There were a number of different methods that the two groups used however many of the methods were similar these included propaganda, both groups would advertise their aim for women’s suffrage through posters, leaflets and magazines they would also try and get onto the news as this would provide them with a lot of publicity. They also held marches for example the women’s Sunday procession which had over 250,000 attendants, showing people their unity and the united goal of receiving the vote. It also showed the number of members they had, who were all striving to help receive the vote, this unity was highlighted in the conciliation truce bill were both parties had a joint march. Other similar methods included the questioning of MP’s this put the MP’s under pressure by asking them why women were not given the vote.
There were also a number of differences between the two parties both stepped up their bid for the vote after 1912 whereas before they didn’t push as much.
The NUWSS used peaceful methods both before and after 1912 they organised meetings to decide what their next method was going to be, they presented petitions showing the government how strong the campaign for women’s suffrage was. After 1912 the NUWSS continued with what they did before, however one important change came around. They organised more marches and provided funding for the labour party so that they could get in power and give women the vote this was known as the election fighting fund and was aimed at helping the labour party as they were most likely at giving women the right to vote.
The WSPU used a different tactic they used militant action to get their point across. The WSPU wanted to gain the vote quickly so they decided to go to the extremes and try and get people’s attention so that the vote could be gained quickly. The suffragettes were not extremely militant before 1912 (by their standards) they used to Harass MP’s by stalking them and throwing objects at them, chain themselves to railing in order to grab people’s attention.
However after 1912 the WSPU made a drastic change they became more violent. They began breaking shop windows with small toffee hammers, they mistook a man for the Prime minister and whipped him, they burnt two railway stations and tried blowing up a cinema, planted two bombs in Lloyd Georges house, attacked Golf greens with acid and slashed the painting ‘Rokeby Venus.’
Despite all of the publicity going towards the suffragettes and the WSPU this by no means indicated that the suffragists and NUWSS and stopped their campaign they were still working very hard trying to show people that the women’s suffrage campaign was not all about militant action they still used their ‘glacier’ approach to try and achieve the vote. The NUWSS continued pressure on the acting government by pressurising MP’s and continuing to set up huge marches such as the Pilgrims march in 1913.
All of these actions were done in order to get publicity and people’s attention. Despite them achieving their aim of publicity these actions resulted in the Women’s suffrage campaign receiving a bad name, people disliked them and went back to their old thought process that women were irrational and not reliable enough to receive the vote.
Due to this excessive militant action the NUWSS decided to disassociate themselves with the WSPU however this made no difference as the whole of the women’s suffrage campaign was labelled as being ‘extreme’.
The excessive militant action by the WSPU resulted in a backwards step for the suffrage campaign. It showed the clear difference between the two groups and how each one wanted to achieve its goal. The NUWSS stated that it was like a ‘glacier movement slow but steady’ yet it would eventually achieve its aim whereas the militant action by the WSPU hampered the suffrage campaign (e.g. militant action prevented further talk about the conciliation bill which the NUWSS had strived so hard for), and took it further away from its goal.
By Omar Jamshad 10S
