The Womens Suffrage Movement

Emmeline Pankhurst was born in Manchester on the 15

th
July
1858 and had a good grasp on the topic of suffrage as her
mother, Sophia Crane, started taking Emmeline to suffrage
meetings when she was only ten years old. In 1879 Emmeline
married Richard Pankhurst who happened to share a similar
perspective towards womens suffrage. In 1903, the Womens
Social and Political Union, or W.S.P.U., was set up by
Emmeline Pankhurst and her two daughters Christabel and
Sylvia. The main goal of the W.S.P.U. was to recruit working-
class women into the fight for suffrage. Emmeline wanted the
W.S.P.U. to get some action done rather than host meetings to
discuss suffrage so she came up with the unions motto which
was Deeds, not words. However, women were seen to be
little more than simple house workers. They were expected to
clean the house, work in factories, cook and look after the
children. They were not regarded with much respect.
The Womens Suffrage Movement consisted of three phases.
Phase one was the peaceful suffragist phase. During this time,
suffragettes would do many things to attract attention to their
cause. This included putting up posters, pinning signs to
horses, distributing leaflets and many more things. I think that
this wasnt the most effective way to draw attention to the
movement but on the other hand, it couldve been seen to be
very effective in the perspectives of others. I dont think phase
one was that helpful because most men and nearly all of the
government were ignoring the attempts of the suffragettes.
1910 was the start of phase two of the Womens Suffrage
Movement. This was the violent phase. In 1910, women were
promised the right to vote by the prime minister. However, there
was a general election that year and the votes resulted in a
new prime minister. The new PM didnt think women deserved
the right to vote and so didnt give them it. Most men were fine
with this as some of them had voted for a new prime minister
just so women wouldnt get to vote but on the other hand, some
men wanted women to have the vote. Because of this, women,
suffragettes especially, became very angry and annoyed. They
ended up becoming violent in order to get suffrage and stopped
most of the activities they did in phase one. This included
starting riots, locking themselves to bars and even setting
government buildings on fire. On the 4
th
June 1913, a woman
named Emily Davison, a suffragette, died as a martyr at the
derby. Midway through the race she stepped out from the
crowd and onto the track. She waited on the track as horses
went by then blocked the path of the Kings horse. She was
knocked down and died at hospital later. When she was
searched, a return train ticket, a large banner and other items
were found. I dont think that Emily meant to die or become a
martyr. I think that she wanted to pin the banner to the Kings
horse, get away and return home. On the other hand, she may
have originally wanted to go home, but when she was on the
track she decided that being a martyr was a better way to earn
womens suffrage than a banner. When everyone saw what
happened, I think it had a big effect on them as they saw that
some women were willing to die for the right to vote.
The final third phase of the Womens Suffrage Movement was
the war effort.