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How effective were the activities of the Suffragists?
The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) was founded in 1897 to unite most of
the existing suffrage societies that had sprung up over the nineteenth century. The aim of the groups
was to extend women's political rights. Led by Millicent Fawcett the campaign was peaceful and
dignified mostly using moderate and persuasion methods such as:
Peaceful, reasoned argument, meetings, issuing leaflets, and collecting petitions. (e.g. in 1910
the parliament were presented with 250,000 signatures in favour of women's suffrage.)
Met with politicians to argue their case.
In elections they supported candidates who were in favour of female suffrage.
They trained women to speak at public meetings.
In the 1906 elections they put forward male candidates to compete with Liberal politicians
who were opposed to female suffrage.
Processions (e.g. 1908 march on the Embankment to Royal Albert Hall had 13,000 marchers)
Example of NUWSS propaganda. In 1913 NUWSS spent
£45,000 on publicity
A picture from a
Millicent Fawcett is
addressing the crowd
Maintained respect and support due to
their peaceful actions and in comparison to
Benefitted from the contacts of male membership (and MP membership).
Nationwide membership kept the organisation running and meant they had a wide influence
over Britain (In 1914 there were 53,000 members).
Pre-war campaigning was important for bringing the issue to the foreground during the war.
The peaceful methods were easy to ignore. By 1905 they were largely being ignored by
The aims were too vague and varied not only on women suffrage.
Lost essential political support from Liberals in 1910 so switched attention to the labour
party in 1912 who seemed more in favour of their cause.
The war drew attention away from the campaign.
Both Prime ministers, Asquith and Lloyd George, were opposed to women's suffrage. Even
Queen Victoria was!
The work of the NUWSS appeared to have paid off as a proposal had gone through parliament every
year since it had been formed. However these had all been rejected suggesting that the long steady
campaign was unable to provide the energy and persuasion needed for women to get the vote.
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In the 19th century no female had the right to vote in a General Election and a woman could
not stand as a prospective MP. However, important changes were taking place in Britain at
this time and the issue of women's rights generally began to figure more prominently. It was
recognised that women needed an issue to unite them in their fight for equality and the
focus for the women became the right to vote. Women did have a common cause but the
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LLOYD GEORGE…read more