A presentation given at Hacettepe University, Department of English Language and Literature, Ankara on 8 March 2016. It looks at the origins of the Suffragette movement, and its potential "threat" to societal stability in the Edwardian era, as well as its role in helping bring about universal suffrage. The presentation ends with a short critique of the recent film SUFFRAGETTE (2015) in light of the historical evidence.

1. THE SUFFRAGETTES: PAST
AND PRESENT
Laurence Raw
Başkent University, Ankara, Turkey

2. WHAT IS A SUFFRAGETTE?
Suffragettes - recognizing the desire
shared by women for suffrage, or the right
to vote in elections – were members of the
Women’s Social and Political Union
(WSPU) in Great Britain in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

3. VICTORIAN WOMEN – THE
STEREOTYPES
The Homemaker
The Idealized Woman & The Pauper
The Society Lady

4. CHALLENGING GENDER ROLES
 Women’s rights become prominent in
the mid 1850s when some middle and
upper class women refuse to accept the
roles imposed on them. By 1857 they
could take theır husbands to court after a
divorce; and by 1882 they could own
property
 …. But very few of them could vote in
national elections

5. Case Against Suffrage
1. Equality of Opportunity
2. Equality Before the Law
3. Expansion of Opportunities
4. Reduce Discrimination
FOR
 The woman’s place is in the home, not in
politics
 Governments rely on force, to which
women cannot contribute, being the
weaker sex.
 Women have no desire to vote
 Giving women the vote would weaken
Britain’s position at the center of the
Empire
AGAINST
ARGUMENTS
OVER SUFFRAGE

6. METHODS OF PROTEST
Demonstrations
Pageants (in front of London’s National
Gallery)
Suicides (To attract Press attention)
Chaining Themselves to Railings

7. METHODS OF PROTEST
(THE SIXTIES AND
SEVENTIES)
Seeking rights for women is
nothing new; but different times
produce different responses
Explicit Placards
Burning Bras
Male and Female Involvement

8. The Suffragettes were perceived as «anarchists»
and «terrorists,» a threat to the future of Britain’s
stability

9. DESTROYING
OUR HERITAGE
In 1913 Mary Richardson
slashed a portrait of the
Rokeby Venus in
London’s National Gallery.
She was given the
nickname «Slasher Mary»

10. WOMEN NEED
TO BE
«CONTROLLED»
Any Suffragette who was jailed
was likely to be force-fed so
that she could not go on
hunger strike and hence gain
public sympathy

11. «CONTROLLING» WOMEN
… or forcibly ducked into a river so that
Suffragettes would become more
«reasonable» (and accept male power) as a
result

12. BY 1918, WOMEN OVER 30 GOT THE VOTE
SUBJECT TO PROPERTY QUALIFICATIONS.
TEN YEARS LATER THE REPRESENTATION OF
THE PEOPLE ACT GAVE THE VOTE TO ALL
WOMEN OVER THE AGE OF 21

13. EQUALITY IN WORK
During the First World War (1914-
1918) women had filled the jobs left
by men who went to France and
other countries to fight

14. «A LAND FIT FOR
HEROES»
The Government
promised to create «a
land fit for heroes» once
the First World War had
ended, that included
women as well as men.
People celebrating the end of the War on 11 November 1918
in Birmingham

15. POLITICAL PARTIES ADVOCATED
DEMOCRACY FOR EVERYONE
Althougn not elected as a self-
governing party until 1924, Britain’s
Labour Party increased its popularity
after war had ended

16. Directed by Sarah Gavron and starring Carey
Mulligan, this film recounts the exploits of the
Women’s Social and Political Movement
SUFFRAGETTE (2015)

17. I’M TIRED OF FANTASY WORLDS WHERE
PEOPLE OF COLOR DON’T EXIST (IJEOMA
OLUO)

18. THE MOVIE PERPETUATES A CINEMATIC MYTH
– THAT OF THE SILENT WORKING CLASS (THE
NEW YORKER)

19. SUFFRAGETTE HAS PACKAGED ITSELF AS AN
HONORABLE FILM LOOKING FOR AWARDS
(VANITY FAIR)

20. HISTORY CAN BE BOTH UNREPRESENTABLE
AND IRRECOVERABLE THROUGH CINEMA
Dario Llinares, film scholar