WSPU

Question 1

Organisation and tactics

Answer 1

Moto ‘deeds not words’
- 1913 13 paintings in Manchester art gallery were hacked apart.
- Increased violence alienated non-violent campaigners. Fawcett was particularly disappointed.
1905 Annie Kenney joined and added a working-class element. 1906 Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence and her husband Fredrick joined and provided funding. The couple also encouraged the use of pageantry, music and drama to popularise the cause. She designed suffragette clothing in purple, white and green symbolising purity, hope and dignity.
Central committee, subcommittee, 11 regional offices
Between 1906 and 1907 the WSPU spent £2,494 on campaigning but by 1907 it was able to raise £20,000. Soon employed more paid staff than the labour party.

Question 2

Extent of support

Answer 2

In 1907, Charlotte Despard and Teresa Billington-Grieg left the WSPU to form the WFL, taking 1/5 of the WSPU’s members with them. 7 splits in total.
1908 Hyde park meeting 250,000-500,000 gathered showing widespread support.
In 1906 WSPU had 9 branches, in 1911 is had 122. 1910 the circulation of votes for women was 40,000. Initially consisted of a small number of working-class women. 1905 it had 30 members.

Question 3

Reasons for heightened militancy after 1908

Answer 3

• Asquith’s stalling tactics frustrated suffragettes, accelerating the adoption of
  increasingly militant methods.

Question 4

Impact of increased militancy after 1908

Answer 4

1910 WSPU feared Asquith was delaying the vote and launched an attack on parliament, many pro-suffrage MPs lost support. Their actions played into the hands of anti-suffrage movements. Public support was badly shaken. Violence undermined the debate in favour of female suffrage. Before 1911, the conservative party conferences had on 6 occasions passed votes in favour of female suffrage. In 1912 and 1913, conferences voted to oppose the measure. George Lansbury lost his seat for supporting female suffrage.

Question 5

Emily Davidson

Answer 5

Arrested on 9 occasions and force-fed a total of 49 times. Epsom Derby 1913 she died jumping in front of the kings horse trying to attach a WSPU banner to the horse. Became the first widely acknowledged martyr to the cause and an inspiration to others. The Pankhurst’s seized on the tragedy
and gave her a heroine’s funeral. Thousands of mourners attended
the ceremony in Bloomsbury, with ten bands accompanying her
coffin from Victoria to King’s Cross.

Question 6

Christabel Pankhurst

Answer 6

Enforced a clear strategy of militancy from 1905. Nov 1905 disturbed a public meeting before spitting on a policeman and getting arrested. Recognised imprisonment could be a valuable tool to secure public sympathy. Directed the move towards the conservatives. 1913-14 exiled to France to avid imprisonment. Kept the party focused on female suffrage by opposing efforts of other members to involve them in different campaigns, such as health for working-class women.

Question 7

Emmeline Pankhurst

Answer 7

At the helm of the WSPU throughout its existence. Powerhouse of the organisation. Provided a magnetism and attracted many dedicated women to the movement. Directed the initial move to establish the WSPU. Sometimes her autocratic style alienated members. Directed tactics. 1905 relocated to London to be more central. During periods of militancy she led marches and gave speeches. She was imprisoned many times and took the lead in hinger strikes. Firm leadership held the movement together in the midst of splits.

Question 8

Sylvia Pankhurst

Answer 8

Joined the WSPU in 1906. As an artist, she played a crucial role in designing many posters, journal covers and banners. Spring 1913 arrested 3 times. 1911 she published The suffragette: The History of the women’s militant suffrage movement, 1905-1910. Never fully supported militancy. Kept ties with the labour government. 1913 left the WSPU, brought in support from working-class women.

