2. The Suffragettes

 

 

Millicent Fawcett believed in peaceful protest. She felt that any violence or trouble (0)  men that women could not be trusted to have the right to vote. Her game plan was (1) patienceattendancepresenceparticipation and logical arguments. Fawcett argued that women could hold responsible (2) speechespostsceremonieselections in society such as sitting on school boards – but could not be trusted to vote; she argued that if parliament made laws and if women (3) willrisked tooughthad to obey those laws, then women should be part of the process of making those laws; she argued that as women had to pay taxes like men, they should have the same rights as men, and one of her most powerful arguments was that wealthy mistresses of large manors and estates employed gardeners, workmen and labourers who could vote, but the women could not, (4) as opposedin favourconsideringregardless of their wealth.

However, Fawcett's progress was very slow. She (5) explainedconvertedarguedenabled some of the members of the Labour Representation Committee (soon to be the Labour Party), but most men in Parliament believed that women (6) fullycompletelypartlysimply would not understand how Parliament worked and therefore should not (7) be in placetake placebe parttake part in the electoral process. This left many women angry, and in 1903 the Women's Social and Political Union (8) had been foundedwas foundedwas foundhad been found by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia. They wanted women to have the right to vote and they were not prepared to wait. The Union became better known as the Suffragettes. Members of the Suffragettes were prepared to use violence to get what they wanted.

In (9) examplefavourparticularfact, the Suffragettes started off relatively peacefully. It was only in 1905 that the
organisation created a stir when Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenney interrupted a political meeting in Manchester to ask two Liberal politicians (Winston Churchill and Sir Edward Grey) if they believed women should have the right to vote. (10) EachAllNeitherNone man replied. As a result, the two women got out a banner which had on it "Votes for Women" and shouted at the two politicians to answer their questions.