Hello, my name's Mrs. Hastings and I'm here to be teaching you today.

I'm really looking forward to our learning journey together.

Welcome to today's lesson, which is from the unit, Why was the struggle for the vote important today? Today's lesson is called, Which methods were Most successful in the Fight for Female suffrage? By the end of today's lesson, you should be able to compare the campaign methods of the Suffragists and suffragette and evaluate the impact they had on women's rights.

Really looking forward to sharing this lesson with you today as it's one of my absolute favourite topics to teach.

It's gonna be challenging.

There's gonna be lots to get through.

We're going to be thinking hard, but that means we're going to be making really good progress.

Here are today's keywords for the lesson.

Suffrage, the right to vote.

Suffragists, a group who advocated for women's suffrage using peaceful methods.

Suffragettes a group who advocated for women's rights to vote using militant methods and militant, confrontational, or violent methods in support of a political or social cause.

There are three parts to our lesson today on which methods were most successful in the fight for female suffrage? The first part of the learning cycle is who are the Suffragists? Then we're going to explore who are the Suffragettes? And lastly, we're going to think about what impact did these campaigns have on rights? So first of all, let's explore who were the Suffragists? We're gonna go back and think about whether or not women had suffrage in the 1800s.

Can you remember? Did women have suffrage in the 1800s? Well, we may have already explored some of the progress that had happened in the fight for the right to vote, and one of these was the 1832 Great Form Act.

This gave 20% of men's suffrage, but it excluded women from the electorate.

In 1865: the first women's suffrage committee was formed.

In 1867: the Second Reform Act doubled the electorate in England and Wales to two million.

But women were still excluded from the franchise.

They were not allowed to vote.

And the first debate on women's suffrage was also held in the lead up to that Second Reform Act in 1867, and that was led by MP John Stuart Mill.

Later in the 1800s, women continued to campaign for suffrage and regional women's suffrage societies were set up all around the country, but because there were these regional organisations and there wasn't one big organisation fighting for the right for women to vote, it was decided in 1897 by Millicent Fawcett to set up the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, and they campaigned for female suffrage.

Its members became known as Suffragists.

Many women saw the vote as a vital achievement that would give them a say in laws affecting their lives.

For example, the right to divorce a husband, the right to an education, and the right to have a job such as a doctor.

Without the vote, it was very difficult for women to be able to have any political say in anything that really affected their lives, and there were lots of laws that negatively impacted on them.

So the aim of the Suffragists, this national organisation that brought together the regional organisations for female suffrage that had already been set up was to win female suffrage by putting consistent pressure on the Government through peaceful campaigning.

Their campaign methods included holding public meetings and debates.

And you can see a public meeting here in Hyde Park in this photograph where Millicent Fawcett is addressing a group of Suffragists.

Leading nonviolent marches and presenting petitions to Parliament.

So let's check our understanding so far.

Millicent Fawcett was leader of which group? A, the Suffragettes? B, the Suffragists? C, the Women's Political Union? Or D, the Fabian Society? It was B, the Suffragists.

Well done if you got that right.

What impact did the Suffragists' campaigning have? Firstly, they gained popularity and support through their peaceful methods.

They showed women as respectable, intelligent, and capable of political involvement before they were campaigning or as they were campaigning.

It was believed by a lot of people in society, particularly men, that women's place should be in the home and not in politics.

That they weren't capable, that they weren't intelligent, that they weren't rational enough to be involved in politics.

But the Suffragists disproved that theory by being respectable, intelligent, and methodical in their campaign methods.

They raised public awareness of women's demand for the vote.

How are people to know that women actually want to vote if nobody actually says anything about it? So they're raising that awareness.

However, the Government didn't really pay much attention to their protests.

The view at the time was that women, even though that they'd shown themselves to be respectful and intelligent, really shouldn't be involved in politics.

So were often weren't listened to by the politicians.

And the common public belief is that women should focus on their home and family and not be involved in political life and public life.

