Nineteenth Century changes
women had few civil or political rights.
A wife had to do as she was told by her husband, who was her
protector and adviser. Until
1884 a wife was officially listed as one of her husband’s possessions.
In addition, Victorian women were expected to live up to an image
of ‘the perfect being’ – beautiful, demure, loving and intelligent.
Many women actively agreed with this attitude (Source A).
the 19th century progressed, women were given a number of civil
rights, including the right to vote in local elections (Source B).
But by 1900 they had still not been given the right to vote in
A Haselden cartoon from 1907 imagining the 'perfect' wife
How women were expected to behave - a very difficult essay by an expert in women's history
An old GCSE sourcework question.
(song from Mary Poppins)
Sister Suffragette (song from Mary Poppins)
(American suffragettes - includes graphic scene of force-feeding)
Iron-Jawed Angels (American suffragettes - includes graphic scene of force-feeding)
Detailed narrative - dull
What did the Suffragettes do? - a list of actions
What did the Suffragettes do? - a passage from Constance Rover.
Suffragettes in prison - extracts from a (v difficult) article by Jane Purvis
1866, a number of women took a petition, signed by 1,500 women and asking
for the vote, to Parliament, where two of the handful of pro-vote MPs
presented it. In 1897,
the various women’s societies joined together into the National Union of
Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS).
These ‘Suffragists’ as they were called, campaigned peacefully
for the vote. Although
the number of pro-suffrage MPs in the House of Commons grew, the
Suffragists got nowhere.
In 1903, therefore, Emmeline Pankhurst formed the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU - see Source a.). The ‘Suffragettes’, as they came to be called, were much more militant. They held mass-meetings, sent deputation to 10 Downing Street, interrupted from the Ladies Gallery during debates in the House of Commons and - eventually - burned, bombed and smashed to try to get the vote.