Suffragettes Campaign

From 1903 onwards women took it a step further in the escalation of tactics. To get more intention, women started to disrupt meetings shouting and holding up banners. They insulted the police by spitting to get deliberately arrested. Suffragettes did this in order to keep 'Votes for Women' as the headlines. And it worked. In 1906, The Daily Mirror states that they are supporting and acknowledging the determination of the suffragettes.

The issue of the suffragettes became more successful that it was being publicly debated. 'Votes for Women' was referred to as 'practically politics'. More and more suffragettes became political prisoners. They decided to go on hunger strike which had frightened the government. So the government had a plan of their own. They said that they will look bad if people died in prison so they started to force-feed the people who went on hunger strike. So much pain was experienced during force-feeding as a pipe is pushed through the nose down to the throat. This caused many after effects as people started to faint. This earned the suffragettes a lot of public sympathy. Other people thought that this was unnecessary, silly and maybe a step too far. But the suffragettes continued on.

By 1910, there was an even more increase of violence. Over 300 women marched into parliament. Extreme behaviour was present as the police also started to become more violent. In 1913, the 'Cat and Mouse Act' was introduced. This included the process of arresting the suffragettes, releasing them and then re-arresting them. Life was actually going on as not every woman was involved with the suffragettes. The suffragettes were abstinent and their attitudes became more and more violent. The only way they will put an end to their violence is if they get what they want, which is the votes for women.

There was significant violence. Women chained themselves to railing on 10 Downing Street, set fire to post boxes, smashed shop windows and cut telephone wires. They also took it upon themselves to burn houses and public buildings as well as pouring acid on the golf course to destroy all the grass. On the plus side, all of these things raised a lot of awareness and earned them a lot of publicity. But there were downsides also. By doing all these things, they had put the authorities off and were alienating people into joining their campaign.

Things were taken to an even higher level of extreme. On 3rd June 1913, during the Derby horse race, a woman named Emily Davidson through herself under the King's horse. Her final cry before she jumped was "Votes for Women!" Emily was strong-minded who died for what she believed in. Her funeral was attended by over 2000 suffragettes. Her action had showed her commitment to the cause and showed how much she cared. Although it gained a lot of attention, people thought she was a fanatic and that it was a senseless, pointless sacrifice. The Times newspaper had a statement from the government, "reckless fanaticism'.

But did suffragette tactics actually hold back women suffragettes? Were people starting to back out? More and more suffragettes had started to leave the campaign. The cause had weakened and started to disintegrate. Tactics had worked in a sense that earned them publicity, but women were too emotional and embarrassed by the extreme tactics. This divided the movement.

When war was declared on 4th August in 1914, the suffragettes put a hold to their campaign as it would be unpatriotic, so suffragettes were set free.

By Zara Shaikh S9p

[IN 1918, WOMEN GAINED THE RIGHT TO VOTE. WHICH WAS THE MOST SIGNIFICANT FACTOR TO GET WOMEN THE VOTE, THE FIRST WORLD WAR OR THE SUFFRAGETTES CAMPAIGN?]

Zara Shaikh |

2