Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom

Women's suffrage
Women's suffrage
Women's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...

in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

as a national movement began in 1872. Women were not prohibited from voting in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

until the 1832 Reform Act and the 1835 Municipal Corporations Act

Municipal Corporations Act 1835

The Municipal Corporations Act 1835 – sometimes known as the Municipal Reform Act, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in the incorporated boroughs of England and Wales...

. Both before and after 1832 establishing women's suffrage

Suffrage

Suffrage, political franchise, or simply the franchise, distinct from mere voting rights, is the civil right to vote gained through the democratic process...

on some level was a political topic, although it would not be until 1872 that it would become a national movement with the formation of the National Society for Women's Suffrage

National Society for Women's Suffrage

The National Society for Women's Suffrage was the first national group in the United Kingdom to campaign for women's right to vote. Formed on 6 November 1867, by Lydia Becker, the organisation helped lay the foundations of the women's suffrage movement, furthered later by the National Union of...

and later the more influential National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies

National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies

The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies , also known as the Suffragists was an organisation of women's suffrage societies in the United Kingdom.-Formation and campaigning:...

(NUWSS). Little victory was achieved in this constitutional campaign in its earlier years up to around 1905. It was at this point that the militant campaign began with the formation of the Women's Social and Political Union

Women's Social and Political Union

The Women's Social and Political Union was the leading militant organisation campaigning for Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom...

(WSPU). However, although effective in publicising the issue, the WSPU's advocacy of violence was not popular and the overwhelming majority of active supporters of female suffrage continued to support the NUWSS .

The outbreak of the First World War led to a halting of almost all campaigning, but some argue that it was the competence of women war workers that led to the extension of the franchise to women over the age of 30 in 1918; providing they were householders, married to a householder or if they held a university degree. Universal suffrage

Universal suffrage

Universal suffrage consists of the extension of the right to vote to adult citizens as a whole, though it may also mean extending said right to minors and non-citizens...

for all adults over 21 years of age was not achieved until 1928.

Women had the franchise in local government

Local government

Local government refers collectively to administrative authorities over areas that are smaller than a state.The term is used to contrast with offices at nation-state level, which are referred to as the central government, national government, or federal government...

, school boards

School board (England & Wales)

School boards were public bodies in England and Wales between 1870 and 1902, which established and administered elementary schools.School boards were created in boroughs and parishes under the Elementary Education Act 1870 following campaigning by George Dixon, Joseph Chamberlain and the National...

(see London School Board

London School Board

The School Board for London was an institution of local government and the first directly elected body covering the whole of London....

), and health authorities from the late nineteenth century. Their successes in these areas contributed to their acquiring parliamentary suffrage.

Environment

The following quote may serve to vividly portray the environment within which political feminism arose in the United Kingdom. This passage is excerpted from a treatise on international commercial law

International commercial law

International commercial law is the body of law that governs international sale transactions. A transaction will qualify to be international if elements of more than one country are involved....

from a section describing conditions under which a person may be considered unable to enter into a commercial contract. Following the discussion of individuals unfit due to "want of understanding" - covering minors

Minor (law)

In law, a minor is a person under a certain age — the age of majority — which legally demarcates childhood from adulthood; the age depends upon jurisdiction and application, but is typically 18...

as well as "lunatics and drunkards" is a heading covering individuals unable due to "want of free-will": married women.

Early political movement

Both before and after the 1832 Reform Act there were some who advocated that women should have the right to vote. After the enactment of the Reform Act enactment the MP Henry Hunt

Henry Hunt (politician)

Henry "Orator" Hunt was a British radical speaker and agitator remembered as a pioneer of working-class radicalism and an important influence on the later Chartist movement. He advocated parliamentary reform and the repeal of the Corn Laws.Hunt was born in Upavon, Wiltshire and became a prosperous...

argued that any woman who was single, a tax payer and had sufficient property should be allowed to vote. One such wealthy woman, Mary Smith, was used in this speech as an example.

