1. Feminism and
Suffrage
Movement
(political franchise
XIX-XX centuries)

2. Feminism is a collection of movements and ideologies aimed at defining,
establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights for
women. This includes seeking to establish equal opportunities for women
in education and employment.
The words "feminism" and "feminist" first appeared in France
and the Netherlands in 1872, in Great Britain in the 1890s, and
in the United States in 1910.
Feminist theory aims to understand the
nature of gender inequality by examining
women's social roles and lived experience.
Feminists have worked to protect
women and girls from domestic
violence, sexual harassment, and
sexual assault.

3. Feminist activists campaign for women`s rights –
• contract law and property
• reproductive rights (including access contraceptives and abortion)
• autonomy
• voting
And so, arrives suffrage that is distinct from other rights as a right
to vote.

4. Types of suffrage.
No doubt there are different kinds of suffrage:
▪ Universal suffrage
▪ Compulsory suffrage
▪ Census suffrage
▪ Equal suffrage
▪ Women's suffrage

5. Universal suffrage-
is the right to vote is not restricted by sex, race, social status, or wealth. It
typically does not extend a right to vote to all residents of a region;
distinctions are made according to citizenship, age, and occasionally mental
capacity or criminal convictions.
The short-livedCorsican Republic (1755–1769) was the first country to
grant limited universal suffrage for all inhabitants over the age of 25.
Then in the Paris Comune of 1871 and the island republic ofFrenceville (1889).
In 1893, New Zealand became the first major nation to achieve universal
suffrage.
In 1906, Finland became the second country in the world, and the first
in Europe, to grant universal suffrage to its citizens.

6. Compulsory suffrage-
Means that those who are able to vote are required by law to do so. Thirty-two
countries currently practice this form of suffrage.
Census suffrage-
also known as "censitary suffrage", the opposite of Equal suffrage, meaning that
the votes cast by those eligible to vote are not equal, (e.g., people with high
income have more votes than those with a small income, or a stockholder in a
company with more shares has more votes than someone with fewer shares).
Suffrage may therefore be limited, usually to the propertied classes, but can still
be universal, including, for instance, women or ethnic minorities, if they meet the
census.
Equal suffrage-
is sometimes confused with Universal suffrage, although its meaning is the
change of graded votes, where a voter could possess a number of votes according
to income, wealth or social status.

7. Woman`s suffrage
is the right of women to vote on the same terms as men. This was the goal of
the suffragists and the suffragettes.
Limited voting rights were gained by some women in Sweden, Britain, and
some western U.S. states in the 1860s.
In 1893, the British colony ofNew Zealand became the first self-governing
nation to extend the right to vote to all adult women.
In 1894 the women of South Australia achieved the right to both vote and
stand for Parliament. The autonomous Finland in the Russian Empire was the
first European nation to allow all women to both vote and run for parliament.

8. In 1906 in a British newspaper the word "suffragette" was used
to describe women campaigning for the right to vote. At th at time
two-thirds of the male population could vote. Those who could not
included:
• criminals
• lunatics
• men who did not own property or pay at least £10/year in rent
• servants who lived with their employers

9. Since the 1860s British women and men had been arguing for both
universal and women’s suffrage.
Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia founded the
Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1903 – a more radical
organization than some of the earlier ones fighting for suffrage. Its slogan
was "Deeds Not Words".
While he WSPU was becoming more and more militant the British
government refused to support women’s suffrage.

10. Emmeline Pankhurst (15 july 1858 – 14 juin 1928) was a leader of British suffragists.
In 1889 she founded Women's Franchise League . This organization set its goal
to achieve the woman right to vote in Britain на local elections. In october 1903 she
became one of the founders of Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) whose
members were first to be called “suffragists”.
She was widely criticised for her militant tactics, and historians disagree about
their effectiveness, but her work is recognised as a crucial element in achieving
women's suffrage in Britain.
In 1918 the Representation of the People Act granted votes to women over the
age of 30. Pankhurst transformed the WSPU machinery into the Women`s Party,
which was dedicated to promoting women's equality in public life.
In her later years she became concerned with what she perceived as the
menace posed by Bolshevism and – unhappy with the political alternatives – joined
the Conservative Party.
She died in 1928 and was commemorated two years later with a statue in
London's Victoria Tower Gardens.

12. In 1906 a Liberal government was
elected to Parliament for the first time, with
first Henry Campbell-Bannerman and then, in
1908, Herbert Henry Asquith as Prime
Minister.
Suffragettes were very hopeful that the
Liberals would support them as promised in
many candidates’ election campaigns. But
they were to be disappointed, particularly
with Asquith, a noted anti-suffragist. Even
the Women’s Sunday march in Hyde Park in
June 1908, in which 250,000 people shouted
"Votes for Women," did not move Asquith to
allow a suffrage bill to be introduced.

13. As suffragettes became more militant, their actions and their treatment by the
police became more violent.
On 18 November 1910 a protest in Parliament Square turned violent and police
beat many suffragettes.
As it became more radical and violent, the WSPU lost many of its supporters.
In August 1914 war was declared in Europe. The suffrage movement suspended
its activities, the government released all suffragettes from prison, and the
Pankhursts and others threw themselves into supporting Britain’s war effort. Around
a million women took on men’s jobs as they went off to fight in the war.

14. In February 1918, the Government passed an act giving women the vote if they
were over the age of 30 and either owned property or rented for at least
£5/year, or were the wife of someone who did. As a result, 8.5 million women
became entitled to vote in the General Election of 1918.
On 2 July 1928, a law was passed allowing all women over the age of 21 to vote.

15. It is debatable how much effect the suffragette movement had on
bringing about changes in voting laws. Some believe the movement’s militancy
made the Government more intransigent.
Others say the 1918 Act was passed as a reward for women’s efforts
during the war rather than anything the suffragettes did.
There is no doubt, however, that the suffragettes raised the profile of
the issue of women’s votes to that of national consideration.