Suffragette Movement

A suffragette was a member of an activist women’s organisations in the early 20th century who, under the banner “Votes for Women”, fought for the right to vote in public elections.

Emmeline Pankhurst became involved in women’s suffrage in 1880. She was a founding member of the WSPU (Women’s Social and Political Union) in 1903 and led it until it disbanded in 1918. Under her leadership the WSPU was a highly organised group and like other members she was imprisoned and went on hunger strike protests.

In 1908 the co-editor of the WSPU’s newspaper, Votes for Women, Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, designed the suffragettes’ colour scheme of purple for loyalty and dignity, white for purity, and green for hope.

Emily Wilding Davison (suffragette) who died at the Epsom racecourse during the Derby 100 years ago under the hooves of the king’s horse has been saluted by some as a brave martyr and attacked by others as an irresponsible anarchist.

The movement has influence many other feminist protests in more modern times eg. Me Too movement, FEMEN movement

The suffragettes main challenge was to gain the right for women to vote. Photography played a role in their eventual success by spreading awareness of the movement to larger numbers of people.

Dadaism

Dadaism was a movement with explicitly political overtones – a reaction to the senseless slaughter of the trenches of WWI. It essentially declared war against war, countering the absurdity of the establishment’s descent into chaos with its own kind of nonsense.

Abstraction and Expressionism were the main influences on Dada, followed by Cubism and, to a lesser extent, Futurism.

At the first public Dada soiree on July 14, 1916, Dada founder Hugo Ball read from the Dada Manifesto: “How does one achieve eternal bliss? By saying dada.”

Photography allowed for people to take absurd photos to join the movement but also allowed for sculptors and other physical art to be recorded and spread to a wider audience. raising awareness for the artistic movement.