Lily Maxwell was the first woman to vote in Britain in 1867 after the Great Reform Act of 1832. The act had explicitly excluded all women from the voting in national elections by using the term "male" rather than "person" in its wording. Maxwell, a shop owner, met the property qualifications that otherwise would have made her eligible to vote had she been male. In error, however, her name had been added to the election register and on that basis she succeeded in voting in a by-election - her vote however was later declared illegal by the Court of Common Pleas

Court of Common Pleas (England)

The Court of Common Pleas, or Common Bench, was a common law court in the English legal system that covered "common pleas"; actions between subject and subject, which did not concern the king. Created in the late 12th to early 13th century after splitting from the Exchequer of Pleas, the Common...

. The case, however, gave women's suffrage campaigners great publicity.

The Chartist Movement, which began in the late 1830s, has also been suggested to have included supporters of female suffrage. There is some evidence to suggest William Lovett

William Lovett

William Lovett was a British activist who was a leader of the political movement Chartism as well as one of the leading London-based Artisan Radicals of his generation....

, one of the authors of the People's Charter

Chartism

Chartism was a movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century, between 1838 and 1859. It takes its name from the People's Charter of 1838. Chartism was possibly the first mass working class labour movement in the world...

wished to include female suffrage as one of the campaign's demands but chose not to on the grounds that this would delay the implementation of the charter. Although there were female Chartists, they largely worked toward universal male suffrage. At this time most women did not have aspirations to gain the vote.

Outside pressure for women's suffrage was at this time diluted by feminist issues in general. Women's rights were becoming increasingly prominent in the 1850s as some women in higher social spheres refused to obey the sex roles dictated to them. Feminist goals at this time included the right to sue an ex-husband after divorce (achieved in 1857) and the right for married women to own property (fully achieved in 1882 after some concession by the government in 1870).

The issue of parliamentary reform declined along with the Chartists after 1848 and only reemerged with the election of John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill was a British philosopher, economist and civil servant. An influential contributor to social theory, political theory, and political economy, his conception of liberty justified the freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state control. He was a proponent of...

in 1865. He ran for office showing direct support for female suffrage and was an MP in the run up to the second Reform Act.

Early suffragist societies

In the same year that John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill

was elected, the first Ladies Discussion Society was formed, debating whether women should be involved in public affairs. Although a society for suffrage was proposed, this was turned down on the grounds that it might be taken over by extremists.

However, later that year Leigh Smith Bodichon formed the first Women's Suffrage Committee and within a fortnight collected 1,500 signatures in favour of female suffrage in advance to the second Reform Bill.

The Manchester Suffrage Committee was founded in February 1867. The secretary, Lydia Becker

Lydia Becker

Lydia Ernestine Becker was a leader in the early British suffrage movement, as well as an amateur scientist with interests in biology and astronomy...

, wrote letters both to Prime Minister

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...

Benjamin Disraeli and to The Spectator

The Spectator

The Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...

. She was also involved with the London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

group, and organized the collection of more signatures.

However, in June the London group split, partly a result of party allegiance, and partly the result of tactical issues. Conservative

Conservatism

Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...

members wished to move slowly to avoid alarming public opinion, while Liberals

Liberalism

Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...

generally opposed this apparent dilution of political conviction. As a result, Helen Taylor

Helen Taylor (feminist)

Helen Taylor was an English feminist, writer and actress. She was the daughter of Harriet Taylor Mill and stepdaughter of John Stuart Mill. Raised at home by a mother, she went to the stage in 1856-1858. After the death of her mother, she lived and worked with John Stuart Mill. Together they...

founded the London National Society for Women's Suffrage which set up strong links with Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

and Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

.

Although these early splits left the movement divided and sometimes leaderless, it allowed Lydia Becker to have a stronger influence.

Women's political groups

Although women's political party groups were not formed with the aim to achieve women's suffrage, they did have two key effects. Firstly, they showed women who were members to be competent in the political arena and as this became clear, secondly, it brought the concept of female suffrage closer to acceptance.

