Source Database
Section 10:Non-Violent Campaigns
(10.1) In 1900 Selina Cooper and the North of England Women’s Suffrage Society organised a petition that was only signed by women working in the Lancashire cotton mills. Over 29,000 women signed the following petition that was handed to Parliament on 18th March 1901.
(a).That in the opinion of your petitioners the continued denial of the franchise to women is unjust and inexpedient. (b) In the home, their position is lowered by such an exclusion from the responsibilities of national life. (c) In the factory, their unrepresented condition places the regulation of their work in the hands of men who are often their rivals as well as their fellow workers.
(10.2) In August 1909, Selina Cooper invited Charlotte Despard to speak to the Nelson Suffrage Society. Her speech was reported in the Colne and Nelson Times.
The suffragettes tried to present a petition… We simply went to the House of Commons in February last to assert our citizens’ rights. We did not obstruct anybody, but the police obstructed us. I was given a month’s imprisonment… We went again and again and we were not arrested, which shows we have gained some ground.
(10.3) On June 1908, the NUWSS and the WSPU organised massive demonstrations in London in favour of women’s suffrage. Elizabeth Robins described the event in her book Way Stations.
On June 21st an impressive historical and symbolical pageant, organised by the National Union of Suffrage Societies, marched through crowded, cheering streets from the Embankment to the Albert Hall. Under the chairmanship of the President, Mrs. Fawcett, a mass meeting was held of such size and enthusiasm as men of long political experience declared had seldom being equalled… A week later came the monster demonstration in Hyde Park, under the auspices of the Women’ Social and Political Union. The Times said of it: "Its organisers had counted on an audience of 250,000. The expectation was certainly fulfilled, and probably it was doubled, and it would be difficult to contradict anyone who asserted that it was trebled… The Daily Chronicle said: "Never, on the admission of the most experienced observers, has so vast a throng gathered in London to witness an outlay of political force."
(10.4) Isabella Ford explained in her booklet, Women and Socialism, why giving the vote to women would improve the quality of government.
The past subjection of women has so chastened women, so trained her to think of others rather than of herself, that after all it may have acted more as a blessing rather than a curse to the world? May it not bring her to the problems of the future with a purer aim and a keener insight than is possible for a man?
(10.5) In her book The Suffragette Movement, Sylvia Pankhurst described Mary Gawthorpe as being one of the most important figures in the women’s movement.
Mary Gawthorpe was a winsome merry creature, with bright hair and laughing hazel eyes, a face fresh and sweet as a flower, the dainty ways of a little bird, and having with all a shrewd tongue and so sparkling a fund of repartee, that she held dumb with astonished admiration, vast crowds of big, slow-thinking workmen and succeeded in winning to good-tempered appreciation the stubbornness opponents.
(10.6) In 1911, The Women’s Freedom League organised a boycott against the national census. Charlotte Despard announced the plan to fellow members in January 1911.
I am going to say ‘No, no. No vote, no information’, I am not going to tell whether I am a wife or a widow, whether I have had children or not, or the ages of those in my household, until I am a citizen.
(10.7) In her book Women’s Suffrage published in 1911, Millicent Garrett Fawcett compared the tactics of the NUWSS and the WSPU.
The NUWSS and the WSPU between 1905 and 1911 adopted different election policies… The WSPU cry in every election was "Keep the Liberal out," not, as they asserted, from party motives, but because the Government of the day, and the Government alone, had the power to pass a Suffrage Bill; and as long as any government declined to take up suffrage they would have to encounter all the opposition which the militants could command… The NUWSS adopted a different election policy – that of obtaining declarations of opinion from all candidates at each election and supporting the man, independent of party, who gave the most satisfactory assurances of support.
(10.8) In August 1913, Selina Copper wrote a letter to The Common Cause explaining why she believed women should have the vote.
One reason why I am a convinced suffragist is that the mothers (even as wage earners) take the greater share of the responsibility in the upbringing of their children; therefore, they ought to have the greater means, not the less, to enable them to do justice to the rising generation.
