Page 87 - All About History - Issue 12-14

The militant battle for women’s rights

WSPU organiser Laura Ainsworth wrote to Dunlop about difference in the treatment of prisoners depending
her own experiences of being force-fed in Birmingham in on their class. Having previously been arrested and
September of that year. She described how her head was deemed not healthy enough for forcible feeding on
forced back, her mouth forced open, and tube pushed “down account of her heart, she was arrested in disguise under
your mouth about 18 inches; while this is being done you first the name of Jane Wharton. The prison doctor determined
have a very great tickling sensation, then a choking feeling, that ‘Jane’ was perfectly healthy and ready for forcible feeding.
and then you feel quite stunned.” A gag was then forced Her brother, Lord Lytton, wrote a letter to The Times newspaper
between her teeth, and “about a pint” of food poured down detailing exactly what his sister had been through. It was
the tube. “I know I must have looked as if I was being hurt embarrassing for the establishment, but not enough for the
because of the wardresses’ faces”, wrote Ainsworth. status quo to change.
The practice of forcible feeding caused fierce debate in the In 1910, it looked like a solution might be near. The
press and became another rallying point for the suffragettes. Conciliation Committee had been formed with the purpose of
In a concerted effort to become more visible and to ensure finding some middle ground under the guidance of Millicent
arrest, a glass-smashing campaign began. In October 1909, Garrett Fawcett’s NUWSS and the WSPU agreed to a truce.
12 suffragettes were arrested for smashing panes of glass in The Conciliation Bill passed two readings in the Commons but
Newcastle and by November the imprisoned women were when Parliament broke down on 18 November with no progress
reporting incidents on the horrors of forcible feeding. It was on the bill, Emmeline Pankhurst made good on her promise to
splashed all over the front pages, but opinion was still divided. march on the House of Commons with 300 women. They were
In this combustible situation women like Emily Wilding met by a violent police force; the unarmed suffragettes were
Davison became notorious. Davison was one of the punched, kicked, hurled to the ground and groped by officers.
most dedicated of the militant suffragettes and prone to 200 women were arrested and two died as a result of injuries
spontaneous action, and it was clear that even the Pankhursts sustained, including Pankhurst’s sister Mary Jane Clarke.
endorsed her with a degree of caution. In Strangeways Prison Despite the national press coverage of this shocking brutality,
in October 1909, Davison blocked the door to her cell, at which Churchill refused to allow an investigation, describing the
point the prison guards fired a fire hose at her through the suffragettes’ claims as “a copious fountain of mendacity.”
window of her cell, after which she was force-fed in another
example of institutionalised brutality. “ We have blown up Mary Leigh
Davison was just one of the many women who reported the was one of
violent treatment that they were put through. Lady Constance the Chancellor of the the most
Exchequer’s house to suffragettes
Lytton was determined to test the claim that there was no dedicated
militant
wake him up”

when did women get the vote?

France 21 April 1944 Finland 1906-1907 New Zealand
Religion played a significant part in In 1906, Finland became the second 19 September 1893
the struggle for women’s suffrage country in the world to grant New Zealand granted women the
in France, as right-wing politicians universal suffrage to its citizens. right to vote following a petition a
claimed that female activists could Only a year later, it became the year earlier. The suffragist movement
be swayed by the Catholic Church. first country in which women were travelled the country collecting
Finally, in 1944, General De Gaulle’s elected to parliament. signatures, presenting the parliament
provisional government stated that with a bill of over 30,000, rolling it
“women are voters and eligible under down the centre of the house.
the same conditions as men.”

Bombing Lloyd George’s house
On 18 February 1912, the suffragettes’ arson campaign USA
led them to a house being built for David Lloyd George. 18 August 1920
Two bombs were set on timers in the empty house, one After achieving women’s
going off before the workers arrived that morning. The suffrage in individual states,
it would not be achieved in
second remained unexploded. Emmeline Pankhurst took full until 1920 when the 19th
responsibility for the act, stating: “We have blown up the Amendment was passed, United Arab Emirates Australia 1902
Chancellor of the Exchequer’s house to wake him up.” The written by Susan B Anthony December 2006 Following the unification of
and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
police could not prove who planted the bombs, but sent The right of some women to vote Australia’s colonies in 1901, the
federal parliament established
in the United Arab Emirates was
Pankhurst to prison after she accepted responsibility. granted in 2006 but suffrage is not universal suffrage. However, Australia
universal. The right to vote is limited would not achieve universal suffrage
for both sexes, with only around 12 until 1962 when indigenous men and
per cent of the nation able to vote. women were allowed to vote.
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