The Primrose League

Primrose League

The Primrose League was an organisation for spreading Conservative principles in Great Britain. It was founded in 1883 and active until the mid 1990s...

was set up to promote Conservative values through social events and supporting the community. As women were able to join, this gave females of all classes the ability to mix with local and national political figures. Many also had important roles such as bringing voters to the polls. This removed segregation and promoted political literacy amongst women.

The Women's Liberal Associations

Although there is evidence to suggest that they were originally formed to promote female franchise (the first being in Bristol

Bristol

Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

in 1881), WLAs often did not hold such an agenda. They did, however, operate independently from the male groups. They became more active when they came under the control of the Women's Liberal Federation

Women's Liberal Federation

The Women's Liberal Federation was an organisation which was part of the Liberal Party in the United Kingdom during the 1880s.During this period women became more active in politics. The Women's Liberal Federation attempted to make the Liberal Party introduce a measure which gave women the vote...

, and canvassed all classes for support of women's suffrage.

External groups

The campaign first developed into a national movement in the 1870s. At this point, all campaigners were suffragists, not suffragette

Suffragette

"Suffragette" is a term coined by the Daily Mail newspaper as a derogatory label for members of the late 19th and early 20th century movement for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, in particular members of the Women's Social and Political Union...

s. The term suffragette is only used to describe those who used violent protest, although the term is widely misused to describe all campaigners. Up until 1903, all campaigning took the constitutional approach. It was after the defeat of the first Women's Suffrage Bill That the Manchester and London committees joined together to gain wider support. The main methods of doing so at this time involved lobbying MPs to put forward Private Member's Bills. However such bills rarely pass and so this was an ineffective way of actually achieving the vote.

In 1868, local groups amalgamated to form a series of close-knit groups with the founding of the National Society for Women's Suffrage (NSWS). This is notable as the first attempt to create a unified front to propose women's suffrage, but had little effect due to several splits, once again weakening the campaign.

Up until 1897, the campaign stayed at this relatively ineffective level. Campaigners came predominantly from the landed classes and joined together on a small scale only. However, 1897 saw the foundation of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies

National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies

The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies , also known as the Suffragists was an organisation of women's suffrage societies in the United Kingdom.-Formation and campaigning:...

(NUWSS) by Millicent Fawcett

Millicent Fawcett

Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett, GBE was an English suffragist and an early feminist....

. This society linked smaller groups together and also put pressure on non supportive MPs using various peaceful methods. Founded in 1903, the WSPU, headed by the Pankhursts, and its militant tactics (demonstrations, stone-throwing, arson, window-smashing, hunger-strikes) was also considered to have been extremely influential to the cause - drawing attention to the necessity for change through their continued presence in the public eye.

The Cat and Mouse Act

Cat and Mouse Act

The Prisoners Act 1913 was an Act of Parliament passed in Britain under Herbert Henry Asquith's Liberal government in 1913...

was passed by the British government in an attempt to prevent suffragettes from obtaining public sympathy; it provided the release of those whose hunger strikes had brought them sickness, as well as their re-imprisonment once they had recovered.

The greater suffrage efforts halted with the outbreak of WWI. While some activity continued, Emmeline and Sylvia Pankhurst, convinced that Germany posed a danger to all humanity, convinced the extremely influential WSPU to halt all militant suffrage activity.

During World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, a serious shortage of able-bodied men ("manpower") occurred, and women were required to take on many of the traditional male roles. This led to a new view of what a woman was capable of doing. Political movement towards women's suffrage began during the war and in 1918, the Parliament of the United Kingdom

Parliament of the United Kingdom

The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...

passed an act granting the vote to: women over the age of 30 who were householders, the wives of householders, occupiers of property with an annual rent of £5, and graduates of British universities. Finally, women in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

achieved suffrage on the same terms as men in 1928.