Let's check our understanding.

True or false? Is it true or false that the Suffragists use violent methods in their campaign? True or false? It is, of course false.

Well done if you got that right.

Why? The Suffragists use peaceful methods such as petitions and nonviolent marches to put consistent pressure on the Government.

So onto our first practise task, I want you to read the list of actions and tick those that were part of the Suffragists' campaign, holding public meetings and debates, organising violent protests, leading nonviolent marches, presenting petitions to Parliament, using political pressure through violence, and gaining pol support through peaceful protests.

And secondly, I'd like you to discuss the following with a partner.

Why did many women see getting suffrage as important? And what challenges did the Suffragists face in getting their message heard by the Government? So discuss those questions with your partner, and you may want to write down a few points of your discussion.

So pause the video and complete task one and task two now.

Great, well done for completing that task.

Time for some feedback.

So I asked you to first of all, read the list of actions and ticked those that were part of Suffragists' campaign.

So you should have ticked the following actions, holding public meetings and debates.

Leading nonviolent marches, presenting petitions to Parliament and gaining support through peaceful protests.

Those were all parts of the Suffragists' campaign.

I also asked you to have a discussion with your partner on the questions.

Why did many women see getting suffrage as important? And what challenges did the Suffragists face in getting their message heard by the Government? So your discussion may have included the following.

Many women saw gaining suffrage as crucial because it would give them a voice in laws that directly affected their lives, such as the right to divorce and access to education.

It was therefore seen as a way to prove their social and legal rights.

The Suffragists face significant opposition from politicians who believe that women should not be involved in politics.

Their peaceful protests and petitions were often ignored, and the Government did not take their campaign seriously.

Furthermore, the popular social view at the time was that women should focus on their domestic roles, not public life.

Great, well done for completing the first part of our lesson.

Now onto the second part of our learning cycle.

Who were the Suffragettes? In 1903, Emmeline Pankhurst, along with her daughter's, Christabel and Sylvia formed the Women's Social and Political Union.

They have become really frustrated by the lack of progress made by the Suffragists through their peaceful campaign methods.

Emmeline and Christabel and Sylvia form the motto, "Deeds not words", believing that more direct action was required to get the Government to listen to their demands.

Now, this didn't necessarily mean militant action at this stage, but it was more direct, more forceful action to try to get the point across that women really wanted the vote.

In the early 1900s, as I've kind of explained before, women were expected to be quiet, respectful women people.

The Women's Social and Political Union challenged this by being bold and confrontational.

We'll have a look at some of their methods in a moment.

The press, the media called them "Suffragettes" as a criticism, as the suffix "-ette" is used to refer to something very small.

However, the WSPU actually embraced the term to draw attention to their cause.

They flipped it around and used it to their advantage.

They quite liked being called the Suffragettes.

Their initial campaign methods included actions such as disrupting public meetings being held by politicians.

So they'd run in waving banners, shouting for votes for women, and chaining themselves to railings often are very important buildings.

For example, they chain themselves outside Downing Street, which is where the Prime Minister lives and where his offices are.

They would chain themselves to the railings outside Parliament and Buckingham Palace so that they were really making quite a scene.

Many Suffragettes were arrested and imprisoned as a result of their actions.

Many of these arrested Suffragettes claim to be political prisoners.

They were fighting for a political cause rather than ordinary prisoners, maybe somebody who'd been put in prison for theft.

And they went on hunger strike to try to change their status from an ordinary prisoner to a political prisoner because it would change your rights in prison.

The Government responded to these hunger strikes by ordering them to be force fed, which led to long-term injuries from many Suffragettes.

And you can see here the front page of a newspaper from the time of the Suffragette in prison being force fed, and it was really brutal.

They would put a tube down the neck of the women political prisoner and with a funnel at the top, and they'd force feed by pouring liquid down, basically straight into their stomach.

So it did really, really cause a lot of long-term injuries.

