the woman question

Giorgio Manfredi Classe 5ES Liceo scientifico P. Ruffini

THE WOMAN QUESTION

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The Suffragettes were part of the ‘Votes for Women’ campaign that had long fought for the right of women to vote in the UK. They used art, debate, propaganda, and attack on property including window smashing and arson to fight for female suffrage. Suffrage means "the right to vote" in parliamentary and general elections.

emmeline pankhurst andthe suffragette movement

In 1903 Emmeline Pankhurst, her daughters Christabel, Sylvia and Adela Pankhurst, and a small group of women based in Manchester founded the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). The WSPU aimed to ‘wake up the nation’ to the cause of women’s suffrage. This was the beginning of the Suffragette movement.

From 1905 onwards the Suffragettes’ campaign became more violent. Their motto was ‘Deeds Not Words‘ and they began using more aggressive tactics to get people to listen. This included breaking windows, planting bombs, handcuffing themselves to railings and going on hunger strikes

In 1906, the Women’s Social and Political Union relocated their headquarters to London.

Women's Sunday in June 1908 was known as the first 'monster meeting' to be held by the WSPU. The Suffragettes from all over the United Kingdom to marched in seven different processions through Central London to Hyde Park.

As the campaign became increasingly militant, over a thousand Suffragettes, including Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters, received prison sentences for their actions. Many Suffragettes were sent to Holloway Prison in North London. In further protest, Suffragettes would go on hunger strike (stopo eating) in prison. In response, the government introduced a policy of force-feeding.

While the government continued to ban women from voting, women showed no sign of backing down. In deed, in 1913 a group of suffragettes burned the house of an English MP: another important event, a symbol of resistance and firmness.

Emmeline Pankhurst: the woman who changed feminism

The struggle did not stop in England: the movement became increasingly present throughout Europe, until it landed in New York. It is here that WSPU leader Emmeline Pankhurst held one of the most famous rallies in history. A very important historical moment, which marked the destiny of many young women.

FREEDOM OR DEATH November 13, 1913 The Connecticut Women’s Suffrage Association invited radical suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst to speak.

I come after having been four times imprisoned under the "Cat and Mouse Act", probably going back to be rearrested as soon as I set my foot on British soil. I come to ask you to help to win this fight. If we win it, this hardest of all fights, then, to be sure, in the future it is going to be made easier for women all over the world to win their fight when their time comes...

I am here as a soldier who has temporarily left the field of battle in order to explain - it seems strange it should have to be explained - what civil war is like when civil war is waged by women. I am not only here as a soldier temporarily absent from the field at battle; I am here - and that, I think, is the strangest part of my coming - I am here as a person who, according to the law courts of my country, it has been decided, is of no value to the community at all; and I am adjudged because of my life to be a dangerous person, under sentence of penal servitude in a convict prison...

-I do not come here as an advocate...

The Women's Social and Political Union had not succeeded in achieving the vote, but its campaigning style eased the way for women to take a more active and public role in society during the war. In 1918, the efforts of the women's suffrage movement finally had a breakthrough. A Bill was passed through Parliament that granted some women the right to vote. They had to be over the age of 30 and own property, or be married to someone who owned property. However, there was still a long way to go unit all women had the same voting rights as men. In fact, it took another ten years untl women received equal suffrage whit men, in 1928.

That’s not to say that the fight for women’s rights is over. Around the world, including in the UK, men are still likely to be paid more than a woman for doing exactly the same job. And there are many countries today where women still lack basic rights that we take for granted.

So let's make sure the future looks even brighter for women's rights!!!