Suffragettes were women who fought for the right to vote (suffrage), especially in Britain in the early 20th century. In the United States the preferred term was suffragist.
Mary Woolstonecraft (1759-1797) is now regarded by many as the original suffragette. The author of A vindication Of The Rights Of Women, she declared: "I do not wish [women] to have power over men, but over themselves". Woolstonecraft died 11 days after the birth of her second daughter, Frankenstein author Mary Shelley.
The demand for women's suffrage began to gather strength in the 1840s, emerging from the broader movement for women's rights.
The two-day Seneca Falls Convention, the first women's rights and feminist convention held in the United States, opened in Seneca Falls, New York on July 19, 1848. It advertised itself as "a convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman."
The Seneca Falls Convention passed a resolution in favor of women's suffrage despite opposition from some of its organizers, who believed the idea was too extreme. However, by the time of the first National Women's Rights Convention two years later, suffrage was becoming an increasingly important aspect of the movement's activities.
From the mid 1850s Susan B. Anthony devoted herself totally to the cause of equal rights for women. Her Quaker background, where unlike most other denominations both men and women were allowed to speak at services, was influential on her beliefs.
The author Louisa Alcott was active in the women's suffrage movement. Her feminist sympathies were expressed through the character of Jo in her 1868 novel Little Women.
The first national US suffrage organizations were established in 1869 when two competing organizations were formed, one led by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the other by Lucy Stone.
After years of rivalry, the two organizations merged in 1890 as the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) with Anthony as its leading force.
The British economist and philosopher John Stuart Mill was one of the founders of the original UK Woman's suffrage society. As a Radical MP, Mill became in 1866 the first person in the history of Parliament to call for women to be given the right to vote, vigorously defending this position in subsequent debate.
The women of New Zealand were given the vote in 1893. The country was the world's first to grant women's suffrage.
In the UK, Millicent Fawcett founded the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies in 1897, four years after New Zealand became the first country to give women the right to vote.
Not all females supported votes for women, and some actively campaigned against it. Queen Victoria described the idea as "a mad, wicked folly".
Some of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies followers, including Emmeline Pankhurst, became impatient at its lack of progress, and founded the Women’s Social and Political Union in 1903, with the motto ‘Deeds Not Words’.
The term 'suffragette' was coined by the Daily Mail to distinguish Pankhurst’s militant followers from Fawcett’s peaceful group.
The Women’s Social and Political Union campaign’s marches was sonn drawing huge crowds, and one held in 1908 attracted more than 300,000 protesters.
An Irish suffragette named Mary Maloney followed Winston Churchill around for a week ringing a very large bell every time he tried to speak. Her most famous “interruption” was on May 6, 1908 while Churchill was campaigning in Dundee, Scotland.
As a young man, Bertrand Russell wrote in favor of women's suffrage. In his 1910 pamphlet, Anti-Suffragist Anxieties, Russell wrote that some men opposed suffrage because they "fear that their liberty to act in ways that are injurious to women will be curtailed."
In the early 1900s, prominent suffragettes in London were protected by The Bodyguard—a female army trained in jiu-jitsu.
To raise funds, the Suffragettes sold products designed by Emmeline Pankhurst's daughter Sylvia in purple, white and green - the movement's colors.
British suffragettes had to stand in the gutter to sell their newspaper Votes for Women, or risk being arrested for obstructing the pavement.
More than 1,300 women were arrested during their campaign, which included vandalism, arson attacks and assaulting politicians.
Hundreds refused to pay fines, preferring to go to jail to highlight their cause.
In 1909, Scottish-born suffragette Miss Marion Wallace Dunlop began the first hunger strike in a British jail after she was imprisoned for wilful damage. She kept it up for nearly four days until she was released from Holloway Prison on grounds of ill-health. Many other women adopted the tactic.
The government ordered that suffragette hunger strikers be force-fed, a brutal practice which involved the woman being held down while a rubber tube was inserted down into her stomach, which often left them with permanent injuries and ill-health.
