Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote. The women's suffrage movement was the struggle to gain the same right to vote as men. With a few exceptions, women today have the same voting rights as men

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Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote. The women's suffrage movement was the struggle to gain the same right to vote as men. With a few exceptions, women today have the same voting rights as men. However, this was not always the case. Women were only given the right to vote in 1918 after the government had been refusing in it for over 20 years. In 1918, after the end of the First World War women were given the right to vote, however we could ask why the government changed its mind after refusing for 21 years?

A lot of things contributed to women getting the vote in Britain however it all started in 1879 when a group of middle-classed women formed the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (Suffragists), led by Millicent Fawcett. The group campaigned peacefully and wanted women to get the right to vote. The suffragists wanted to "gain reforms without violence, without killing people and blowing up buildings and doing other silly things that men have done when they wanted the laws altered". They held meetings with politicians; these were held to argue women's suffrage and to persuade politicians. The suffragists also distributed leaflets so people could know more about them and argued that some women (e.g. doctors and mayors) were far better than some men (e.g. convicts and lunatics) who have the vote. . They had petitions signed so they could show the parliament how many people wanted change. But these tactics were not producing results.
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Due to this the Women's Social and Political Union (Suffragettes) were formed in 1903 and led by Emmeline Pankhurst. This group used direct action; this was the second stage in the emancipation of women getting the vote. They set fire to post boxes and they went on hunger strike when imprisoned, they chained themselves to railings and produced clever posters. They fought police when they were arrested and also organised demonstrations. The government had to arrest women because of their violent actions. The suffragettes were treated roughly by men, the men found it difficult to deal with the ...

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