The beginnings of WSPU

The start of the 20th Century was a turbulent time in British politics. Women had been actively campaigning for suffrage (the right to vote) nearly half a century and many were beginning to feel that their calls were going unheeded. In October 1903, frustrated by this lack of progress and under the leadership of Emmeline Pankhurst and her three daughters, some members of the NUWSS decided that more direct action was required. The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was born. With a motto of 'Deeds not Words' it was clear from the start that times were about to get more interesting...
Emmeline had been politically active throughout her adult life, part of numerous suffrage organisations and also a founding member of the Manchester Independent Labour Party (Scott- Baumann,2002). Initially the WSPU’s efforts were directed solely toward getting motions passed at Independent Labour Party branches urging the leadership to take action (Irving, 2010), and on May 12 1905 after much lobbying they had managed to get a Private Members Bill before the Commons. However, being at the bottom of the order paper it was never heard.
Summer 1905 saw Lancashire mill worker Annie Kenney recruited after she heard Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst addressing an ILP meeting on the subject of women's rights. Kenney soon became an active member of the group and on October 13 1905, Annie and Christabel attended a prominent Liberal Party meeting at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester. When their repeated question of “Will the Liberal Government give women the vote?” was ignored they strove more fiercely to be heard and were forcefully removed. During the struggle it is alleged that the women assaulted the police, and when outside the hall they still could not be silenced, they were arrested and taken to the Town Hall (Harrison, 2004).
This was the birth of the suffragettes' militant campaign lasting nine years. It included such acts as disruption of political meetings, threats to public order (including window breaking, attacks on politicians and railing chainings), hunger strikes and even attacks on property including churches and Westminster Abbey (Scott-Baumann, 2002). During this time the purple, white and green colours of the suffragettes, representing dignity, purity and hope became a familiar sight on the streets of central London.

Arrest of Suffragette (Fashion through history, 2014)

Millicent Fawcett (1847-1929) and the NUWSS

Following the death of Lydia Becker in 1890 the women's suffrage movement lacked the national cohesion and co-ordination that her understated yet effective direction had given it. Divsions between groups began to develop and there was no one to fill the void. in 1895 with a general election looming a loose alliance was formed between the two main London groups and some of the provincial organisations (Nationalarchives.go.uk, 2014). From here the seed for the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies or NUWSS was formed and in 1897 Millicent Fawcett brought together all of the existing women's rights and suffrage societies under this umbrella.

Millicent Fawcett (1847-1929)

Born in 1847 the daughter of wealthy parents and one of ten children (including Elizabeth Garrett Anderson later to become the first female doctor to qualify in the UK), Millicent was well educated and encouraged to take an interest in the social and political events of the day. This was further encouraged by her sisters when she would visit them in London and she soon became directly involved. She met several radical politicians including Liberal MP Henry Fawcett, whom she was to marry in 1867(Simkin, 2014). The following year she joined the London Suffrage Committee, directly joining the campaign that incredibly would occupy much of her time for over 50 years. She was a founding member of the NUWSS and was elected its president in 1907, a post she maintained until 1919.

The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS)


Established in 1897 the NUWSS leadership included women from diverse political and social backgrounds with one common goal - to secure the vote for women. Born out of a series of women's movements it began as a federation of several large local societies, acting primarily as a liaison and co-ordinator with no-power over it's members with a  broadly democratic constitution. From a start of just 17 member societies it developed to having over 50,000 members and 500 affiliated societies (Bl.uk, 2014). In contrast to WSPU they campaigned to peaceful and lawful means, creating petitions, lobbying parliament and individuals and raising public awareness with rallies and literature.
After women had been granted the vote in 1918 the organisation remained active and began to campaign for equal pay for women and a reform of divorce laws and many other women's rights issues.

The Beginning of a Movement

In the mid 19th Century attitudes towards women domestically, socially and politically were far removed from those we in the UK take for granted today, with many of these differences enshrined in both tradition and institutional and parliamentary law. At least since the publication of Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Woman in 1792 people had been arguing in support of women's rights and on the issue of women's suffrage (Van Wingerden, 1999).
What was it at this time that brought the issue to the attention of so many and sparked in earnest the campaign for electoral reform that would take nearly another seventy years to come to fruition? To try and answer this question it is necessary to look at the position of women in society as a whole.

