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The Suffragettes Facts & Worksheets

Suffragettes is a term used to describe a member of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU)

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The term “suffragette” was first used by Charles E. Hands, a journalist of the Daily Mail, in 1906 to describe a member of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). The WSPU was a women-only suffrage movement in Britain founded by Emmeline Pankhurst, a former suffragist and member of the National Union Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). In the 20th century, suffragettes were known to use militant and more confrontational tactics than the suffragists to achieve women’s right to suffrage.

See the fact file below for more information on The Suffragettes or alternatively, you can download our 30-page The Suffragettes worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

BRIEF HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE

  • One of the early accounts of women’s suffrage practices was written by Marie Guyart. Guyart was a French nun who became one of the first nuns to establish the Ursuline Order in New France. She was also regarded as the founder of the first girls’ school in the New World. 
  • In 1654, Guyart wrote how Iroquois female chieftains could make decisions like men. They could delegate ambassadors for peace and vote or depose hereditary male chiefs. 
  • Between 1776 and 1806 in New Jersey, unmarried white women who owned property could vote locally. Early women’s suffrage was also recorded in the Corsican Republic in 1755, Sierra Leone in 1792, the Pitcairn Islands in 1838, the Isle of Man in 1881, and Franceville in 1889-1890. 
  • Beginning in the 1840s, women in the Kingdom of Hawaii could vote in the House of Nobles. However, following the deposition of Queen Lili’uokalani in 1893, women asserted their right to suffrage. Before the US annexation of Hawaii in 1899, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) already advocated for women’s suffrage. 
  • New Zealand became the first self-governing nation to grant women the right to vote in parliamentary elections in 1893. By 1919, women could be elected in New Zealand. In 1894, women in South Australia were allowed to vote and stand for election. From conditional women’s suffrage in the 18th century, women in Sweden achieved voting equality in 1919. 
  • During the interwar period, major Western nations granted women the right to vote in national/general elections. Among them was Canada in 1917, Britain and Germany in 1918, the Netherlands in 1919, and the United States in 1920. 
  • More nations followed during and after the Second World War. French women gained the right to vote in 1944, women in Greece in 1952, Switzerland in 1971, and Liechtenstein in 1984. In 2015, Saudi Arabia became the last to grant women the right to vote. 

WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT IN THE UK

  • In 1869, the Municipal Franchise Act gave unmarried women with properties the right to vote in local government elections. In 1894, the Local Government Act extended this right to women married to men with property. 
  • In the UK, women’s suffrage societies were divided into two. One was the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, founded by suffragist Millicent Fawcett in 1897. The NUWSS used peaceful and non-confrontational tactics to push for constitutional advancement. 
  • The NUWSS was founded from the merger of the National Central Society for Women’s Suffrage and the Central Committee of the National Society for Women’s Suffrage. 
  • In 1914, NUWSS members grew to about 54,000. While most of its members were middle and upper class, the NUWSS primarily campaigned for the vote of women with property. During this time, property requirements also restricted British men from voting. Soon, the NUWSS was joined by working-class British women.
  • After several years of campaigning through petitions, pamphlets, posters, and public meetings, some members of the NUWSS found the methods ineffective. As a result, some members broke away from the NUWSS. 

THE WSPU

  • Impatient of the outcome of the NUWSS, Emmeline Pankhurst, who worked with the Independent Labour Party (ILP) and the earlier Women’s Suffrage Committee, established the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) on October 10, 1903, in their house in Manchester. A breakaway group of the NUWSS and a second women’s suffrage movement was formed. 
  • Used by journalist Charles E. Hands, the term “suffraGETtes” aimed to describe WSPU members who were eager to get the right to vote for women. 
  • Along with Emmeline, her daughters Christabel and Sylvia were active members of the WSPU. The suffragettes used more militant tactics compared to its rival, the NUWSS. In 1905, Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenney disrupted the speeches of Winston Churchill and Edward Grey in a political meeting in Manchester. Pankhurst and Kenney unfurled a “Votes for Women” banner in an all men meeting. As a result, they were arrested and brought to court. In court, Pankhurst and Kenney refused to pay the fine and insisted on going to prison instead. 
  • In July 1908, a large public demonstration was organized by the WSPU in Heaton Park near Manchester. In 1908, the WSPU adopted an official color scheme of white for purity, green for hope, and purple for loyalty. 
  • In retaliation for the repeated imprisonment of its members, suffragettes introduced hunger strikes in prison. Imprisoned WSPU members refused to eat. In response, force-feeding was introduced by prison authorities. 
  • To please the public in Britain who reacted in favor of the suffragettes, the Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act was introduced in 1913. This act allowed the temporary release of suffragettes on hunger strikes to avoid force-feeding and malnutrition. Once healthy, officers could arrest them again. The suffragettes called this the Cat and Mouse Act.  
  • Following the dropping of a suffrage bill in 1910, the WSPU members began smashing shop windows, burning stately houses, and burning public buildings. 
  • Suffragettes performed arson in the house of Chancellor of the Exchequer Lloyd George in 1913 and the Westminster Abbey. 
  • Some chained themselves to railings and threw a hatchet at Prime Minister H.H Asquith in 1912. 
  • Due to these attacks against properties and persons, Lloyd George wrote an article in Nash’s Magazine, saying that the “main obstacle to women getting the vote is militancy.” On February 19, 1913, the attack against the country home of Lloyd George was claimed by Emmeline Pankhurst. In response, Pankhurst was arrested and sentenced to three years of penal servitude. 
  • In April 1913, authorities raided the WSPU offices while members were arrested and charged under the Malicious Damages Act. 
  • In 1912, following the breakaway of the editors of the Votes for Women, Christabel established a new journal, The Suffragette. 
  • One of the most remarkable suffragette tactics was when Emily Davison threw herself in front the King George’s horse at the Epsom Derby in June 1913. After suffering from injuries, Davison died.
  • In March 1914, 40 suffragettes brawled with the police in Glasgow while protecting Emmeline Pankhurst’s re-arrest. 
  • In 1914, Sylvia Pankhurst, who was a socialist, left the WSPU and formed the East London Federation composed of mostly working-class women. 
  • Between 1907 and 1913, the WSPU accepted the Young Hot Bloods (YHB) or younger unmarried women. Members included Jessie Kenney and Adela Pankhurst. 
  • When the First World War broke out in 1914, the suffragettes under the leadership of Christabel decided to abandon the suffrage movement for a while and focus on aiding the government in its war effort. From militant suffrage campaigns, the WSPU members supported the war and formed the Suffragette’s of the Women’s Social Political Union (SWSPU) and the Independent Women’s Social and Political Union (IWSPU). A year before the end of the war, the WSPU was dissolved. The Women’s Party with the slogan “Victory, National Security, and Progress” was formed by Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst. 
  • From 1905 until 1914, the suffragettes were also known for performing suffrage drama and theatre forums. They used theatre and print to employ comedy and satire. Open-air meetings were also conducted by suffragette speakers such as Annie Kenney. 

