A new suffrage society called the WSPU (Woman’s Social and Political Union) was formed in 1903 by a group of women determined to gain the franchise. This group of women from Manchester attracted thousands of woman’s right campaigners from all over the country within only a few years. Unlike the suffragists, followers of the WSPU did not believe in using conventional respectable methods to gain the franchise. The WSPU was led by Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel.

Emmeline Pankhurst was married to a lawyer and a committed socialist, Richard Pankhurst. The union was very well organized, and was run like a volunte

er army and its members were ready to use any means necessary to get the votes for woman. They were ready to even break the law. Using militant measures; they soon became famous. Soon, because they were advocates to the women’s suffrage, in 1906 they were nicknamed “suffragettes” by the Daily Mail Newspaper.

Unfortunate for the women of Britain at that time, Herbert Asquith, a Liberal was the Prime Minister and was always against the idea of women having the vote. So the aim of Woman’s Social and Political Union was to make the liberal government listen to their call for justice and equality; to give them the vote. They realised that no matter how hard they tried, there wasn’t much they could do as long as they didn’t have the support needed from the Prime Minister. .

The third time Emmeline Pankhurst was imprisoned she was transferred to the first division. Most of the other suffragettes weren’t transferred causing all 80 other suffragette prisoners to go on a hunger strike. The police used tactics such as force feeding on the prisoners which had extremely bad effects on the prisoners. Later in parliament questions were asked about the dangers of force feeding and from than on there were no more attempts to force feed the prisoners. Emmeline Pankhurst was later released because of her poor health condition and after a while all other suffragettes were released.

The Woman’s Social and Political Union first used their militant methods in 1905, during the General Election. Sir Edward Grey the Secretary of Foreign Affairs was the main speaker at a Liberal Party Meeting. Christabel and Annie Kenney attempted to disrupt the meeting in order to gain publicity for the WSPU. They had made a banner on which they painted “VOTES FOR WOMEN” (the Suffragette View, pg16-17) and when it came for the guests to ask any questions Annie raised her hand and asked, “Will the Liberal government give votes to women?” (Coxon, 2004). She was ignored, but that didn’t stop her from disrupting the meeting. She was later arrested and then went to prison rather than pay a fine. Their plan had succeeded as they gained a lot of publicity for what they did.

Some topics in this essay:
Emmeline Pankhurst, Political Union, Elections Women, Party Women, Daily Mirror, , Suffragette View, House Commons, People Act, Richard Pankhurst, emmeline pankhurst, social political union, woman’s social political, woman’s social, political union, social political, war effort, women’s suffrage, women vote, set free, gain franchise, prime minister, women rights vote, force feed prisoners, pankhurst daughter christabel,