Music hall star and militant suffragette Kitty Marion was force-fed 242 times during multiple jail terms.
In 1913, UK prime minister H.H. Asquith brought in the Cat and Mouse Act, which meant hunger strikers could be released when very weak but rearrested on trivial charges if they recovered.
The suffragette Emily Davison (1872-1913) was arrested nine times. While serving a six-month sentence in Holloway Prison for setting fire to post boxes, she threw herself down an iron staircase in protest at being force-fed.
Emily Davison was hailed as a martyr after she died when she threw herself in front of King George V’s horse at the 1913 Epsom Derby. Historians question whether she meant to kill herself, and suggest that she may have been attempting to attach a ‘Votes For Women’ scarf to the racehorse.
On March 10, 1914, Canadian Suffragette Mary Richardson used a meat cleaver to slash a Velasquez nude painting, Rokeby Venus, in London's National Gallery. She also bombed a railway station and was one of the first women to be force-fed after going on hunger strike in prison.
With the advent of the First World War, Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel called an immediate halt to militant suffrage activism. They urged women to aid industrial production and encouraged young men to fight.
In 1918 the UK law was changed to allow women over 30 to vote, if they owned property or were married to a homeowner. This was extended to all women over the age of 21 in 1928.
In the USA the Nineteenth Amendment, which guarantees suffrage to women, became part of the U.S. Constitution on August 26, 1920. It states, "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."
The first woman to cast a ballot in Chicago after women's suffrage was passed did so using her feet—her father had burnt her arms off.
Source Daily Mail
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| Suffragettes, England, 1908 |
Mary Woolstonecraft (1759-1797) is now regarded by many as the original suffragette. The author of A vindication Of The Rights Of Women, she declared: "I do not wish [women] to have power over men, but over themselves". Woolstonecraft died 11 days after the birth of her second daughter, Frankenstein author Mary Shelley.
The demand for women's suffrage began to gather strength in the 1840s, emerging from the broader movement for women's rights.
The two-day Seneca Falls Convention, the first women's rights and feminist convention held in the United States, opened in Seneca Falls, New York on July 19, 1848. It advertised itself as "a convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman."
The Seneca Falls Convention passed a resolution in favor of women's suffrage despite opposition from some of its organizers, who believed the idea was too extreme. However, by the time of the first National Women's Rights Convention two years later, suffrage was becoming an increasingly important aspect of the movement's activities.
From the mid 1850s Susan B. Anthony devoted herself totally to the cause of equal rights for women. Her Quaker background, where unlike most other denominations both men and women were allowed to speak at services, was influential on her beliefs.
The author Louisa Alcott was active in the women's suffrage movement. Her feminist sympathies were expressed through the character of Jo in her 1868 novel Little Women.
The first national US suffrage organizations were established in 1869 when two competing organizations were formed, one led by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the other by Lucy Stone.
 |
| Elizabeth Cady Stanton (seated) with Susan B. Anthony |
After years of rivalry, the two organizations merged in 1890 as the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) with Anthony as its leading force.
The British economist and philosopher John Stuart Mill was one of the founders of the original UK Woman's suffrage society. As a Radical MP, Mill became in 1866 the first person in the history of Parliament to call for women to be given the right to vote, vigorously defending this position in subsequent debate.
The women of New Zealand were given the vote in 1893. The country was the world's first to grant women's suffrage.
In the UK, Millicent Fawcett founded the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies in 1897, four years after New Zealand became the first country to give women the right to vote.
Not all females supported votes for women, and some actively campaigned against it. Queen Victoria described the idea as "a mad, wicked folly".
Some of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies followers, including Emmeline Pankhurst, became impatient at its lack of progress, and founded the Women’s Social and Political Union in 1903, with the motto ‘Deeds Not Words’.
 |
| Annie Kenney and Christabel Pankhurst, prominent members of the WSPU |
The term 'suffragette' was coined by the Daily Mail to distinguish Pankhurst’s militant followers from Fawcett’s peaceful group.