Women in prominent roles

Emmeline Pankhurst

Emmeline Pankhurst was a British political activist and leader of the British suffragette movement which helped women win the right to vote...

was a key figure in the women's suffrage movement. Pankhurst, along side her two daughters, Christabel and Sylvia, founded and led the Women's Social and Political Union, and organization which was focused on direct action to win the vote. Her husband, Richard Pankhurst, also supported women suffrage ideas since he was the author of the first British woman suffrage bill and the Married Women’s Property Acts in 1870 and 1882. After her husband’s death, Emmeline decided to move to the forefront of the suffrage battle. Along with her two daughters, Christabel Pankhurst

Christabel Pankhurst

Dame Christabel Harriette Pankhurst, DBE , was a suffragette born in Manchester, England. A co-founder of the Women's Social and Political Union , she directed its militant actions from exile in France from 1912 to 1913. In 1914 she became a fervent supporter of the war against Germany...

and Sylvia Pankhurst

Sylvia Pankhurst

Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst was an English campaigner for the suffragist movement in the United Kingdom. She was for a time a prominent left communist who then devoted herself to the cause of anti-fascism.-Early life:...

, she joined the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). With her experience with this organization, Emmeline founded the Women's Franchise League

Women's Franchise League

The Women's Franchise League was an organisation created by the suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst together with her husband Richard in 1889, fourteen years before the creation of the Women's Social and Political Union in 1903....

in 1889 and the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1903. Frustrated with years of government inactivity and false promises, the WSPU adopted a militant stance, which was so influential it was later imported into suffrage struggles worldwide, most notably by Alice Paul in the United States. After many years of struggle and adversity, women finally gained suffrage but Emmeline died shortly after this.

Another key figure was Millicent Fawcett

Millicent Fawcett

Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett, GBE was an English suffragist and an early feminist....

. She had a peaceful approach to issues presented to the organizations and the way to get points across to society. She supported the Married Women's Property Act and the social purity campaign. Two events influenced her to become even more involved: her husband’s death and the division of the suffrage movement over the issue of affiliation with political parties. Millicent, who supported staying independent of political parties, made sure that the parts separated came together to become stronger by working together. Because of her actions, she was made president of the NUWSS. In 1910-1912, she supported a bill to give vote rights to single and widowed females of a household. By supporting the British in World War I, she thought women would be recognized as a prominent part of Europe and deserved basic rights such as voting. Millicent Fawcett came from a radical family. Her sister was Elizabeth Garrett Anderson

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, LSA, MD , was an English physician and feminist, the first woman to gain a medical qualification in Britain and the first female mayor in England.-Early life:...

an English physician and feminist, and the first woman to gain a medical qualification in Britain. Elizabeth was elected mayor of Aldeburgh

Aldeburgh

Aldeburgh is a coastal town in Suffolk, East Anglia, England. Located on the River Alde, the town is notable for its Blue Flag shingle beach and fisherman huts where freshly caught fish are sold daily, and the Aldeburgh Yacht Club...

in 1908 and gave speeches for suffrage.

Emily Davies

Emily Davies

Sarah Emily Davies was an English feminist, suffragist and a pioneering campaigners fore women's rights to university access. She was born in Southampton, England to an evangelical clergyman and a teacher in 1830, although she spent most of her youth in Gateshead...

became an editor of a feminist publication, Englishwoman's Journal. She expressed her feminist ideas on paper and was also a major supporter and influential figure during the twentieth century. In addition to suffrage, she supported more rights for women such as access to education. She wrote works and had power with words. She wrote texts such as Thoughts on Some Questions Relating to Women in 1910 and Higher Education for Women in 1866. She was a large supporter in the times where organizations were trying to reach people for a change. With her was a friend named Barbara Bodichon

Barbara Bodichon

Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon was an English educationalist, artist, and a leading early nineteenth century feminist and activist for women's rights.-Early life:...

who also published articles and books such as Women and Work (1857), Enfranchisement of Women (1866), and Objections to the Enfranchisement of Women (1866), and American Diary in 1872.

Suffrage as a sex war

The campaign for suffrage was closely tied to what many referred to as a sex war between men and women. With the feminist movement, and suffrage in particular, women were rebelling against historical male sexual tyranny and their historical objectification in British society. No longer willing to be defined solely by their biology, women craved to rid British society of the separate sphere ideology [public vs. private], which led to their powerlessness in both spheres . Women devoted themselves to the Cause of acquiring the right to vote on issues of importance to their country, despite direct individual repercussions - societal contempt and ridicule and mistreatment (at time sexually) at the hands of men that sought to contain them. In doing so, the suffragettes simultaneously sought to free themselves of their culturally imposed sexual identity.