(10.9) In November 1913, Selina Cooper and Margaret Aldersley went to address an open-air meeting in Howarth on the subject of women’s suffrage. Selina’s daughter, Mary, observed what happened.
The men threw rotten eggs and tomatoes and all sorts of things… we sheltered in a café. Mrs. Aldersley went out and came back crying – covered with eggs and tomatoes… My mother went out, and she said, ‘I’m stopping here, whatever you throw, so go and fetch all the stuff you’ve got to throw, because,’ she says, ‘this blooming village would never have been known about but for three women – the Brontes.’
(10.10)
In her book My Part in a Changing World, Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence described how the police were sometimes violent towards the women suffragists.
Police had been drafted in from the East End of London. They knew nothing about the suffrage agitation and were accustomed to dealing with drunks and roughs. Also large and well-nourished bullies had been imported into the district. They may have been police in plain clothes. An order had evidently been given that the police were not to arrest; the alternative was a six-hours’ battle between unarmed women who attempted to stand their ground, and police who fought with methods of torture. Women were lifted and thrown to the ground and kicked – they were deliberately beaten on the breasts and were subjected to such terrible violence that a short time afterwards two of them, Mrs. Mary Clarke and Miss Henria Williams, died suddenly from heart attacks. Fifty women were laid up with the injuries they had received… Dr. Jessie Murray collected evidence regarding the methods of violence used… This evidence was classified under: (1) Unnecessary violence. (2) Methods of torture, i.e. bending thumbs backwards, twisting arms, pinching, gripping the throat and forcing back the head with violence, forcing fingers up nostrils, and so on. (3) Acts of indecency.
(10.11) Women who campaigned for the vote were often victims of physical assault. In her book The Hard Way Up, Hannah Mitchell describes one attack that took place at a women’s suffrage meeting at Boggart Hall Clough.
There was a tremendous crowd, which showed signs of hostility. The Chairman, Leonard Hall, had not finished his opening remarks when the trouble began… There was a concerted rush… most of our assailants were young men… The mob played a sort of Rugby football with us. Seizing a woman they pushed her into the arms of another group who in their turn passed her on… Two youths held on to my skirt so tightly that I feared it would either come off or I should be dragged to earth on my face… I gave one a blow in the face, which sent him reeling down the slope… An older man on the fringe of the gang was shouting indecent suggestions… I ran after this man and hit him on the jaw with my umbrella. I stood still, expecting an assault, but he ran off. I was soon surrounded by other young men. At last a group of men fought their way to me, having to beat off our assailants with their bare fists in order to get us out. The crowd followed yelling like savages. Someone opened the door of their house and drew us inside. We were glad to take shelter, but the crowd seemed so dangerous, booing and yelling round the door and windows, that I feared they would break in and wreck the place. One may ask ‘Where were the police?’ but anyone who has ever championed an unpopular cause will know how far the roughs are allowed to go before they are checked.
(10.12) In 8th September 1912 The East Grinstead Observer reported a meeting of the local suffrage society.
Lady Helen Brassey and Lady Idina Sackville were the hostesses. Mrs. Uniacke said that surely no one can be satisfied with the world around us today. A great deal wants doing. Women want the right to influence public morals. They understand the difficulty of rearing children with healthy minds and bodies. Men now decide at what trades women shall work. Why cannot women decide?
(10.13)
In her book My Part in a Changing World, Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence argued that groups of young men often tried to disrupt suffrage meetings.
It was mainly from young men, and often entirely from students, that opposition came… We had one meeting in the Town Hall in Birmingham. University students came
en masse
in order to prevent the audience from hearing the speakers. They kept up a stampede for over an hour, stamping, yelling and singing. Christabel stood on the platform apparently amused at their antics, and every now and then addressed the youths as if they were children, while she turned her main attention to the reporters, who thronged the press table, and was able to get her whole speech over to them. A box of mice was emptied on the table beside her. She took them gently into her hand and let them run up and down her bare arms and spoke to the thoughtless boys of the cruelty of frightening small and helpless creatures for the sake of fun.
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