The Women's Suffrage Movement

The popular image of a women's suffrage activist is a stoical woman chained to railings or committing criminal acts to attract publicity for the cause. While such women as Emmeline Pankhurst and Emily Wilding Davison embody this image, these militant 'Suffragettes' of the Women's Social and Political Union were in fact a small part of a wider movement that operated mainly through peaceful means. Molly Housego and Neil Storey here trace the evolution of the women's suffrage movement from its emergence in the nineteenth century, through the various divisions that emerged over how to conduct the campaign, to its apogee before the First World War - an event that highlighted the abilities of British women and helped to gain them the vote in 1918.