The suffragette activities, had left the majority of people bitter, and (pre-1907) most of the politicians and M.P.s felt very reluctant in giving the women’s suffrage campaign the vote, that in many cases their effort was halted by ‘loopholes’ and ‘mistakes’. In some cases private member’s bills, that were annually brought to the attention of Parliament after 1900, were passed to a committee of the Whole House where nothing was decided. For example: In 1904 MPs talked for hours about tail-lights on cars, so that there would not be time for the next Bill – on women’s suffrage.
So, evidently, pre and during war-time progress on the subject was relatively non-existent.
So, really one can ask; Was the ‘Deeds Not Words’ campaign detrimental to the suffragettes’ activities during the pre-war period, or was it the men in the greatest power- Lloyd George, Asquith etc - whom were obstructing their efforts?
The answer, in my opinion, is both the former and the latter: Without the Suffragette’s activities and their fame, which was due to their activities, the Suffrage movement wouldn’t have gained a fraction of media coverage that they did. So, really despite the NUWSS’ partially famous activities, it was the Suffragettes’ notoriety that brought the Suffrage movement to public attention.
However, their campaign did bring them under the scrutiny of important MPs, powerful people, aristocrats etc, who publicly and openly criticised the WSPU and their political strategies. The most powerful M.P.s; Asquith, Lloyd George, Churchill etc. used nearly every chance they got to disrupt the WSPU’s plans and strategies. This made it near impossible for the Suffragettes to make any progress, which forced the Suffragettes to use more direct, and in some cases violent, action in order to get the necessary media coverage which was required to keep people’s attention on the cause. The Suffragette’s violence caused many people to believe that the abusive tactics used by the Suffragettes proved that women were not fit to have the vote: they were too unstable and emotional. This affected the Suffrage movement as a whole, and caused people to generalise all Suffrage campaigners as vile and barbaric brutish females. This affect heavily disrupted any progress, including the Suffragist’s passive and political methods. Because of this, the aggravated suffragists completely cut off any co-operation with the WSPU. (Although there were several events that accumulated to the end result, this final one was the ultimate trigger to distance the two organizations).
The Conciliation Bill appeared to give the vote to women nevertheless, like its predecessors, it failed. Although the majority of blame lies with the anti-Liberal Irish who voted against it to provoke anarchy for Home Rule, a secondary obstacle was the Reform Bill, which was brought through to distract the Suffrage movement. Obviously it was successful in this distraction. It was a sly move by the supposedly pro-Suffrage MPs; Asquith, Lloyd George, Churchill.
One other main factor of the Suffragettes’ failure, pre and during 1914, is the lack of priority the cause was given. By 1909 the Liberal government had many pre-occupations and other matters to deal with. Some of these pre-occupations were; The events leading up to the war and, obviously later on, the war itself; The state of poverty and ill-health in the country, which the government had vowed to abolish; The Liberals were losing their majority in the House of Commons, mostly due to their spending plans which provoked a tax rise, the Liberals needed to win the general election in 1910; There were several important strikes between 1908 and 1914; The Trade Unions’ large and frequent strikes and demonstrations were a great concern to the government; Ireland was giving the government serious aggravation and provocation for Home Rule in Ireland.
So, in conclusion, the failure of the WSPU pre and during the First World War was caused by; the reluctance of the MPs to vote for it and the lack of acknowledgement and concentration it was given.