The militant actions of the suffragettes were direct responses to a real sex war The suffrage movement campaigned against the forced conscription of women to a sexual identity through the withholding of her education and her right to vote. As Kent discusses, the Contagious Disease Acts "crystallized for women their status as sexual objects" (9) and illustrated the double standard and male vice embedded in Victorian society (8-9). It sought to accomplish this task by providing women opportunities which would establish them as individuals: in education and employment; in the rights to own property or obtain a divorce; in the right to vote. However, before acquiring these rights, the suffragettes would have to engage in an epic sex war, one which was often fought on the individual women's body. As the militant suffragette, Emily Wilding Davison, depicts, suffragettes willingly sacrificed their bodies and their reputations for the Cause in order to achieve the "Pearl of Freedom for her sex" .

As Elizabeth Robbins, an influential suffragette and writer, depicts in her novel The Convert, responses to their protests were met with sexual humiliation at the hands of both men and the police . This sentiment of sexual-antagonism pervaded much of the suffragette struggle. Men, when threatened with female power (militancy) and the potential for female liberation, took to sexual humiliation as a tool against the movement. The suffragettes of that time period, were seemingly made aware of this element upon recruitment, despite it being noticeably absent from contemporary historical accounts of the period . Robbins explains that this was how the movement got many wives and mothers to join the Cause: older women felt the need to protect the younger generation against that sort of treatment . This was particularly meaningful given the time period in which it occurred. Patriarchal society used the tools of sex-antagonism and sex-humiliation as a means of containment for the spread of the Suffrage movement, even during the early years of the new century.

Hunger striking and force-feeding, particularly, were undertaken by individual people and served as points of battle carried out on the individual body. Starting in the summer of 1909, Suffragettes employed the hunger-strike as a method of protest while they served time in British prisons against the government that imprisoned and mistreated them. Hunger striking, as Jane Marcus points out, was a way for the British women to refuse her role of mother and nurturer of the country . Authorities responded to their protest with force-feeding, an invasive and painful procedure performed within the confines of their cells. The resistance of the suffragettes to this procedure caused such encounters to be extremely violent and painful in nature - prisoners were held down while their mouths were pried open and instrumentation for force-feeding was shoved into their throats by male doctors. Looking to the firsthand accounts of the force-feedings, as evident in June Purvis' work, The Prison Experiences of the Suffragettes, one can easily start to see where this form of response took on a quality of rape. This element of forced sexuality was exacerbated in the incidents when these forcible feedings were conducted through the rectum or vagina of the prisoners . So great was the trauma of such an experience, that several women were permanently scarred - mentally and/or physically.

Timeline

1818 - Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham was an English jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer. He became a leading theorist in Anglo-American philosophy of law, and a political radical whose ideas influenced the development of welfarism...

advocates female suffrage in his book "A Plan for Parliamentary Reform"
1832 – Great Reform Act - confirmed the exclusion of women from the electorate.
1851 - The Sheffield Female Political Association
Sheffield Female Political Association
The Sheffield Female Political Association was the first women's suffrage organisation in the United Kingdom.The group was founded in February 1851 by several Sheffield women who were also active in the Chartist movement, led by Anne Kent and Anne Knight...

is founded and submits a petition calling for women's suffrage to the House of Lords.
1864 - The first Contagious Disease Act is passed in England, which is intended to control venereal disease by having prostitutes and women believed to be prostitutes be locked away in hospitals for examination and treatment. When information broke to the general public about the shocking stories of male brutality and vice in these hospitals, Josephine Butler
Josephine Butler
Josephine Elizabeth Butler was a Victorian era British feminist who was especially concerned with the welfare of prostitutes...