In 1908, in the 1908 election, Liberal Party leader, Herbert Asquith promised to support female suffrage.

He said that he would support female suffrage in return for gaining more votes from the population.

He became Prime Minister, but he broke his promise by not passing the 1910 Conciliation Bill.

This massively angered the Suffragettes who felt absolutely betrayed by Asquith.

And in protest the WSPU, the Suffragettes organised the march on the 18th of November, 1910.

300 Suffragettes were violently attacked by police officers, leading to many injuries.

This event became known as Black Friday.

So let's have a recap of what we've learned about the Suffragettes, the WSPU so far.

So who was the leader of the WSPU, the Women's Social and Political Union? Was it A, Emmeline Pankhurst? B, Millicent Fawcett? Or C, Sylvia Pankhurst? Was it A, B, or C? The correct answer is Emmeline Pankhurst, Sylvia Pankhurst was one of her daughters and was an important part of the Women's Social and Political Union.

However, Emmeline was the leader.

True or false? The Suffragette motto was "Deeds not words".

Is that true or false? The answer is that is true.

Well done if you got that right.

So the Suffragettes believed that direct action, so direct action "Deeds not words", was required to get the Government to listen to their demands for female suffrage.

From 1912 onwards, the Suffragettes became more militant in their campaign methods, having felt extremely let down by the Governments so far.

They had after all been campaigning for nine years.

And before that, the Suffragists had also been campaigning since 1867 when there were regional suffrage societies.

1897 when the National Organisation of the Suffragists was formed.

And then 1903, the Suffragettes have formed the WSPU and they've already been campaigning with their direct action for nine years and nothing has happened.

They have been rejected, so they become more militant.

Some of the new tactics that they used were smashing the windows of private property and Government buildings.

And here you can see them smashing the windows of shops.

There was a particularly famous one where they ran down Oxford Street in London and smashed the windows of Suffragists, which was a big is still was a big department store on Oxford Street.

They took to burning public buildings, planting bombs to disrupt communications.

So they would plant bombs on railway lines.

They would also put bombs in letter boxes, which would disrupt communication.

So which of the following was not a militant action of the Suffragettes? A, smashing the windows of public buildings? B, slashing paintings in the National Gallery? Or C, organising marches and petitions? Which of the following was not a militant action of the Suffragettes A, B, or C? Well done, it is C.

This is a method more used by the Suffragists, whereas the Suffragettes had turned more militant in 1912.

We're gonna look at a lady called Emily Wilding Davison.

And this is a photograph of her at her graduation from Royal Holloway University.

So clearly somebody quite intelligent.

She's gone to university, she's got a degree.

So she was a militant Suffragette.

She was imprisoned eight times for her protests, which included stone throwing and breaking windows at the House of Commons.

On the 8th of June, 1913, Emily Davison was struck by the King's horse at the Epsom Derby.

It's unclear what led her to be on the racecourse.

She was carrying a WSPU scarf and some believe she planned to attach it to the horse, the King's horse, so that when he crossed the line, the finishing line at the Epsom Derby, he'd be waving the flag, waving the scarf of the WSPU.

So very bold and very brave protest.

She died four days after being struck by the King's horse in Epsom Cottage Hospital.

And her death made her a martyr for the Suffragette cause.

It was such a public event at a very public, in a very public place.

The Epsom Derby was a very prestigious event, and so the suffragette became a martyr.

So what impact did the Suffragettes have? Showed that women were really willing to fight for their rights.

They really wanted the vote.

Some like Emily Wilding Davison.

Those who put themselves on hunger strike in prison were willing to even die for the cause.

It forced the Government to listen to the cause for female suffrage, gain huge publicity for the cause, and it made the Government's actions such as force feeding during hunger strikes and the events of Black Friday look bad and gained sympathy for the campaign.

The death of Emily Davison created a martyr for the cause.