Question 9

Extent of WSPU success by 1914

Answer 9

• increased public awareness
• increased membership
  -political attention
• support from some politicians
  HOWEVER
• limited success in parliament
• internal struggles
• oppression and repression
• incomplete victory

Question 10

Government attitudes towards female suffrage

Answer 10

Many politicians supported female suffrage yet political calculations undermined this. Asquith knew the conservatives had more to gain from women getting the vote. Some politicians didn’t believe that a majority of women wanted the vote. Fear of change. Dislike for militancy. Lack of consensus, 1906 400 out of 650 MPs supported some form of female suffrage but no reforms passed until 1918.

Question 11

Reasons for the failure of the women’s suffrage bill 1909

Answer 11

Carried 35 votes on second reading but failed to proceed after extensive debate time wasted the time allocated to its passing. Two key obstacles to franchise reform in 1909: party deadlock and Herbert Asquith. He was a target of militant behaviour in 1913 he was assaulted by women brandishing dog whips. These acts of militancy strengthened his resolve.

Question 12

The Conciliation Committee

Answer 12

All party committee appointed to address the question of female suffrage. Supported by the NUWSS and the WSPU, had 54 MPs. Found a path to conciliation between the liberals and the conservatives over how to give women suffrage without handing a party a large advantage.

Question 13

Conciliation bill 1910

Answer 13

Asquith specifically used suffragette militancy to oppose the bill. Passed second reading in July by 110 votes. A’s govt prioritised business in the cabinet and sidelined female suffrage. WSPU and NUWSS aimed for limited female suffrage of only 1 million women.

Question 14

Conciliation bill 1911

Answer 14

Second conciliation bill passed May 1911, 255 votes to 208 as a private members bill. However, Lloyd George announced his opposition fearing it would provide the conservatives with more voters. Not given parliamentary time but Asquith supported a promise that a similar measure would be given time if it passed its second reading (1912).

Question 15

The Government Franchise bill 1913

Answer 15

Amendment to strike the word ‘male’ out of the bill so it included women, suggested by Lloyd George. James Lowther personally opposed. Asquith refused to draft a replacesment bill. led to more WSPU violence.
Asquith’s opposition, parliamentary procedure and political deadlock were all important for the failure of the bill.

Question 16

Black Friday

Answer 16

18th November, 1910, WSPU sent 300 suffragettes to Westminster to protest Asquith’s decision to suspend parliamentary debate of the Conciliation Bill.
Would have extended the vote to over a million wealthy and property-owning women.
Emmeline Pankhurst led the delegation. Progress halted by the police. 119 arrested.
Public relations disaster for the government.

Question 17

Conspiracy trials 1912

Answer 17

Rumour of the third Conciliation Bill failing to pass caused the WSPU to prepare to launch a window smashing campaign. Authorities got word and Emmeline and other members were arrested. They were put on trial and imprisoned at Holloway prison. Suggested that this was designed to deter suffragettes from engaging in potential criminal activity. During this imprisonment, Emmeline went on hunger strike for the first time. In her autobiography she talks of “sickening scenes of violence”.

Question 18

Hunger striking

Answer 18

5th July 1909, Marion Wallace-Dunlop went on hunger strike. This was the first incidence of a suffragette adopting hunger strike as a form of political protest. She had been imprisoned in a second division cell, yet as a political prisoner she believed she should have been imprisoned in a first division cell. This became a common response over the next 5 years and the government authorised the use of forced feeding.

Question 19

Cat and Mouse act 1913

Answer 19

Passed to deal with the problem of hunger striking.
Allowed for the early release of prisoners who were so weakened by hunger striking that they were at risk of death. Once their health was significantly recovered they would be re-imprisoned. However, many suffragettes were able to successfully avoid re-imprisonment.

Question 20

National league for opposing women’s suffrage

Answer 20

Lord Curzon was President.
By 1914 the league had over 42,000 members and collected over 500,000 signatures for petitions opposing votes for women.