Women in 1850 had virtually no civil rights. Legally a husband and wife were seen as one person with women denied rights to their earnings and their property becoming their husbands on marriage. It was only with the introduction of the Married Women's Property Acts in 1870 and 1882 that women were allowed to have their own property and income after they were married (Willis, 2006). Single women fared little better, ignored as they were by society which generally assumed that women would be supported by either their husbands or fathers, though they did at least have limited rights to person, property and income (Van Wingerden, 1999).

If women were not expected to be working or running the home there was yet one role in which they could not be marginalised - bearing children. Unfortunately this was used by many men as further reason for enforced indolence. Upper and middle class women were often expected to conserve their energies for childbirth and embrace the duties and obligations that motherhood conferred in the eyes of the male dominated society (Purvis, 1995). Working class women were still expected to maintain these roles even if in paid employment and their sphere was still firmly centred on the domestic.

Another fundamental point of argument was education. This had been the cornerstone of Mary Wollstonecraft's arguments 60 years earlier, but it was not to be until 1878 that London University became the first to offer degrees to women on equal terms with men. So, one of the major contributory factors in the rise of women's groups may well have been the seemingly abrupt beginning to the women's educational reform movement which began in the late 1840's, gathering momentum in the following two decades. Many of the resulting new generation of educated women were then keen to pursue a new feminist agenda (Purvis, 1995).

Employment was another place in society where gender inequality was ingrained. In 1851 there were very few roles for even the few educated middle and upper class women apart from occasional teaching positions (Willis, 2006). They were often restricted to a figurehead role managing servants and doing charity work, particularly in light of the ongoing industrial revolution which was increasing leisure time for many. Some argue "that the withdrawal of middle-class women... into lives of domesticity created the free time, the sociability and the resentments that gave rise to early feminism and the suffrage movement" (Purvis,1995). It is also postulated that as working class women started to gain paid employment in manual jobs, for example in the Lancashire mills, that their role in society was strengthened (Willis, 2006).

Key Events up to formation of WSPU

1851 -The Earl of Carlisle presented a petition for Women's Franchise to the House of Lords.

1856 -Barbara Bodichon formed the Women's Suffrage Committee with the aim of petitioning Parliament to establish a Married Women's Property Bill. Though unsuccessful this gave birth to the Langham Place Movement.


1857 -  The Matrimonial Causes Act allowed a husband to divorce his wife if adultery can be proved.

1866- On June 7th John Stuart Mill presented the Women's Suffrage Petition with almost 1500 signatures to the house of commons.
The issue of women's suffrage was raised in the house of commons but to no avail. From 1870 onwards bills in favour of women's suffrage were presented to parliament on an almost annual basis.

1882  - The Married Property Act meant a husband was no longer entitled to all his wives possessions and earnings on marriage.

1894 - Married women were given the right to vote in local elections and to become Local and Parish Councillors.

1897 - Under the leadership of Millicent Fawcett many regional societies merged to campaign peacefully for suffrage under the banner of the NUWSS (National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies - see blog post NUWSS).

1903 - Frustrated by the apparent lack of progress using peaceful tactics Emmeline Pankhurst and her family establish WSPU. (Women's Social and Political Union - see blog post WSPU).

A Vindication of the Rights of Women

In 1792 Mary Wollstonecraft published A Vindication of the Rights of Women. This 80,000+ word discourse is now considered by many as 'the founding text of Anglo-American feminism' (Kaplan, 1986). In it Wollstonecraft clearly puts forward the view that women at that time were being given a rough deal in society and examines both how and why she felt this was. One of her major areas of focus is the lack of equality in education which she blames for leaving her sex 'weak and wretched' (Wollstonecraft, 1792). Further to this it is argued that both sexes are socialised into the belief that women are inferior and that 'Men have further increased that inferiority till women are almost sunk below the standard of rational creatures'. It was not only men that were criticised in the work. She was also critical of many women whom she perceived to beat least perpetuating women's subservient roles if not endorsing them through acceptance and even encouragement of male dominance. It seems she felt it was every woman's duty to stand up and be counted and not be seen as merely a bauble or trophy to be shown off', stating that 'Elegance is inferior to virtue, that the first object of laudable ambition is to obtain a character as a human being, regardless of the distinction of sex'.
Some say that the work was a call to arms for women of the time. Wollstonecraft herself does not view the text in this manner, stating 'women must be educated so they may be reasonable, reasonable so they may be virtuous, virtuous so that all of society may be happier. There is no call to arms in Vindication, no call to take power.' This maybe the case, but there can be no denying that it's tone and subject matter were intended to make both men and women take notice and seriously consider women's positions and roles within society.