launched a campaign to get them repealed. Many have since argued that Butler's campaign destroyed the conspiracy of silence around sexuality and forced women to act in protection of others of their gender. In doing so, clear linkages emerge between the Suffrage movement and Butler's campaign .
1865 – John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill was a British philosopher, economist and civil servant. An influential contributor to social theory, political theory, and political economy, his conception of liberty justified the freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state control. He was a proponent of...

elected as an MP showing direct support for women's suffrage.
1867 – Second Reform Act - Male franchise extended to 2.5 million
1883 – Conservative Primrose League
Primrose League
The Primrose League was an organisation for spreading Conservative principles in Great Britain. It was founded in 1883 and active until the mid 1990s...

formed.
1884 - Third Reform Act - Male electorate doubled to 5 million
1889 - Women's Franchise League
Women's Franchise League
The Women's Franchise League was an organisation created by the suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst together with her husband Richard in 1889, fourteen years before the creation of the Women's Social and Political Union in 1903....

established.
1894 – Local Government Act (women who owned property could vote in local elections, become Poor Law Guardians, act on School Boards)
1897 – National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies NUWSS formed (led by Millicent Fawcett
Millicent Fawcett
Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett, GBE was an English suffragist and an early feminist....

).
1903 – Women's Social and Political Union WSPU is formed (led by Emmeline Pankhurst
Emmeline Pankhurst
Emmeline Pankhurst was a British political activist and leader of the British suffragette movement which helped women win the right to vote...

)
1904 – Militancy begins. Emmeline Pankhurst
Emmeline Pankhurst
Emmeline Pankhurst was a British political activist and leader of the British suffragette movement which helped women win the right to vote...

interrupts a Liberal Party meeting .
February 1907 – NUWSS "Mud March (Suffragists)
Mud March (Suffragists)
The Mud March of 7 February 1907 was the first large procession organized by the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies . Over 3,000 women trudged through the cold and the rutty streets of London from Hyde Park to Exeter Hall to advocate for women’s suffrage.Millicent Fawcett, the renowned...

" – largest open air demonstration ever held (at that point)- over 3000 women took part. In this year, women were admitted to the register to vote in and stand for election to principal local authorities.
1907 The Artists' Suffrage League
Artists' Suffrage League
The Artists' Suffrage League was one of several suffrage societies founded in this period. The period between 1903 and 1914 was one of resurgence in the women's suffrage movement...

founded
1907 The Women's Freedom League
Women's Freedom League
The Women's Freedom League was an organisation in the United Kingdom which campaigned for women's suffrage and sexual equality.The group was founded in 1907 by seventy members of the Women's Social and Political Union including Teresa Billington-Greig, Charlotte Despard, Elizabeth How-Martyn, and...

founded
1908 - in November of this year, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, LSA, MD , was an English physician and feminist, the first woman to gain a medical qualification in Britain and the first female mayor in England.-Early life:...

, a member of the small municipal borough
Borough
A borough is an administrative division in various countries. In principle, the term borough designates a self-governing township although, in practice, official use of the term varies widely....

of Aldeburgh
Aldeburgh
Aldeburgh is a coastal town in Suffolk, East Anglia, England. Located on the River Alde, the town is notable for its Blue Flag shingle beach and fisherman huts where freshly caught fish are sold daily, and the Aldeburgh Yacht Club...

, Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...

, was selected as mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

of that town, the first woman so to serve.
1907, 1912, 1914 – major splits in WSPU
1905, 1908, 1913 – 3 phases of WSPU militancy (Civil Disobedience – Destruction of Public Property – Arson/Bombings)
5 July 1909 – Marion Wallace Dunlop
Marion Wallace Dunlop
Marion Wallace Dunlop was the first British suffragette to go on hunger strike, on 5 July 1909, after being arrested in July 1909 for militancy....

went on the first hunger strike – was released after 91 hours of fasting
1909 The Women’s Tax Resistance League founded
September 1909 – Force feeding
Force-feeding
Force-feeding is the practice of feeding a person or an animal against their will. "Gavage" is supplying a nutritional substance by means of a small plastic tube passed through the nose or mouth into the stomach, not explicitly 'forcibly'....

