Suffragettes' Tactics

Question 1

What was their newspaper called and what was the circulation?

Answer 1

It was called ‘votes for women’ and it has a circulation of 40,000

Question 2

What were their colours?

Answer 2

White, green and purple

Question 3

What did each colour stand for?

Answer 3

Purple - dignity
White - purity
Green - fertility

Question 4

What did the use the colours to sell?

Answer 4

Clothes, jewellery, dolls and belts - they had 20 shops in London

Question 5

Why did they start increasing their violence?

Answer 5

Because they grew sick of the government not listening

Question 6

Why were the hunger strikes an effective tactic ?

Answer 6

• government didn’t want dead women on their hands

- it shows it was a serious cause

Question 7

Why was it more effective as it was women starving themselves?

Answer 7

Because of the sexist age, women dying was far more effective than men dying

Question 8

What happened during force feeding?

Answer 8

They shoved tubes down their mouths

Question 9

What did the government introduce in 1913?

Answer 9

Cat and mouse act

Question 10

What was the ‘cat and mouse act?’

Answer 10

When women were about to die, they were allowed out to recover and were then later arrested

Question 11

What did Emily Davison do in 1913?

Answer 11

She ran in front of a horse and was run over by the kings horse. She tried to put a scarf in the horse

Question 12

In June 1911, how many marched in peaceful protest in London?

Answer 12

60,000

Question 13

When the king visited Nottingham what the suffragettes try to do?

Answer 13

They tried to bomb him

Question 14

What other tactics did the suffragettes use?

Answer 14

Attacked postboxes and took out telephone wires
Attacked railway carriages
Attacked golf courses

Question 15

At which famous places did they hold meetings?

Answer 15

Royal Albert hall and Trafalgar Square

Question 16

What was a usual number for the meetings?

Answer 16

20,000

Question 17

How did the newspapers report about the women’s pilgrimage and why?

Answer 17

They reported very favourably because of the peaceful way it was carried out

Question 18

How many signatures did the petition in 1910 have in support of the conciliation bill?

Answer 18

Over 250,000

Question 19

What did women do to MPs who supported the cause?

Answer 19

They were helped in elections by women who canvassed for them

Question 20

Why did many women refuse to pay taxes?

Answer 20

Because you couldn’t vote if you didn’t pay taxes

Question 21

Why did some boycott the 1911 census?

Answer 21

They said that if they couldn’t vote they wouldn’t be part of the official record of the day

Question 22

When did the hunger strikes start and why?

Answer 22

In 1909,to force the authorities to recognise them as political criminals not actual criminals

Question 23

What did some women do in their cells and how were their protests stopped?

Answer 23

They barricaded themselves into their cells and hosepipes of cold water were used to end their protests

Question 24

What was one of first types of violence the suffragettes used?

Answer 24

Window smashing

Question 25

How did the tactic of window smashing evolve over the campaign?

Answer 25

It started as a spontaneous tact not in reaction to failure of suffrage bills but later leadership used it as a deliberate tactic

Question 26

Which kind of windows did they specifically target?

Answer 26

Windows of government offices were their favourite, buildings of newspapers and gentleman’s clubs and shops also suffered

Question 27

When did arson start in a big way?

Answer 27

After Emily Davison planted a bomb at DLGs house in Surrey

Question 28

What did suffragettes do to letterboxes?

Answer 28

They would pour chemicals inside,destroying all the letters inside

Question 29

What did they do in galleries?

Answer 29

They attacked valuable works of art in galleries

Question 30

What did they do to a prison doctor?

Answer 30

They attacked him on his way home with a rhino whip

Question 31

What did Christabel Pankhurst do to a police officer?

Answer 31

She spat and hit a police officer

Question 32

What was thrown at the PM?

Answer 32

An axe was thrown and only narrowly missed him

Question 33

What did they do to politicians?

Answer 33

The heckled politicians and disrupted their meetings

Question 34

What happened to the suffragettes when they disturbed these meetings ?

Answer 34

They were often thrown out of meetings and put into prison. But every time this happened they gained more publicity

Question 35

How many suffragettes went to prison?

Answer 35

Over 1000