This photograph shows Christabel Pankhurst in exile, avoiding the risk of arrest in Britain. She sits in her office in Paris in early 1913, and the newspaper she edited, The Suffragette, hangs from the edge of her desk emblazoned with the headline ‘What men did to get the vote’.
The Suffragette was founded in 1912, and replaced Votes for Women as the WSPU’s (Women’s Social and Political Union) official voice. Its pages hosted a ramped-up militant tone, documenting stories of attacks on property and historic stories of belligerent action. The issue on Pankhurst’s desk features an illustration of ‘the burning of Nottingham castle during the franchise agitation of 1832’ – the content inside alludes to the use of arson, window-breaking and theft. Militant action was one tactic in the campaign for women’s suffrage.At the outbreak of World War One, all suffragette activities were suspended and WSPU energies were directed towards helping the war effort. The Suffragette was renamed Britannia to align WSPU activity with the British government.
In this edited extract from Deeds Not Words: The Story of Women’s Rights – Then and Now (Sceptre, 2018), Helen Pankhurst explores why, 100 years on from some women being granted the vote, the suffragettes continue to hold our interest.
Use these short biographies to learn about some of the key suffragists, suffragettes and other figures in the campaign for women’s suffrage.
Some suffragettes believed that deeds, not words, would convince the government to give women the vote. Fern Riddell assesses the scale of violent direct action used by militant suffragettes, with a focus on events from 1912 to 1914.
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