The Suffragette Mud March took place on February 9, 1907, in London. Organized by the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), the march was a peaceful demonstration that aimed to advocate for women's suffrage and draw attention to the cause. Approximately 3,000 women from various suffrage groups participated in the march, marching from Hyde Park to Exeter Hall in the Strand. The nickname "Mud March" emerged due to the terrible weather conditions on the day. While this could have deterred participation, it ultimately served as a powerful symbol of the suffragettes' resilience and determination.
The Women’s Social and Political Union campaign’s marches was sonn drawing huge crowds, and one held in 1908 attracted more than 300,000 protesters.
An Irish suffragette named Mary Maloney followed Winston Churchill around for a week ringing a very large bell every time he tried to speak. Her most famous “interruption” was on May 6, 1908 while Churchill was campaigning in Dundee, Scotland.
As a young man, Bertrand Russell wrote in favor of women's suffrage. In his 1910 pamphlet, Anti-Suffragist Anxieties, Russell wrote that some men opposed suffrage because they "fear that their liberty to act in ways that are injurious to women will be curtailed."
In the early 1900s, prominent suffragettes in London were protected by The Bodyguard—a female army trained in jiu-jitsu.
To raise funds, the Suffragettes sold products designed by Emmeline Pankhurst's daughter Sylvia in purple, white and green - the movement's colors.
British suffragettes had to stand in the gutter to sell their newspaper Votes for Women, or risk being arrested for obstructing the pavement.
More than 1,300 women were arrested during their campaign, which included vandalism, arson attacks and assaulting politicians.
Hundreds refused to pay fines, preferring to go to jail to highlight their cause.
In 1909, Scottish-born suffragette Miss Marion Wallace Dunlop began the first hunger strike in a British jail after she was imprisoned for wilful damage. She kept it up for nearly four days until she was released from Holloway Prison on grounds of ill-health. Many other women adopted the tactic.
The government ordered that suffragette hunger strikers be force-fed, a brutal practice which involved the woman being held down while a rubber tube was inserted down into her stomach, which often left them with permanent injuries and ill-health.
 |
| Poster by "A Patriot", showing a suffragette prisoner being force-fed, 1910. |
Music hall star and militant suffragette Kitty Marion was force-fed 242 times during multiple jail terms.
In 1913, UK prime minister H.H. Asquith brought in the Cat and Mouse Act, which meant hunger strikers could be released when very weak but rearrested on trivial charges if they recovered.
The suffragette Emily Davison (1872-1913) was arrested nine times. While serving a six-month sentence in Holloway Prison for setting fire to post boxes, she threw herself down an iron staircase in protest at being force-fed.
Emily Davison was hailed as a martyr after she died when she threw herself in front of King George V’s horse at the 1913 Epsom Derby. Historians question whether she meant to kill herself, and suggest that she may have been attempting to attach a ‘Votes For Women’ scarf to the racehorse.
On March 10, 1914, Canadian Suffragette Mary Richardson used a meat cleaver to slash a Velasquez nude painting, Rokeby Venus, in London's National Gallery. She also bombed a railway station and was one of the first women to be force-fed after going on hunger strike in prison.
 |
| Damage done to the Rokeby Venus by Mary Richardson's attack |
With the advent of the First World War, Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel called an immediate halt to militant suffrage activism. They urged women to aid industrial production and encouraged young men to fight.
In 1918 the UK law was changed to allow women over 30 to vote, if they owned property or were married to a homeowner. This was extended to all women over the age of 21 in 1928.
In the USA the Nineteenth Amendment, which guarantees suffrage to women, became part of the U.S. Constitution on August 26, 1920. It states, "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."
The first woman to cast a ballot in Chicago after women's suffrage was passed did so using her feet—her father had burnt her arms off.
Source Daily Mail
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