Was it the suffragette's campaign before the war which won women the vote in 1918?

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Was it the suffragette’s campaign before the war which won women the vote in 1918?

It is difficult to trace the origins of the women’s suffrage movement due to its slow and erratic beginnings. However the year 1866 was a significant landmark in suffragist history, when a petition was formed demanding the enfranchisement of all householders regardless of sex. The petition, signed by almost 1,500 women was taken to the House of Commons and as a result many independent suffrage societies were set up across the country which amalgamated in 1868 to become the National Society for Women’s Suffrage, which denoted the moment when organised national action began.

Over time it appeared as though attitudes were changing, as women began to gain the vote, in states across the US and Australia and even for Parliament in New Zealand. In Addition, there was a renewed co-operation among the many women’s suffrage organisations at this time and subsequently the NUWSS ( National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies ) was formed, a fairly peaceful organisation with positive aims. However in 1903, the WSPU ( Women’s Social and Political Union ) was formed by Emmeline Pankhurst at her house in Manchester due to dissatisfaction with the NUWSS which was seen to be too cautious.

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Initially the suffragettes were fairly peaceful in their methods and their first illegal actions were simply mild forms of civil disobedience. After many unsuccessful non-violent events such as the ‘Mud March’ in February 1907 and the demonstration in Hyde Park in June 1908 militancy began to increase, which Brian Harrison claims was a temporary tactical necessity born of the failure of legal and peaceful methods.

The government responded to the suffragettes’ actions with longer sentences which in turn caused the first of many hunger strikes by Marion Wallace Dunlop in 1909. The aim of which was to draw ...

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