WSPU

Question 1

When was the NUWSS formed?

Answer 1

1897

Question 2

Who was the leader of the NUWSS?

Answer 2

Millicent Fawcett

Question 3

What did the NUWSS campaign for?

Answer 3

Female suffrage

Question 4

When and where was the WSPU formed?

Answer 4

1903, Manchester

Question 5

Who founded the WSPU?

Answer 5

Emmeline Pankhurst and her duaghter Christabel.

Question 6

Who was Emmeline Pankhurst?

Answer 6

She was the daughter of a wealthy industrialist and had been involved in campaiging with the Independent Labour Party (ILP) but became frustrated with the lack of progress. She also founded the Women’s Franchise League in 1889.

Question 7

What was the leadership style of the WSPU compared to the NUWSS?

Answer 7

The NUWSS was an alliance of groups, whereas the WSPU had an autocratic leadership from the Pankhursts.

Question 8

What were the aims of the WSPU?

Answer 8

• To achieve female suffrage - however they did not seek votes for all women but votes on equal status to men (only middle class women)
• To pressure the ILP - they felt the male-dominated ILP was not prioritising the campaign
• To free women from ‘slavery’ - saw the vote as part of a wider issue of freeing women from the enslaved social role where they had insufficient rights.

Question 9

Early tactics of the WSPU

Answer 9

• published a journal ‘The Suffragette’
• heckling ministers at public meetings
• hunger strikes
• they took part in marches, such as May Day parades
• they took part in the ‘Mud March’ in 1907 alongside the NUWSS
• in june 1908, a week after the NUWSS led a march, the WSPU organised another, larger march with 30,000 women

Question 10

What year did WSPU tactics begin to become more militant?

Answer 10

1909

Question 11

What did Christabel Pankhurst lead in 1909?

Answer 11

A wave of attacks on property, such as throwing stones at windows of London social clubs, burning post boxes and attacks on golf greens. They also attempted to damage properties of politicians such as David Lloyd George and Lord Leverhulme.

Question 12

What was Black Friday?

Answer 12

In 1910, a number of suffragettes including Emmeline and Christabel were arrested in fights with the police outside parliament.

Question 13

Why was there a pause in militancy between 1911 and 1912?

Answer 13

In 1911, the gov suggested a law which might give a small number of wealthy women the vote, called a Concilliation Bill. However, although it passed the second reading stage, it failed to become law due to lack of parliamentary time. The liberal gov announced that a new bill would be proposed, this tima aimed at male suffrage, with the possability of an amendment to include women.

Question 14

What was the WSPU’s response to the Concilliation Bill?

Answer 14

They saw it as betrayal and returned to far more radical campaigning

Question 15

How did the WSPU’s tactics change from 1912?

Answer 15

They became more extreme.

Question 16

What are 4 examples of the WSPU’s increased militancy from 1912?

Answer 16

• attacks on property of value, such as shops in the West End, post boxes, golf courses and in 1913, bombing of the house of Lloyd George
• a famous painting in the National gallery was slashed with a knife by a suffragette whom the papers named ‘Shlasher Mary’
• in Bristol, suffragettes burned a timber yard, a university building and two mansions
• Emily Davidson threw herself in front of a horse at the 1913 Derby
• hunger-srtikes in jail which forced the gov to pass the so-called ‘Cat and Mouse Act’ in 1913 to avoid creating a martyr

Question 17

What was the effect of increased militancy on public support?

Answer 17

Reduced public support as the violence no longer seemed reasonable or targeted at spesific gov individuals. It also created tensions in the WSPU, which Emmeline commonly resolved by expelling those wjo disagreed with the militants, including her own daughter

Question 18

How did the gov respond to increased militancy?

Answer 18

• initially relaxed stance
• as militancy increased, so did the arrests
• fines and short prison sentences
• hunger-strikes led to the Cat and Mouse Act 1913

Question 19

What happened in 1914?

Answer 19

When WW1 broke out, Pankhurst called for an end to the militant campaigns in a demonstration of patriotism. The magazine ‘The Suffragette’ was renamed ‘The Britannia’ to reflect this.

Question 20

Who was Emily Davidson?

Answer 20

She had studied at Oxford (though women could not actually recieve a degree) and was a teacher until she became a full time protestor upon joining the WSPU. Famously she died throwing herself in front of the King’s horse at the 1913 Derby. It appeared to be deliberate suicide but she was carrying a return train ticket and WSPU rosettes which indicates it may have been an attempt to tag the King’s horse and emabrass the King.

Question 21

Who was Sylvia Pankurst?

Answer 21

Christabel’s sister who also joined the WSPU in 1906. As an artist, she designed many of the posters, journal covers and banners. She somewhat supported the militant campaigns but her support decreased after the 1913 arson campaigns. In 1913 she left the WSPU and formed what was later known as the Woman’s Suffrage Federation.

Question 22

How did the Conservative Party (in power 1895-1905) view the issue of female suffrage?

Answer 22

Most Conservative MPs were hostile to female suffrage however many of the leadership saw the potential for property-owning women to have the vote as a potential source of increasing right-wing support.

Question 23

How did the Liberal Party (in power 1905-1922) view the issue of female suffrage?

Answer 23

The Liberal MPs were very open to female suffrage however Asquith and the leadership were concerned. They believed that giving the vote to women might increase the strength of some pressure groups, like those supporting the Temperance Laws and make the party harder to unify. Equally without suffrage it was more likely that new women voters would support the Conservatives.

Question 24

How did the Labour Party view the issue of female suffrage?

Answer 24

The Labour party did support female suffrage but they wouldn’t distinguish it from universal suffrage. This led to a strong relationship with the WSPU. In any event, with only 2 MPs in 1900 and 29 in 1906, they had little impact on gov policies.

Question 25

What and when were the 5 key failed attempts to achieve female suffrage?

Answer 25

• The Woman’s Suffrage Bill, 1909 - the bill was not given enough debate time
• The Consiliation Bill, 1910 - Asquith did not support the bill even though the bill passed the second reading by 100 votes
• The Consiliation Bill, 1911 - Asquith declared that he would propose a universal male suffrage law with female possibility. Was abandoned
• The Consiliation Bill, 1912 - the issue of Irish Home Rule was more serious
• The Government Franchise Bill, 1913 - the bill was never a serious possibility

Question 26

How extensive was WSPU support?

Answer 26

Supporters saw militancy as necessary, yet the WSPU failed to attract a broader support base as the majority of people in Britain either opposed female suffrage or were concerned by the radical militancy of the WSPU. Meanwhile the NUWSS had grown to over 50,000 members compared to WSPU’s 2,000.

Question 27

Main reasons for limited support?

Answer 27

• the militant tactics reduced support among traditionalist middle/upper classes
• The working class saw the WSPU as a middle/upper class movement and the votes for women were not their top priority
• led by women with little male involvement alienating male support
• Pankhurt’s dictorial leadership
• they alienated potential allies like Lloyd George who sympathised and led the 1918 Represenation of the People Act, had his house bombed and speeches interrupted

Question 28

Success of the WSPU…

Answer 28

• militancy attracted publicity
• the increased attention led more women to join the more peaceful NUWSS which increased public support for suffrage
• bills proposing forms of female suffrage reappeared in parliamentary debate after a ten-year lull following the start of the militancy
• a factor in the grant to female suffrage was a desire post-war to not see a return of the suffragette militacy