Suffragettes –
‘Fight on. God will give the victory’
Emily Wilding Davison
At the start of the 20th century there was a boom in support for women’s suffrage, signified under the banner ‘Votes for Women’. The women-only movement, ‘Women’s Social and Political Union’ (WSPU) was founded by Emmline Pankhurst in 1903 which pushed for equality for women more harshly as previous ‘peaceful’ tactics had not been successful, this approach was know as militant and In 1906, a reporter writing for the Daily Mail coined the term suffragette for the WSPU, from Suffragist, to belittle the women advocating women’s suffrage.
Unlike New Zealand who had granted the vote for all women over 21 years of age in 1893, enfranchisement for women in Britain still hadn’t occurred by 1903, leading to more militant actions being taken by the suffragettes.
Deeds, not words
WSPU motto
Emily Wilding Davison – (11 October 1872 – 8 June 1913)
Emily was a militant suffragette, she was arrested 9 times and went on hunger strike 7 times, being force-fed on 49 occasions. She unfortunately died at the 1913 Derby, when she walked onto the track during a race. On June 14th 1913, Emily’s body was transported from Epsom to London, inscribed on her coffin was ‘Fight on. God will give the victory’. Five thousand women formed a procession followed by many male supporters.
The Cat and Mouse Act 1913 – Some members of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU, commonly referred to as suffragettes) had been imprisoned for acts of vandalism in support of women’s suffrage. In protest at being imprisoned, some of the suffragettes undertook hunger-strikes. The hunger strikers were force-fed by the prison staff, leading to a public outcry. The act was a response to the protestations. It allowed the prisoners to be released on licence as soon as the hunger strike affected their health; they then had a predetermined period of time in which to recover after which they were rearrested and taken back to prison to serve out the rest of their sentence. Conditions could be placed on the prisoner during the time of their release. One effect of the act was to make hunger strikes technically legal. The nickname of the act came about because of the domestic cat’s habit of playing with its prey, allowing it to temporarily escape a number of times, before killing it.
1918 – Women’s grant to vote if over 30 years old
1928 – Women of the age 21 and over could have the vote
Women’s vote locally – Was debated over several days, it was passed on 22nd May 1919 and entered into force on 12th July 1919.
Femen –
Femen is a feminist activist group in Ukraine intended to fight for and protect women’s rights. The organization became internationally known for organizing controversial topless protests against sex tourism, religious institutions, sexism, homophobia, and other social, national, and international topics. Founded in Ukraine, the group is now based in France.
Ultimately these protests were born out of the normalised misogyny that underpins Ukrainian society. Though this protest may contrast to many previous, feminist protests look different everywhere. Ideas behind protests such as this take the main focus or cause (in this case the female body) and use it as a device to torment the tormentor. In addition, as this form of protest is more radical it is likely to attract more attention from both everyday people and the media.
#Metoo –
In 2006, Burke founded the Me Too movement and began using the phrase “Me Too” to raise awareness of the pervasiveness of sexual abuse and assault in society. The phrase “Me Too” developed into a broader movement following the 2017 use of #MeToo as a hashtag following the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse allegations.
Similar to other social justice and empowerment movements based upon breaking silence, the purpose of “Me Too”, as initially voiced by Burke as well as those who later adopted the tactic, is to empower women through empathy and solidarity through strength in numbers, especially young and vulnerable women, by visibly demonstrating how many women have survived sexual assault and harassment, especially in the workplace.
BLM –
In July 2013, the movement began with the use of the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter on social media after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of African-American teen Trayvon Martin 17 months earlier in February 2012.
Recently, the George Floyd protests are ongoing series of protests and civil unrest, mostly throughout America that are fighting for the equality of black lives. Polls in summer 2020 estimated that between 15 million and 26 million people had participated at some point in the demonstrations in the United States, making the protests the largest in U.S. history. Protests have continued as of October 2020.
The protests in America sparked other protests internationally, with the hashtag #BLM being used to raise awareness on multiple social-media posts. This cultural reckoning on racial injustice has also raised multiple questions about the federal governing in America. The systematic racism has been evident throughout American government for many years. For example the 13 Amendment was created in order to prevent slavery however, it only acts as a disguise for institutions to take advantage of certain people and cultures for profit (e.g the mass arrest of innocent black people in order to gain profit through prisons/ sentences).
Compare Suffragette movement to Femen Movement
Initially, both of these movements appear very different which is mostly due to contextual factors such as time, socio-economics, dominant ideologies and identity. The suffragette movement began in 1903, a time where enfranchisement or many other rights for women was viewed as irrelevant. On the other hand, founded by Ukrainian activist the Femen movement began in 2008. The key similarity between these two movements would be the continuation of a hegemonic struggle, suggested by Antonio Gramsci, whereby women are still seen as inferior in comparison to men. However, a more subtly similarity would be how the fight for equality for women is still being fought, over 100 years after the suffragette movement. Although the suffragette movement was massive and ultimately life changing for the role women played in society, it is evident that true equality is still yet to be reached. Furthermore, I believe that the suffragette movement was the catalyst which led to multiple other movements, for women as well as other identity political demographics such as the BLM movement.
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