WSPU 1903-1914 Part 1

Question 1

When was the WSPU formed?

Answer 1

1903

Question 2

What is the time period in which most historians agree that the WSPU reinvigorated the cause of women’s suffrage?

Answer 2

1903-8

Question 3

What is the time period in which historians are divided about the impact of the WSPU’s violence on the women’s movement?

Answer 3

1909-14

Question 4

Who established the WSPU?

Answer 4

Emmeline Pankhurst

Question 5

What was the initial membership of the WSPU like?

Answer 5

Small group of working-class women, mostly wives of ILP supporters

Question 6

What was the WSPU’s motto?

Answer 6

‘Deeds, not words’

Question 7

What were the moderate militant tactics that the WSPU initially decide to adopt?

Answer 7

Meeting disruptions; demonstrations; heckling

Question 8

How was the militancy campaign of the WSPU initiated?

Answer 8

Christabel disrupted a speech by Sir Edward Grey at a public meeting

Question 9

Who was Christabel accompanied by when she interrupted a speech for the first time?

Answer 9

Fellow WSPU member Annie Kenney

Question 10

When did the WSPU decide to adopt moderate militant tactics?

Answer 10

1905

Question 11

Which WSPU member made the decision to adopt moderate militant tactics?

Answer 11

Christabel Pankhurst

Question 12

What did suffragette militancy take inspiration from?

Answer 12

Irish Home Rule movement

Question 13

Who led the Irish Home Rule movement?

Answer 13

Charles Parnell

Question 14

What approach had Parnell taken to promoting Irish Home Rule?

Answer 14

Didn’t target individual MPs but put pressure on the government

Question 15

When did the militant action of the WSPU increased?

Answer 15

1906-7

Question 16

What is an example of the increased militancy of the suffragettes? (1906-7)

Answer 16

Chained themselves to the railings on Downing Street and to statues in the House of Commons’ lobby

Question 17

When did a WSPU group break into the lobby of the HofC?

Answer 17

25 October 1906

Question 18

How many suffragettes were arrested for breaking into the lobby of the HofC?

Answer 18

10

Question 19

How was Christabel punished for interrupting the meeting of Sir Edward Grey?

Answer 19

Imprisoned

Question 20

What was a powerful tool for the WSPU for creating sympathy with middle and upper class audiences?

Answer 20

Notion of socially elite women in jail as unjustly punished victims of a male-controlled state

Question 21

How did WSPU militancy help the NUWSS to build up its membership?

Answer 21

Won publicity for the women’s suffrage campaign

Question 22

What encouraged the WSPU to move towards more violent forms of militancy?

Answer 22

Herbert Asquith’s denial to female suffrage

Question 23

How did WSPU members attempt to solve Asquith’s question of whether all women wanted the vote?

Answer 23

Huge 1908 Hyde Park meeting,failed to influence the government at all

Question 24

Who won a landslide victory in the 1906 general election?

Answer 24

Liberal Party

Question 25

What was the Liberal government most concerned with in 1908?

Answer 25

Radical social welfare reforms; Conservative-controlled HoL; Irish Home Rule; worsening national trade balance

Question 26

When did Asquith replace Campbell-Bannerman as PM?

Answer 26

April 1908

Question 27

How many women met at the mass Hyde Park meeting in June 1908?

Answer 27

250-500K

Question 28

What did Christabel direct in response to Asquith's refusal to acknowledge the mass support at the Hyde Park meeting?

Answer 28

Mass campaign of window-breaking

Question 29

When did the WSPU's violent militancy begin?

Answer 29

1909

Question 30

Why did the suffragettes adopt a campaign of violent militancy?

Answer 30

Grew impatient at the lack of progress in what they saw as the most vital political question

Question 31

Who became a popular target for much of the suffragette's violent militancy?

Answer 31

Herbert Asquith

Question 32

Why was Asquith sceptical about female suffrage?

Answer 32

He didn't think all women wanted the vote

Question 33

When did the WSPU begin its hunger strikes?

Answer 33

1909

Question 34

When was the most notorious act of suffragette militancy?

Answer 34

18 November 1910

Question 35

What happened on November 1910?

Answer 35

Government refused time to debate legislation for women suffrage. The WSPU responded by sending in 300 women into the HofC

Question 36

When did suffragette militancy become even more extreme?

Answer 36

1911

Question 37

What tactics did the WSPU use in 1912?

Answer 37

Targeted artworks and set fire to pillar boxes (post boxes)

Question 38

When was the suffragette campaign at its most militant?

Answer 38

1913

Question 39

What are examples of the suffragette militancy in 1913?

Answer 39

13 paintings hacked apart in Manchester | Golf greens & train carriages all damaged

Question 40

How many members did the WSPU consist of in the summer of 1905?

Answer 40

30

Question 41

How many members did the WSPU consist of by the end of 1914?

Answer 41

5000