It is surprising that the WSPU completely stopped its campaigning to help the war effort, seeing as they used more extreme methods of campaigning than the NUWSS. Helping the war effort did gain them more respect from both the population and the government, whereas before the war they were seen as hysterical by many, and a prime example of why women did not deserve the vote, and an article was printed in the Daily Express saying that the women who were helping the war effort were “women to be proud of”. The WSPU also supported conscription, and gave white feathers to men not in uniform. This embaressed men, as it was seen as the symbol of a coward, encouraging them to join up.
The NUWSS did not support conscription or the white feather campaign. During the war they focused on recruiting women to do the jobs that had been left vacant by the men going to the front. They also continued their campaign to get the vote for women. They kept the pressure on the government with petitions and still held meetings. They never forgot that they were set up to campaign for the vote for women and kept campaigning throughout the war. Although this can be seen as less patriotic, in my opinion it also shows deeper loyalty to their original cause, and proved how much they still wanted the vote.
You would not have expected the WSPU to stop campaigning throughout the war as they were the more extreme of the two groups. They became very patriotic, renaming their newspaper “Britannia”. There were some members of this group who did not agree with the war. Sylvia Pankhurst was a pacifist, she left and formed her own group which focused on social work, her group disagreed with the war and criticised it.
As the NUWSS were the more peaceful of the groups they would seem like the more likely of the two to disagree with the war, but also more likely to stop campaigning to take pressure off the government. They reacted quite differently to the WSPU, only easing off their campaigning slightly, whereas the WSPU stopped campaigning for votes and started campaigning to get women to join the war effort.
The two organisations reacted to the outbreak of war in different ways, both from each other and what you would have expected from them. Both organisations campaigned for women to help the war effort. The WSPU became more patriotic than the NUWSS, encouraging both conscription and the white feather campaign, the NUWSS did not agree with either of these. The NUWSS kept campaigning, although their campaigning methods were peaceful.