SUFFRAGETTES IN THE US

  • Similar to the UK, the suffrage movement in the US was divided into two. One was the more militant National American Suffrage Association (NAWSA), and the other was the more cautious International Women’s Suffrage Alliance (IWSA). 
  • Many believed that militant tactics of the suffrage movement in the US were brought by Alice Paul. Paul was an American Quaker who studied social work in England. While in England, she was acquainted with American suffragist Lucy Burns and was exposed to hunger strikes and picketing. When they returned to the US in 1910, Paul and Burns joined the NAWSA. 
  • In 1913, Paul led the Woman Suffrage Procession in Washington. Determined to put pressure on the newly elected president Woodrow Wilson, she organized a protest parade. Attended by about 8,000 marchers, the parade attracted the attention of Congress. One of the banners said, We Demand an Amendment to the United States Constitution Enfranchising the Women of the Country. 
  • Following the parade, the NAWSA focused on lobbying for a constitutional amendment, similar to the original goal of suffragists Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. 
  • Due to Paul’s more militant tactic, she had a conflict with other NAWSA leaders. Together with her supporters, Paul split with NAWSA and established the National Woman’s Party in 1916. 
  • The NWP adopted the same methods as the suffragettes in Britain. In 1917, the NWP organized picketing at the White House. Dressed in white and holding banners demanding women the right to vote, about 2,000 NWP members participated in the picket for two years. 
  • Even after the American entry into WWI in 1917, Paul made sure to continue the picketing. In June 1917, the picketers were arrested and charged with obstructing traffic. Paul, among others, was convicted and incarcerated at a workhouse in Virginia. 
  • While President Wilson was criticized for the arrest, Paul and members of the NWP gained public sympathy. On July 19, 1917, they were pardoned, but reports of abuses in prison were published by local newspapers. 
  • Throughout the war, picketing at the White House continued. While Wilson ignored them, his daughter waved in acknowledgment. 
  • While picketing, some women were harassed by young men. Others viewed them as unpatriotic for picketing during the war. 
  • In prison, Paul went on a hunger strike. In response, the authorities transferred her into the prison’s psychiatric ward, and she was force-fed with raw eggs. In response, the NWP went to court and protested how women were treated in prisons. 

LEGACY

  • Some supporters of the women’s suffrage movement believed that the militant tactics of the suffragettes pressured the passage of franchise legislation in the US and the UK. However, the majority of women in the US opted to be called suffragists because they believed that militancy delayed the enfranchisement. Some argued that the suffragettes damaged the cause of the movement. 
  • Following the end of WWI, militant tactics of the suffragettes in Britain stopped. After the death of Emmeline Pankhurst in 1928, her contributions were acknowledged by radicals, former suffragettes, and PM Stanley Baldwin. 
  • In the 1960s, the cause of the suffragettes was portrayed in films. In the musical film Mary Poppins, the character of Mrs. Winifred Banks sang the song Sister Suffragette. In 1974, the BBC TV series entitled Shoulder to Shoulder portrayed the lives of the Pankhursts at the height of the suffrage movement. In 2015, the story of the suffragettes was portrayed in the tv series Up the Women and the film Suffragette.

The Suffragettes Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle that includes everything you need to know about The Suffragettes across 30 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use worksheets that are perfect for teaching about the Suffragettes which is a term used to describe a member of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU).

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

  • The Suffragettes Facts
  • Famous Suffragette
  • Women’s Suffrage
  • Militant Tactics
  • Voice of a Woman
  • Odd One Out
  • Are you in Favour?
  • Women’s Rights Checklist
  • What’s True?
  • The Cat and the Mouse
  • Voting Line 

Frequently Asked Questions

How did the Suffragettes start?

Emmeline Pankhurst and other women became angry with the government because it was not doing enough to help women get the right to vote. So they started their own group called the Women’s Social and Political Union. This group believed that it was better to take action than just talk about what should be done. As a leader of this union, Pankhurst believed in using more extreme methods of protesting, such as breaking windows and going on hunger strikes.

How many Suffragettes were there?

The Suffragettes, a group of women who wanted to have the right to vote, became a very large organization with more than 50,000 members.

What was the Suffragettes’ goal?

The Suffragettes fought for many years until they finally achieved their goal of women’s suffrage. This group is remembered as being very powerful and successful in getting women’s rights. Although most countries have now granted women the right to vote, there is still a lot of work to do.

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