Suffragette facts for kids

Annie Kenney and Christabel Pankhurst used violent tactics in Britain as members of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU)

A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members of the British Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), a women-only movement founded in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst. In 1906, a reporter writing in the Daily Mail coined the term suffragette for the WSPU, derived from suffragist (any person advocating for voting rights), in order to belittle the women advocating women's suffrage. The militants embraced the new name, even adopting it for use as the title of the newspaper published by the WSPU.

Colours of the suffragette movement. Purple represents loyalty and dignity, white for purity, and green for hope.

Women had won the right to vote in several countries by the end of the 19th century; in 1893, New Zealand became the first self-governing country to grant the vote to all women over the age of 21. When by 1903 women in Britain had not been enfranchised, Pankhurst decided that women had to "do the work ourselves"; the WSPU motto became "deeds, not words". The suffragettes heckled politicians, tried to storm parliament, were attacked during battles with the police, chained themselves to railings, smashed windows, carried out a nationwide bombing and arson campaign, and faced anger and ridicule in the media. When imprisoned they went on hunger strike, not eating for days or even a week, to which the government responded by force-feeding them. The first suffragette to be force fed was Evaline Hilda Burkitt. The death of one suffragette, Emily Davison, when she ran in front of the king's horse at the 1913 Epsom Derby, made headlines around the world. The WSPU campaign had varying levels of support from within the suffragette movement; breakaway groups formed, and within the WSPU itself not all members supported the direct action.

The suffragette campaign was suspended when World War I broke out in 1914. After the war, the Representation of the People Act 1918 gave the vote to women over the age of 30 who met certain property qualifications. Ten years later, women gained electoral equality with men when the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928 gave all women the right to vote at age 21.

Related pages

• Women's suffrage
• Universal suffrage

Images for kids

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  Memorial edition of The Suffragette newspaper dedicated to Emily Davison

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  7 October 1913

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  Emmeline Pankhurst was the most prominent of Britain's suffragettes.

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  Poster by 'A Patriot', showing a suffragette prisoner being force-fed, 1910.

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  Memories of Winson Green Sep 18th 1909 ; Illustration from Mabel Cappers WSPU prisoners scrapbook

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  19 year old Fay Hubbard selling suffragette papers in New York, 1910

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  Pendant presented to Louise Eates in 1909

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  Vida Goldstein was the first woman in the British Empire to stand for election to a national parliament.

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  Constance, Countess Markievicz, was the first woman elected to the British House of Commons.

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  UK WSPU Hunger Strike Medal 30 July 1909 including the bar 'Fed by Force 17 September 1909'. The Medal awarded to Mabel Capper records the first instance of forcible feeding of hunger striking Suffragette prisoners in England at Winson Green Prison in Birmingham.

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  Portrait badge of Emmeline Pankhurst (c. 1909) sold in large numbers by the WSPU to raise funds

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  1910 Suffragette calendar held in the collections of the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Coventry

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  Suffragette Banner (c. 1910)

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  Votes for Women poster (1909)

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  WSPU poster (1914)

See also

In Spanish: Suffragette para niños