introduced to hunger strikers in English prisons
1910 – Lady Constance Lytton disguised herself as a working class seamstress, Jane Wharton, and was arrested and endured force feeding to prove prejudice in prisons against working class women. Lady Lytton was instrumental in reforming conditions in prisons. The brutal force feeding she was subjected to is believed to have shortened her life span considerably
February 1910 – Cross-Party Conciliation Committee (54 MPs). Conciliation Bill (that would enfranchise women) passed its 2nd reading by a majority of 109 but Asquith refused to give it more parliamentary time
November 1910 – Herbert Henry Asquith changed Bill to enfranchise more men instead of women
18 November 1910 – Black Friday
Black Friday (1910)
Black Friday was a women's suffrage event in the United Kingdom on 18 November 1910.Although the Conciliation Bill, which would extend the right of women to vote in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to around 1,000,000 wealthy, property-owning women, got to its second reading, British...
October 1912 - George Lansbury
George Lansbury
George Lansbury was a British politician, socialist, Christian pacifist and newspaper editor. He was a Member of Parliament from 1910 to 1912 and from 1922 to 1940, and leader of the Labour Party from 1932 to 1935....

, Labour MP, resigned his seat in support of women's suffrage
February 1913 – David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British Liberal politician and statesman...

's house burned down by WSPU He had previously supported the movement in private – but it wasn't until after the war he could justify his support for votes for women.
April 1913 – Cat and Mouse Act
Cat and Mouse Act
The Prisoners Act 1913 was an Act of Parliament passed in Britain under Herbert Henry Asquith's Liberal government in 1913...

passed, allowing hunger-striking prisoners to be released when their health was threatened and then re-arrested when they had recovered
4 June 1913 – Emily Davison
Emily Davison
Emily Wilding Davison was a militant women's suffrage activist who, on 4 June 1913, after a series of actions that were either self-destructive or violent, stepped in front of a horse running in the Epsom Derby, sustaining injuries that resulted in her death four days later.-Biography:Davison was...

walked in front of, and was subsequently trampled and killed by, the King’s Horse at the Epsom Derby
Epsom Derby
The Derby Stakes, popularly known as The Derby, internationally as the Epsom Derby, and under its present sponsor as the Investec Derby, is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies...

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13 March 1914 – Mary Richardson
Mary Richardson
Mary Raleigh Richardson was a Canadian suffragette active in the women's suffrage movement in the United Kingdom and later the head of the women's section of British Union of Fascists led by Sir Oswald Mosley....

slashed the Rokeby Venus painted by Diego Velázquez
Diego Velázquez
Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez was a Spanish painter who was the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV. He was an individualistic artist of the contemporary Baroque period, important as a portrait artist...

in the National Gallery
National Gallery, London
The National Gallery is an art museum on Trafalgar Square, London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The gallery is an exempt charity, and a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media...

with an axe, protesting that she was maiming a beautiful woman just as the government was maiming Emmeline Pankhurst
Emmeline Pankhurst
Emmeline Pankhurst was a British political activist and leader of the British suffragette movement which helped women win the right to vote...

with force feeding
4 August 1914 – First World War declared in Britain. WSPU activity immediately ceased. NUWSS activity continued peacefully - The Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

branch of the organization continued to lobby Parliament and write letters to MPs.
1918 – The Representation of the People Act of 1918
Representation of the People Act 1918
The Representation of the People Act 1918 was an Act of Parliament passed to reform the electoral system in the United Kingdom. It is sometimes known as the Fourth Reform Act...

enfranchised women over the age of 30 who were either a member or married to a member of the Local Government Register.
1928 – Women received the vote on equal terms as men (over the age of 21) as a result of the Representation of the People Act 1928
Representation of the People Act 1928
The Representation of the People Act 1928 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. This act expanded on the Representation of the People Act 1918 which had given some women the vote in Parliamentary elections for the first time after World War I. It widened suffrage by giving women...

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External links

The struggle for democracy - information on the suffragettes at the British Library learning website
Sources for the Study of Women's Suffrage in Sheffield, UK Produced by Sheffield City Council's Libraries and Archives.

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