how has the suffrage movement helped women today
Answers
The movement for the vote for women started in 1897, when Millicent Fawcett founded the National Union of Women’s Suffrage. She believed in peaceful protests, as if women used violence it could persuade men that we could not be trusted with the vote. She argued that the government made laws, which women abide by, so why couldn’t we be part of the process in which makes those laws. However these peaceful actions did not make much difference, so in 1903 Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters, Christabel and Sylvia, created the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). This group was prepared to use violence to get the vote.
The WSPU never harmed anyone but made sure they were heard and followed the motto “Deeds not words”. The Suffragettes vandalised Oxford Street by breaking the windows, burnt down churches and chained themselves to Buckingham Palace’s railings, as they believed the Church of England and the Royal Family were opposed to women having the vote. They bombed letterboxes and politicians’ houses as well as may other acts against parliament to show their hatred towards the male dominated legal system. If the Suffragettes were caught committing these deeds, they were happy to go to prison as it got them attention from newspapers. They went on hunger strikes, as they were not treated as political prisoners, this meant they were force fed, as the prison governors didn’t want to have blood on their hands for murder. This was also publicised but caused great backlash as this technique was only used on lunatics, not educated women.
Emily Wilding Davidson performed one of the most famous acts of suffrage; she threw herself in front of the King’s horse at the June 1913 Derby, holding a propaganda poster for the Suffragettes. She was killed. This was televised around the whole world and a lot more people started to notice the fight for the right for women to vote.
When the First World War started, Emmeline Pankhurst ordered the Suffragettes to stop their protesting and help with the war effort. Soon after the war stopped, women over 30 got the right to vote and in 1928 it was changed to women over 21. Many people believe that they only got the vote as the government couldn’t face the violence of the Suffragettes after the war or the fact that they had helped the men during the war, implying the vote was a reward.
I think the Suffragette movement is still relevant today as women still fight for equality in many aspects of everyday life. Carrie Gracie is an example of these women, who protest for equal pay. She quit her job as an editor for the BBC news that comes from China as she revealed that men in the same level of work were being paid as much as 50% more than their female counterparts. Another example is Malala Yousfazai, who fights for the education of girls in other countries and has suffered physically as a consequence of this. No one should have to experience pain while fighting for something they believe in. Her actions show that women still need to work hard for things that should be legal now. These powerful words from Hilary Clinton express what many people think but do not say; “The rights of women and girls are the unfinished business of the 21st century.”