WSPU - The Background, Organisation, and Aims of the WSPU Flashcards
The Background - What happened from the 1870s?
From the 1870s there had been a growing movement for women’s suffrage – originated from the political orgs that had developed to support the political parties
The Background - What happened in 1897?
From 1897, the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) under Millicent Fawcett had specifically focused on the vote for women by unifying the many different groups campaigning for female suffrage
The Organisation - When was the WSPU formed, who by, and why?
The Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) was formed in 1903 in Manchester, a hotbed for radical reformist thinking, by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel – Emmeline had been involved in campaigning with the Independent Labour Party (ILP) but became frustrated at the lack of progress
The Organisation - What was the leadership focused around, and what happened in 1905?
Whereas the NUWSS was an alliance of groups, the WSPU was focused around the leadership of Pankhurst and her two daughters, Sylvia and Christabel – the leadership style was autocratic and the Pankhursts demanded complete obedience – they had no constitution, no annual meetings and no accounts, unlike most political groups – from 1905, the group was based in London to have more political involvement
The Aims - Achieving female suffrage - What did the WSPU seek specifically?
As with other groups, the WSPU sought female suffrage – however they did not seek votes for all women, but votes on equal status to men – in effect, since only 30% of men could vote, this meant that their aim was for only women of middle-class wealth to vote – one critic said that they did not want votes for women, but votes for ladies
The Aims - Pressuring the ILP - What were the Pankhursts concerned about and what was the ILP’s reaction to the WSPU’s focus of suffrage?
The Pankhursts were concerned that the ILP was not working with enough focus on female suffrage – they felt the male-dominated ILP was not sufficiently prioritising the campaign – furthermore, the WSPU’s focus on female suffrage, which was based upon social status rather than simply universal female suffrage, divided support within the ILP – leader Kier Hardie did support the WSPU’s policies but many ILP members wanted to see more equal suffrage
The Aims - To free women from slavery - How did Christabel see the campaign and how was this reflected in the campaigning of the WSPU?
Christabel saw the campaign for the vote as a part of a wider issue of freeing women from an enslaved social role where they had insufficient rights – therefore, the campaigning of the WSPU was generally by women, as opposed to the other groups like the NUWSS, which were represented by men as well as women – Pankhurst once said ‘women, we must do the work ourselves’
