She is critical of the suffragettes and disagrees with the violent methods that they are advocating however she still wants women to achieve the vote.
Source D is a newspaper article from the Times. It is commenting on the Derby of 1913 as it was written shortly after the incident. The whole article is an attack on the militant suffragette movement using this as a way to denounce the votes for women campaign, “Reckless fanaticism is not regarded by them as a qualification for the franchise.”
This article also leaves out the words, “They say that,” before the word Persons, which would lead the reader to believe that this method of campaigning is completely unacceptable. The newspaper is very likely to be biased as it is more than likely edited by men who may want to break the women’s campaign.
Source F is a statement by Mrs. Pankhurst herself, it explains how it was their violent campaign that led to women’s suffrage being reported in all the newspapers and into the public eye, “Our heckling made women’s suffrage a matter of news”. This, according to Mrs. Pankhurst, was what led to many more women joining up to fight for the cause and join the suffragettes. This is also an extract from her book where she would want to put herself and her suffragette campaign in a good light to any reader.
However source H, written by Sylvia Pankhurst gives a very different view to her mothers. It is from a large book, which gives the impression it must be something meaningful. She talks about many other factors that were also responsible for the campaign gathering support and members. She talks about the Second World War being a crucial factor in the victory for the vote, “Undoubtedly the large part taken by women during the war . . .”.
She also mentions the threat of revolution at the time as a factor in the suffragette’s success, that the pressure of communism and change, “reverberating from Russia across Europe,” could have been a deciding factor in the minds of politicians. She warns that the militant campaign would return if they were ignored. This is an important point, as the government would have needed women to help re-build the country after the war.
Sources J and I are both government documents referring to the suffragette’s campaign.
Source I is a record of a debate in the House of Lords, one of the views is shared with the previous source that the pre-war violence will once again return to Britain if this problem is not properly addressed. He is afraid that the politicians against the suffragettes could be murdered, “if any of our colleges had taken a prominent line either for or against the grant of the vote to women had been assassinated in the street.”
He states that there have been no murders so far but that the, “Invincible wing,” the radicals of the party, would act and cross that line.
The next statement is this source puts women in a very positive light and shows the support of politicians towards the women after the war.
The Lord Bishop of London states that before the war the suffragette’s violent conduct was counter productive and that they could be seen giving in to such methods. However, now that they had suspended the violence and helped greatly with war effort the government could think about giving the women what they wanted. “I have been wholly converted to the support of this movement by the belief that we need women in the reconstruction of the world after the war.” He also says what has been previously stated, that women will be needed after the war and they need to be on the side of the government. The way that the gentleman spoke in parliament may not be their actual views so the language should be taken with a pinch of salt.
Source J is a table of voting statistics. They show some interesting results on the views of the different parties towards women’s suffrage. From 1897 to 1908 the campaign has been going on for a few years but still the votes show raised levels of support during this time. Less Conservatives are voting in the 1908 elections which could be a factor however there could be many other reasons to explain this other than growing support for the suffragettes.
In 1912 the support was declining, this is quite possibly because of the militant campaign being undertaken by the suffragettes which was losing them support in the government. However in the 1917 voting there was a mass growth in support for the suffragettes, this is likely to be because of the halting of the violence because of the war and women’s continued efforts during the war. However, this may not be the case, the change in support for the campaign could be due to other outside political factors. Other sources would have to be studied before I could come to any sort of conclusion.
The source written by Pugh entitled “Votes for Women” clearly argues that the suffragettes harmed rather than aided the campaign for the women’s vote in Britain, “militant methods fail to shake the government’s view on suffrage,”. Many aspects of his argument are relevant, however, it was the militant actions of the suffragettes that did indeed propel their cause into the headlines and kept it there for a long time.
Although the government could not give into to the militant campaign at the time, after it ceased during the war they were given the goal that they had waited on for so long, the vote for women. This would not have been possible without the actions of the suffragettes, which made the government see that women really were serious about their campaign.
Many of these sources were very diverse in that they give a lot of different views and many of them come from sources that may seen not to be reliable historical evidence.
So, other sources would have to be studied on the subject before a clear and concise conclusion can be reached answering the question, did the suffragettes harm their own campaign.
