edinburgh University, but was refused
  her degree ! Her case caused some Universities to
  change their attitude to women Oxford and
  Cambridge opened Womens colleges, there were
  also some teacher training colleges opened

6
In marriages, women were in a very inferior
position to their husbands

• when they married all their property went to
  their husbands even they became their husbands
  property !
• Wives were often treated with violence and
  assaulted by husbands
• Women could not start divorce proceedings

• By 1900 women could bring divorce cases against
  their husbands for cruelty, desertion and bigamy
• They could keep their own property after marriage
• Women could leave the marital home voluntarily if
  in danger

7
But, some things did not change

• Wife-battering and marital sexual assaults were
  still legal
• Husbands could divorce wives for adultery, but
  wives would have to prove violence or cruelty in
  similar cases
• If a divorce occurred, a mother would lose her
  rights over her children

8

• In 1903, therefore, Emmeline Pankhurst formed the
  Womens Social and Political Union
• WSPU

Emily
Sylvia
Christabel
9
The importance of the vote

• It is important that women should have the vote
  so that, in the government of the country, the
  womans point of view can be put forward. Very
  little has been done for women by legislation for
  many years.
• You cannot read a newspaper or go to a
  conference without hearing details for social
  reform. You hear about legislation to decide
  what kind of homes people are to live in. That
  surely is a question for women.
• No woman who joins this campaign need give up a
  single duty she has in the home. It is just the
  opposite, for a woman will learn to give a larger
  meaning to her traditional duties.
• From a speech made by Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst in
  March 1908

10
Arguments supporting votes for women

• The vote is the way to get rid of other
  inequalities
• The vote will improve mens moral and sexual
  behaviour
• Women are capable of being involved in politics
• There have been many changes in womens roles
• Look at what is happening in other countries
• Voting is a right to which women are entitled
• Britain is not a true democracy until women have
  the vote

11
Arguments opposing votes for women

• Women and men have separate spheres
• Most women do not want the vote
• A womans role is in local affairs
• Women are already represented by their husbands
• It is dangerous to change a system that works
• Women do not fight to defend their country

12
Tactics of the Suffragettes

• Use Violent or Militant Tactics

13

• Asking Awkward questions or shouting out.
  When Winston Churchill addressed a meeting in
  Manchester in 1905, he was interrupted by
  Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenney

Heckling Politicians
14

• Hurst Park Race
• Course 1913

Arson Attacks
15
Property attacks

• Slashing paintings
• the famous Rokeby Venus
• Mary Richardson
• Her most notorious act was in 1914, when she
  slashed Velasquez's masterpiece the 'Rokeby'
  Venus seven times with an axe as it hung in the
  National Gallery.

16

• chaining themselves to the railways of Buckingham
  Palace and Downing Street.

17

• The suffragettes sometimes assaulted politicians
  who opposed 'votes for women'

Assaulting Politicians
18
Marches and Rallies