Describe the ways in which the methods of the suffragists and suffragettes were different.
The campaign to win the vote for women in Britain first began in the 1850’s. The suffragists and the suffragettes, although using the same ultimate goal, which was to win the vote for women, used different methods to campaign. The NUWSS known as the suffragists used peaceful methods to campaign. However even though the suffragettes aimed for a similar goal they used a completely new tactic to get what they wanted. The WSPU known as the suffragettes used violent methods to campaign. In this essay I will discuss the ways in which the techniques of campaigning of the suffragists and suffragettes were different and how effective they were for their campaign.
By the late 19th century there were many meetings held by local groups all over the country to give women the vote. The campaigners consisted mainly of middle class women. Then in 1890 hundreds of local groups got together and later called themselves the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). They were known as the suffragists. The group was led by a woman called Millicent Fawcett. Fawcett believed in peaceful methods of campaigning. The main purpose of the NUWSS was to get the law altered and give women the right to vote. Fawcett wanted to show the world that there were other ways to gain reforms by persuading politicians to change their minds, than using violence as an only option. She wrote in 1911 that she wanted the NUWSS “to show the world how to gain reforms without violence, without killing people and blowing up buildings and doing other silly things men have done when they wanted the laws altered.”
Throughout the campaign the NUWSS used many different peaceful methods to seek the attention of the government and the public. They issued leaflets so that they could let the public know about their campaign and to persuade more people to join them. Fawcett also held public debates with her opponents so that she could challenge them in front of an audience and show the public that the government have no strong, valid reason why they couldn’t give women the vote. The NUWSS also collected petitions to give to the government. The more people signed it, gave a stronger reason why women should get the vote. But then later the suffragists decided to change their tactics which were more active. In 1905 they run meetings in all constituencies up until to the General Election. Then in 1907 they held their first ever march and gave out leaflets to the public so that they could encourage people to join them. In this way it would help make an awareness of their campaign to win the vote for women and attract more people to join it. Later in 1908 the suffragists decided to take more action into their campaign and see the Prime Minister Asquith. There they raised the issue about women gaining the vote. Although their meeting got nowhere, they carried on demonstrating using other tactics, like holding debates with their opponents and they held Marches all over England this showed that they would not stop campaigning until they got what they wanted. So in 1910 Fawcett raised a petition of 280,000 signatures to the government, which was the largest. This made a very big impact in parliament, as a very large majority wanted women to gain the vote. So now that more and more people had begun starting to support the campaign for votes for women, it became a very difficult subject to avoid in parliament. By 1900 more than half of the all the MPs said they wished to give the vote to women’s suffrage.