Her funeral had a massive public procession through the streets of London and gained newspaper headlines.

However, they were viewed by many as unladylike and as law breakers.

Why should law breakers become law makers? Their actions made women appear irresponsible, which made people question their ability to handle the responsibility of voting.

If you can't show yourself to be law abiding and sensible, can you handle the vote? How many times was Emily Davison imprisoned? Was it A, eight? B, nine? Or C, six? The correct answer is A, eight.

Well done if you got that right.

So what I would like you to do for the Suffragettes is complete the following sentences.

The was formed in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters to fight for women's suffrage.

Their motto was not words, meaning they believed in direct action rather than peaceful tactics.

The event known as happened in 1910 when 300 Suffragettes were attacked during a march.

Was a Suffragette who died after being struck by the King's horse at the Epsom Derby in 1914 and finally, liberal leader promised to support women's suffrage, but failed to pass the 1910 Conciliation Bill.

Pause the video and complete those sentences with the missing words.

Great, well done for completing those sentences so you'll complete a sentences should look like this.

One, the WSPU was formed in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters to fight for women's suffrage.

Two, their motto was "Deeds not words", meaning they believed in direct action rather than peaceful tactics.

Three, the event known as Black Friday happened in 1910 when 300 Suffragettes were attacked during March.

Four, Emily Davison was a suffragette who died after being struck by the King's horse at the Epsom Derby in 1914.

And five, liberal leader Herbert Asquith promised to support women's suffrage, but failed to pass the 1910 Conciliation Bill.

So onto our final part of the lesson, the final learning cycle.

What impact did these campaigns have on rights? World War I led many women to take on traditionally male roles, especially in dangerous jobs like in munitions factories.

This massively increased female employment and helped gain support for women's suffrage.

Here you can see a photograph of some women working in a munitions factory building shells that were then taken over to France and Belgium and used against the Germans.

During the war, the Pankhursts stopped the Suffragettes' militant actions, but worked hard to highlight women's wartime contributions.

Even opening a nursery called "The Mother's Arms" to help support female workers.

Childcare was quite difficult if the husbands were away fighting or doing other jobs, you may not have had the support of family around you, but you wanted to help in the war effort.

So they opened a nursery to help with that.

Millicent Fawcett and Suffragists also supported the war efforts, but also continue to push for women's voting rights.

Recognising the need for new voting law for soldiers and sailors abroad, Fawcett demanded that women's suffrage be included in exchange for their support of the war effort.

True or false? The Suffragettes continued their militant campaign during World War I.

Is that true or false? It is false, well done.

Why? The Pankhursts stopped the Suffragettes' militant actions, but continued to keep the Government aware of how women were working under great strain to allow men to fight.

After World War I women were initially still denied suffrage.

The Prime Minister at the time, David Lloyd George, supported women's suffrage leading to the 1918 Representation of People Act, which gave women over 30 the right to vote if they met property or education requirements.

So there was still a restriction on women's ability to vote.

You had to be over the age of 30 and you had to have property, or have your husband had to have a property worth a certain amount, or you had to have a certain level of education.

However, many younger and poorer women remained excluded and full voting and quality of men was not achieved until 1928.

So 1918 Representation of the People Act actually gave all men over the age of 21 the right to vote.

Before that, there was still about 40% of men who couldn't vote.

So now they had working class men had equal voting rights, but women did not after 1918, and it wasn't until 1928 that they achieved equal voting rights with men.

True or false? The 1918 Representation of the People Act gave all women over the age of 21 the right to vote.

Is that true or false? It is false.

Well done if you got that right.

Why? The 1918 Representation of the People Act only granted the vote to women over 30 who met the property qualification or had a certain level of education.

Men on the other hand, were given all men were over the age of 21, were given the right to vote.

Today in the UK, women have the same voting rights as men.

Citizens can vote in elections if they meet the following eligibility requirements.

They're registered to vote.

They're over the age of 18.

