WSPU v NUWSS

Despite having a common goal the NUWSS and WSPU had very different ideas about how to achieve it. The table below compares some of the key characteristics of their organisations.

Title	NUWSS – National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies	WSPU – Women’s Social and Political Union
Aims	Initially just to get the vote for women they expanded into campaigning for women’s rights in other aspects of life including domestic and employment issues.	Votes for Women
Tactics	Passive and Legal – They believed in achieving women’s suffrage through conventional means such as lobbying parliament and peaceful protest.	Militant – The vote would be won by any means necessary including violence. Campaigns included arson, vandalism and stone throwing.
Structure	Democratic and Constitutional – Decisions were usually voted on and the leadership had no authority over member organisations.	Autocratic – The Pankhursts had absolute control and were dismissive of any who did not agree with them. This led to splits, particularly with those who did not like some of the violent tactics such as the Pethick-Lawrences
Politics	Officially non-political, though many members were in some way connected to the Liberals - Millicent Fawcett had been married to Liberal MP Henry Fawcett. Also some Conservative connections. Later they were to form an alliance with Labour who had committed themselves to equality in the franchise.	Initially associated with the Independent Labour Party with whom some members had association they soon became at odds with most politicians by virtue of their violent tactics!
Membership	Open to all including men by 1914 had over 50,000 members.	Estimates are unclear but some say as high as 125,000 (Wikipedia, 2014)! No men allowed.
Colours	Red, White and Green	Purple, White and Green
Life	1897 to ? Continued to campaign on women’s rights issues after the vote had been won.	1903 to 1918 – With the vote granted to women there was no longer a need for their militant tactics.