Firstly the suffragette Edith New chained herself to the railings outside of 10 Downing Street and made speeches outside it, some suffragettes through stones through the windows as well.
This sort of radical action made the general public realise that women were serious about getting the vote and were willing to go to prison so that their fellow women got the vote.
The suffragette campaign gradually became more radical, soon the suffragettes that were in prison went on hunger strike, forcing the government into a dilemma. The government was in a lose lose situation, if the let the suffragettes starve themselves to death then they would become martyrs, which the government didn’t want as this would create even more support for the suffragette cause if people saw that women were willing to die for their right to vote. So the government decided to force feed the suffragettes that refused to eat, this also gained a lot of support for the suffragettes and against the government because the force feeding was a breach of their human rights.
The suffragettes gained a lot of support for their cause by their radical methods; this was because people had to take notice of the brick throwing because women had never had this kind of attitude towards something on such a large scale before.
The suffragettes made it more likely that women would get the vote because the government had to realise that these women weren’t going to sit back and not have the vote. This was shown in 1911 when the government promised a Conciliation Bill, and this bill gained all party support, it go the biggest majority ever. This shows that the government realised that the suffragettes deserved the vote.
Emily Davison also drew a great amount of attention and support to the suffragette cause because she became a martyr for it. Her funeral was attended by thousands of people, this shows that the suffragettes had a lot of support, meaning that they were more likely to get the vote.
During the war the suffragettes stopped their campaigning to join the war effort in munitions factories, as ambulance drivers and nurses on the front line. This showed the government that they deserved to get the vote because they too, like men, were willing to put their lives on the line for their country, so they should get the vote.
However the suffragists were saying that the suffragettes were the worst enemy of the women’s suffrage cause, they thought that the suffragettes were showing themselves to be thugs, throwing bricks through windows. Many people agreed with this, they thought that the radical actions of the suffragette made the government more determined that women didn’t deserve the vote.
I feel that the suffragettes made it more likely that women would gain the vote at the start of their campaign but they needed to know when to stop, they took it too far and made a lot of people feel that they had damaged the suffragette cause, but they were still more likely to get the vote than before the suffragette campaign began. I think that they both helped and damaged the cause, but they helped it more than they damaged it.
