Women's Social and Political Union

The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was a political movement for women. They campaigned for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom (allowing women to vote) from 1903 to 1918. They are sometimes called suffragettes.

The Women's Social and Political Union were known for civil disobedience. They held marches, set fire to post boxes, smashed windows and broke the law to get into prison. When they were in prison, they would go on hunger strikes, meaning they would refuse to eat. The government would force-feed prisoners who went on hunger strikes. The government created the Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act 1913, or the Cat and Mouse Act, so suffragettes who were close to starving to death could be released.

Notable members

Mary Ann Aldham

Janie Allan

Doreen Allen

Helen Archdale

Ethel Ayres Purdie

Barbara Ayrton

Edith Marian Begbie

Rosa May Billinghurst

Teresa Billington-Greig

Violet Bland

Bettina Borrmann Wells

Elsie Bowerman

Janet Boyd

Constance Bryer

Lady Constance Bulwer-Lytton

Evaline Hilda Burkitt

Lucy Burns

Eileen Mary Casey

Joan Cather

Georgina Fanny Cheffins

Helen Millar Craggs

Ellen Crocker

Helen Cruickshank

Louie Cullen

Alice Davies

Emily Davison

Charlotte Despard

Violet Mary Doudney

Edith Downing

Flora Drummond

Sophia Duleep Singh

Elsie Duval

Norah Elam

Dorothy Evans

Kate Williams Evans

Theresa Garnett

Louisa Garrett Anderson

Edith Margaret Garrud

Katharine Gatty

Mary Gawthorpe

Katie Edith Gliddon

Nellie Hall

Cicely Hamilton

Beatrice Harraden

Edith How-Martyn

Elsie Howey

Ellen Isabel Jones

Annie Kenney

Edith Key

Aeta Adelaide Lamb

Mary Leigh

Lilian Lenton

Constance Lytton

Mary Macarthur

Florence Macfarlane

Margaret Macfarlane

Margaret McPhun

Frances McPhun

Margaret Mackworth, 2nd Viscountess Rhondda

Christabel Marshall

Kitty Marion

Dora Marsden

Lillian Metge

Dora Montefiore

Alice Morrissey

Flora Murray

Margaret Nevinson

Edith New

Adela Pankhurst

Christabel Pankhurst

Emmeline Pankhurst

Sylvia Pankhurst

Frances Parker

Alice Paul

Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence

Ellen Pitfield

Isabella Potbury

Mary Richardson

Edith Rigby

Rona Robinson

Mary Russell, Duchess of Bedford

Bertha Ryland

Amy Sanderson

Arabella Scott

Muriel Scott

Genie Sheppard

Alice Maud Shipley

Dame Ethel Mary Smyth

Harriet Shaw Weaver

Evelyn Sharp

Janie Terrero

Dora Thewlis

Catherine Tolson

Helen Tolson

Elsie and Mathilde Wolff Van Sandau

Patricia Woodlock

Gertrude Wilkinson

Laura Ann Willson

Laetitia Withall

Olive Wharry

Celia Wray

Rose Emma Lamartine Yates

References

1903 establishments in the United Kingdom

1918 disestablishments

1910s disestablishments in Europe

Civil disobedience

First-wave feminism

Women's suffrage

Political organisations in the United Kingdom