Suffragettes

This talk is a critical analysis of Suffragette tactics during their active years of 1903-1914, showing how good they were at gaining publicity for their cause, but less good at persuading people: arguably their actions made their chances of success even more unlikely. They gave up when War broke out in 1914, eventually accepting the profoundly unequal 1918 Act as a triumph (when in reality it was a major failure). If anything, they opposed further attempts during the 1920s to equalise voting between men and women. The real heroines of the story were the Suffragists, not the Suffragettes, which is why Millicent Fawcett and not Emmeline Pankhurst is commemorated by a statue in Parliament Square.