Lecture Three

Culture of English Language Area

Lecture Three

Women's Franchise

1860's

Key words:
Odd women
Franchise
Suffragists and suffragettes

John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor “On the Subjection of Women” is published in 1869.

*few minutes of a film about ^*

J.S. Mill was one of the first social critics who actually started to fight to process to give woman
voice in parliament.

1870 – Richard Pankhurst – called parliament the most-outdated institution of Europe and House of
Lords a slaughter-house. - petitions Parliament to give women rights (Oh the Irony)
Suffragi
1884- all men can vote, women can manage their property after their marriage
1894- women receive the right to participate in local elections.
The Cause:
Millicent Fawcett -1897 – The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (Demonstrations,
Petitions) (Suffragists)
Emmeline Pankhurst – The Women's Social and Political Union (1903) – Very Radical. Real
Revolutionaries (Terrorists) (Suffragettes)

Suffragists
Used peaceful and constitutional means.
They:
Wrote letters
Wrote articles and journals
Produced petitions
Held public meetings
Tried to gain the support of MPs

Suffragettes
Used more provocative methods. They:
Heckled (asked waaaaaaaaaaaay to many questions) and broke up political meetings
Smashed windows
Made personal attacks on MPs
Went on hunger strikes when imprisoned
Sought publicity

Emily Davidson -First Martyr to the Cause- threw herself under the hooves of King's Horse

1918 – vote given to all men over 21 and women over 30 who are householders or the wives of
householders
1928 – women are given the vote on equal terms to men