Effectiveness of Suffragists and Suffragettes

521 Words2 Pages

Effectiveness of Suffragists and Suffragettes

The suffragists and suffragettes campaigned for votes for women from

1906 to 1914. The suffragists campaigned politically, organising

petitions, marches and meetings. The suffragettes were violent

protesters, vandalising public property, private property, and men's

affairs. But how effective were these campaigns, of violence and

peace.

The suffragist's greatest achievement was arguably the introduction of

the conciliation bill. Whilst Asquith removed female suffrage from

this bill, the prime minister, it was the only bill to pass completely

through parliament without being blocked. This bill was undoubtedly

influenced by the long campaigns of suffragists.

A suffragist would probably not look back on this bill as their

greatest achievement because if was eventually blocked and made no

difference. A suffragist might look back on the funeral of Emily

Davidson, which was attended by suffragists and suffragettes in London

and created great publicity for the suffragist cause. This would be

because it was not a violent protest, which the suffragettes condemned

and was co-ordinated between suffragettes and suffragists and created

the most non-violent publicity in the 8 years of campaigning.

Suffragettes would also look back on the funeral and death of Emily

Davidson as their greatest achievement. Emily Davidson was an

important suffragette and her death created a martyr for the cause as

well as huge publicity for the suffragettes. Other achievements were

also very large but not as effective because the government didn't

want to give the vote to militants. Another great achievement of the

suffragettes was the force-feeding campaign. This created huge amounts

of sympathy for the suffragettes because force-feeding was a difficult

and painful experience for the force fed, and the suffragettes

exaggerated it ad exploited this endurance for sympathy. Many

suffragettes would consider it a great achievement because it caused

problems for the government in a militant manner.

The suffragettes possibly damaged the campaign for female suffrage

because the government vowed not to give in to militancy. Their

argument was that if they gave in to the suffragette's violence then

Open Document