Compare And Contrast The Methods Of Suffragists And Suffragettes

642 Words2 Pages

The Methods of the Suffragists and Suffragettes

The terms "Suffragist" and "Suffragette" began to be used when the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) and the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) began to start fighting for the right of women to vote in general elections. Although the two sets of franchise fighters were fighting for the same cause, their methods of doing so were completely different.

The Suffragists were peaceful, and were the original members of the NUWSS. They believed that the way to votes for women was by using peaceful and legal ways to try and win the vote. Its campaign was entitled "Voiceless London", and they spread their hopes by putting forward …show more content…

However, many women felt that these peaceful methods were not working, and in order for them to work, more extreme action had to be taken. These women became known as suffragettes.

Some of these women, broke away from the NUWSS and joined the newly-formed WSPU, created in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst. In 1905, the WSPU decided to take stronger action due to the failure of using peaceful and legal methods, as bills were constantly being turned away from the House of Commons and not many people were accepting that women should be allowed to vote. Their tactics started off quite quietly, with suffragettes being arrested for holding meetings outside of the House of Commons. The arrests soon began to become more frequent, with suffragettes being arrested for speaking to the crowd outside Liberal Party elections, and refusing to pay fines thus being sent to jail. However, they were quickly gaining popularity and they moved to London in 1906, to be nearer the capital. They soon declared war on the Liberal party for not fulfilling their promises. The suffragettes targeted Liberal …show more content…

They realised by doing this, they could take advantage of the Liberal party.

Those who were arrested still helped out with the cause. They took part in hunger striking, which led to forced feeding. This was a huge propaganda advantage for the WSPU as it showed their members having tubes down their throat being forced against their will. The WSPU took pictures of staged prison scenarios, which looked as if the suffragettes were being mistreated.

A demonstration took place at Oxford Street in March 1912, where suffragettes broke every shop in the road. Over 200 suffragettes were arrested. This was a big blow to the WSPU, and other suffragettes were arrested for setting fire to theatres, post-boxes and cinemas.

In 1914, the WSPU split, due to some members disagreeing whether the level of violence was helping. The increased action of suffragettes had also ended any co-operation between the WSPU and the NUWSS, and they were left on their own.

However, Emmeline Pankhurst still called for more violence and the greens on golf courses were soaked in acid, public places like railways were destroyed and two bombs were placed in the

Open Document