Skip navigation

The leaders

Although we know that History cannot be only explained by the impact of great men or great women, but also by ordinary human behaviour, we are going to learn more about the leaders of suffrage movement.

Millicent Fawcett (1847-1929) was a noted leading Suffragits and president of the National Union of Women´s Suffrage Societies ( NUWSS ).

Impatient with the peaceful tactics of the NUWSS, in 1903 a group of women headed by Emmeline Pankhurst (1858 - 1828) decided to break with this organisation and set up a separate society: the Women´s Social and Political Union (WSPU). They were called Suffragettes.

Millicent Fawcett portrait Emmeline Panhurst at the doorway
Millicent Fawcett Emmeline Pankhurst

Activity

  • Find out about their lives and works, and then make a presentation.
  • Your presentation could be assessed on the following rubric:

Element

Excellent

 Accomplished Satisfactory Unsatisfactory
Information

 very relevant information

  relevant information  some relevant information  not relevant information
  Organisation  

  very clear

  and well organised

   adecuate connection among ideas     weakly organised

 unorganised and  

 confusing
Format

 varied grammatical structure

 without errors

 quite varied grammatical structure

 few errors

 repetitive structures         

 several errors

 difficult to understand     

 numerous errors

Image gallery

Try to answer the next questions

Question

Which drastic step did imprisioned suffragettes take in 1909?

Answers

arson

hunger strike

Feedback

Question

What did they want to achieve with this action?

Answers

to be recognised as political prisioners instead of criminals

to be released in a shorter period of time

Feedback

Question

Which was the answer of the government?

Answers

to force feed the suffragettes

to release them

Feedback

Question

How was this measure conidered by suffragettes like Emmeline Pankhurst?

Answers

a form of torture

an exaggerated answer

Feedback

Question

Did the bill of a Committee of the Parliament to give the vote to some women succeed in 1910?

Answers

yes

no

Feedback

Question

Which form of attacking private property did they adopt?

Answers

smashing windows

to destroy gardens

Feedback

Question

What was the "Cat and Mouse" Law?

Answers

a law to increase hunger strikers´ prision sentences

a law to release hunger strikers when they became ill and rearrested when they became better

Feedback

Question

What happened when First World War broke out in 1914?

Answers

All suffragettes were released and they increased their campaigns for female vote

All suffragettes were released and they foccused their attention on the war

Feedback

Question

Which women were allowed to vote in 1918?

Answers

women over 21

women over 30

Feedback

Question

What happened in 1928, the year of E. Pankhurst´s death?

Answers

Men were allowed to grant suffrage to their wives with some conditions

Men and women were allowed to vote on the same conditions

Feedback