They're a British citizen and they're not in prison.

There are laws which guarantee equality such as the Human Rights Act and the Equality Act.

So which of the following is not a requirement for women to vote in England? Do women A, have to be over 18? B, be a British citizen? C, be registered to vote? Or D, be a university graduate? Which is not a requirement for women to vote in England, A, B, C, or D? It is not a requirement for women to be a university graduate.

You do not have to have a university degree to vote in England.

However, it's not the case all over the world that women have equal voting rights to men.

Some women are not necessarily equally represented in Governments and Parliaments.

For example, in 2024, out of 195 countries worldwide, there are 15 women only serving as Head of Government and 19 as Head of State.

Only six countries have 50% or more women in Parliament.

40.

5% of MPs in the UK's House of Commons are female, which obviously is a significant number, but it's not equality.

244 female members of the UK's House of Lords, which is only 30%.

Women make up 43% of the members of the Senedd Cymru/Welsh Parliament, and 46% of Scottish Parliament and 37% of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

There are many examples of organisations who continue to campaign for women's rights and for more equal representation.

For example, 50:50 is a charity set up to build a better democracy in the UK by helping women progress in politics.

They work with all the political parties to inspire, inform, and support a diverse range of women from across the country through campaigns such as #AskHerToStand and #SignUpToStand.

Which of the following statements is true? Women make up 50% of all Parliaments worldwide? B, worldwide, there are 15 women serving as Head of Government? C, women make up 70% of MPs in the UK? And D, all countries have equal representation of women in Government.

Which of those statements A, B, C, or D is true? The answer is B.

Well done if you got that right.

Worldwide, there are 15 women serving as Head of Government as of 2024.

Onto our practise task.

I'd like you to discuss the following questions with a partner.

One, today women in the UK have the same voting rights as men.

How do you think the efforts of the Suffragists and Suffragettes influenced this? And two, why is equal representation in Government still an important issue today? Discuss those two questions with your partner whilst you pause the video and it might be a good idea to write down some of the points that you have discussed.

So you might have mentioned the following in your discussions to the question, how do you think the efforts of the Suffragists and Suffragettes influenced the fact that women have the same voting rights as men in the UK today? The efforts of the Suffragists and Suffragettes were crucial in securing the voting rights of that women have today in the UK.

The Suffragists, led by Millicent Fawcett, campaigned peacefully, while the Suffragettes, led by Emmeline Pankhurst, initially used more militant methods.

During World War I both the Suffragists and Suffragettes continued to campaign.

Their efforts raised awareness and pressured the Government, leading into the 1918 Representation of the People Act, which gave women over 30 the vote.

Full voting equality was achieved in 1928 when women gained the same rights as men.

For the second question, why is equal representation in Government still an important issue today? You may have mentioned the following in your discussions.

Equal representation in Government ensures that all voices, including women's, are heard in decision making.

Women, like men, are affected by policies, so having women in power leads to fairer, more balanced decisions.

In many countries, women are still underrepresented, which can result in policies that don't fully address their needs.

And organisations like 50:50 work to promote gender equality in politics, helping to create a more inclusive democracy and inspire future generations to get involved.

Here is a summary of what we have learned in the lesson, Which methods were most successful in the fight for female suffrage? Before 1918, women did not have suffrage.

Millicent Fawcett founded the Suffragists in 1897 to campaign peacefully for female suffrage through methods such as public meetings, marches, and petitions.

In 1903, Emmeline Pankhurst formed the Suffragettes, who adopted more militant methods, like smashing windows and chaining themselves to railings, believing direct action was needed to get the Government's attention.

The 1918 Representation of the People Act gave women over 30 the vote.

However, full voting equality didn't come until 1928 in the UK.

Despite progress, women are still underrepresented in Governments worldwide.

Organisations like 50:50 continue to fight for equality.

Thank you so much for learning with me today.

I hope that you have learned a lot and enjoyed your learning journey as much as I have.