The Suffragettes were impatient members of the Suffragists party who felt that the ‘polite’ approach was taking too long and as a result Emmeline Pankhurst formed the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1903. The WSPU was formed because they believed that a more aggressive approach was needed to gain the governments attention. The aims of the WSPU were not only to gain the vote, but to get a better living style and better working conditions for women. The motto of the WSPU was “Deeds not words”; they believed that taking a physical action to get the vote was more successful than just speaking to get the vote. Sylvia Pankhurst described the party’s aims “To create an impression upon the public throughout the country, to set everyone talking about the votes for women, to keep the subject in the press, to leave the government no peace from it”. The methods used in the Suffragette campaign were violent and very disruptive. Coming to the end of their campaign, all the methods they used were just violence orientated. Examples of the methods the Suffragettes used were: heckling at MPs in meetings, their slogans daubed onto walls, golf courses damaged with acid, women chained themselves to railings, reservoirs were polluted with dye, windows smashed, chemicals poured into post boxes, protests meetings and marches, women went on hunger strike in prison, empty buildings were fire-bombed and refusal to keep census. A famous incident that showed how far the Suffragettes were willing to go was, when Emily Wilding Davison ran out and tried to take hold of the King’s horse’s reins in the Derby and got trampled to death.
The successes of the Suffragists are; that they united lots of smaller suffrage groups to form one mass movement, used peaceful, law abiding methods which probably earned them more respect than the Suffragettes with parliament and when some women got the vote in 1918 they were 1 factor behind 4. The successes of the Suffragettes were that they increased awareness, received more media attention than the Suffragists, were more noticed than the Suffragists, more publicised and grabbed headlines with their extreme activities. They also proved that they’d go to any lengths to get the right to vote, have better lifestyles and break away from the female stereotype, which the Suffragists kept to.
The failures of the Suffragists were that they did lose women from their campaign because they believed the campaign was too slow and that the Suffragettes methods were much more efficient. They were easily ignored by the government because of their gentle nature and they had achieved little by the time the Suffragettes were formed and captivating the media’s attention. The failures of the Suffragettes were that their use of violence may have made them feared unlike the Suffragists, who were seen as running a peaceful and respectable campaign. The Suffragettes sank to a lower level by using violence to promote their cause unlike the Suffragists who used speeches and rallies to demonstrate their point of view. The men (government) did not think that they could be trusted with the vote because they were so wild and irresponsible in using violence and heckling at MPs. The Suffragists were seen as calm and could be considered responsible enough to decide who would go into government. The Suffragettes violence could have held back the campaign for women’s suffrage.
The importance of the Suffragists campaign was that they got the campaign started. They were the first major movement to gain women’s suffrage, the Suffragettes were spin offs from this group and if it was not for the Suffragists the campaign may not have arisen. The Suffragists also proved that women could stand up for themselves and voice their opinions in a rational, capable and organized way unlike the Suffragettes which used violence to make their opinion apparent. The importance of the Suffragettes campaign was that they did get the issue noticed; they caused sensationalism which the Suffragists campaign didn’t. Ultimately they are a factor in women gaining the vote, if not for the Suffragettes violent protests, the government may ignored the Suffragists polite plea for the vote for much longer. The government most likely did not want the violence of the Suffragettes campaign to occur again just after they had won the war so they appeased them by giving them the vote.
There were two separate approaches to women’s suffrage maybe because some women were too impatient and believed that they could gain the vote faster than if they stayed in a peaceful group. There was also the peaceful approach which showed that women were capable of making their own decisions in a rational manner and could put the point across calmly; if they had gone in a violent manner the government would simply lose all respect for the cause and just see them as trouble makers who don’t deserve the vote.
In conclusion, both the Suffragists peaceful campaign and the Suffragettes violent campaign had a part in gaining women the right to vote. If not for the Suffragists peaceful and rational protests, the Suffragettes campaign may have taken a lot more time since they were seen as irresponsible and incapable to deal with the right to vote. Yet if not for the Suffragettes campaign, the Suffragists would have been easily ignored by the government and the campaign would have taken much more time. The Suffragettes radical campaign seized the headlines and got the public very involved and interested. Both campaigns needed one another to win the vote for women.
