Woman Suffrage In Europe
The word "suffragette" was first used to describe women campaigning for the right to vote in an article in a British newspaper in 1906. Although British women and men had been arguing for both universal and women’s suffrage since the 1860s, the movement for women’s votes accelerated when Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia founded the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1903. The WSPU was a more radical organization than some of the earlier ones fighting for suffrage and their slogan was "Deeds Not Words." The WSPU became more and more violent as the years went on and the British government still refused to grant women
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suffrage. In 1906 a Liberal government was elected to Parliament for the first time, Suffragettes were very hopeful that the Liberals would support them as promised in many candidates’ election campaigns, but they would ultimately be dissapointed.
As suffragettes became more militant, their actions and their treatment by the police became more violent. What began as women chaining themselves to railings outside the Prime Minister’s residence advanced into window smashing, and then descended into states of riot at demonstrations, and public events. Inevitably suffragettes were arrested for public disorder and give prison sentences of anywhere from 3 days to several months, the most notorious prison was Holloway in north London. On November 18, 1910 a protest in Parliament Square turned violent and police beat many suffragettes. After that the movement began to wage warfare, orchestrating systematic window-smashing and arson attacks. As it became more radical and violent, the WSPU lost many of its supporters.In June 1913 Emily Wilding Davison threw herself under the King’s horse at the Derby racecourse and was killed. She was the only suffragette to die for the cause and was made into a martyr. In August 1914 war was declared in Europe. The suffrage movement suspended its activities, the government released all suffragettes from prison, and the Pankhursts and others threw themselves into supporting Britain’s war effort. Around a million women took on men’s jobs as they went off to fight in the war. In February 1918, the Government passed an act giving women the vote if they were over the age of 30 and either owned property or rented for at least £5/year, or were the wife of someone who did. As a result, 8.5 million women became entitled to vote in the General Election of 1918. On July 2, 1928, a law was passed allowing all women over the age of 21 to vote. |