Question 21

Asquith

Answer 21

Became PM in 1908. Faced multiple crises. Strongly opposed to female suffrage unconvinced that the majority of women wanted the vote, believing many women looked on the campaign with “languid and imperturbable indifference”.
- Wanted evidence of mass support before reform could be advanced.
- Insisted that campaigners give evidence as yo how the absence of the vote had led to parliament neglecting “the special interest and needs of the excluded class”.

Question 22

1912 bill

Answer 22

Liberals attempted to introduce the Fourth Reform Bill, Asquith indicated that an amendment for women’s enfranchisement could be added. However, his plans were stopped when the Speaker of the House, James Lowther, insisted that significance of the
amendment was such as to require the reintroduction of the bill entirely and franchise reform was shelved. Irish home rule had become more important.
March 1912 = third conciliation bill. Majority of 167 votes in 1911 and this bill was essentially the same but was defeated by 14 votes. Terrible blow to women’s suffrage campaigns. In response, NUWSS moved to make an allience with the labour party and the WSPU continued with militant tactics.
66 mps who had abstained in 1911 voted against the bill in 1912.

Question 23

Suffragette treatment of Asquith

Answer 23

Asquith’s position as Prime Minister and attitude made him a
regular target of the Women’s Social and Political Union. Suffragettes heckled him, repeatedly smashed the windows of 10 Downing Street, and hustled him whilst he played golf. However, these methods seem only to have strengthened Asquith’s opposition.

Question 24

Protesting at parliament

Answer 24

• Disrupting Parliament became a common tactic for suffragette
  organisations and their actions were a regular subject of debate in the House of Commons. As the disorder became more destructive over time, suffragettes responsible for disruptions in Parliament
  were blacklisted and banned from entering the building.
• In February 1908, a large number of suffragettes
  hidden inside furniture vans were ‘delivered’ to Parliament.
• 1909 a banner demanding votes for women was lowered from the Ladies’ Gallery. At that time the windows in the gallery were covered by metal grilles which made it difficult to both see and
  hear proceedings in the chamber. Two members of the Women’s
  Freedom League chained themselves to the grilles which had become both a physical and metaphorical symbol of women’s
  exclusion from Parliament. The grilles had to be removed and the
  women, still attached to them, were escorted from the gallery by
  authorities.

Question 25

Men’s political union

Answer 25

In June 1913 Lawrence Marvin of the Men’s Political Union, outraged by the treatment of women hunger strikers, threw flour and leaflets against force feeding from the visitors’ gallery, while the Prime Minister was
addressing the House.

Question 26

Window smashing

Answer 26

1st March 1912. Didn’t inform government prior to these actions. Windows of well-known shops in London were smashed at an estimated cost of £5000. Led to the arrests of nine women including Emmeline. On 4th March further window-smashing action took place, resulting in ninety-six arrests.

Question 27

Arson campaign

Answer 27

July 1912, organised by Christabel. Attempted to burn down the houses of two members of government who opposed female suffrage. 1913, escalated to railway stations etc. 1913-14 around 50 churches were attacked.

Question 28

NUWSS

Answer 28

NUWSS Led by Millicent Fawcett, established in 1897 and spearheaded the campaign for women’s suffrage. However their avoidance of violence or public outcry meant that they lacked success. Grew rapidly between 1902 and 1906 increasing from 17 to 31 branches. Ensured that, despite the WSPU’s militancy, the house of commons included 415 Liberal MPs in favour of female suffrage. NUWSS made sure that the 1906 liberal government included a majority of members who would react sympathetically to women’s suffrage campaigning. While the WSPU won the cause publicity, the NUWSS put in the political leg work to make female suffrage a realistic proposition.

Question 29

Women’s national anti-suffrage league

Answer 29

• In 1908 Mrs Humphrey Ward established the women’s national anti-suffrage league which was for women who didn’t want the vote. The men’s league for opposing women’s suffrage combined with them in 1910 to form the national league for opposing women’s suffrage, a nationwide movement with 97 branches.