Hello, and thank you for joining me today for our history lesson.

My name is Mrs. Knox, and I'll be here to guide you through everything that you'll need to meet your learning objective.

So let's get started.

So welcome to today's lesson, which is part of our unit of work on the women's suffrage movement.

We're asking the question, "Why did it take so long for women to get the right to vote in Britain?" In today's lesson, we'll be looking at the campaigns for female suffrage, and by the end of the lesson, you will be able to explain the peaceful tactics of the early suffrage movement, and how it is brought together by Millicent Fawcett to form the NUWSS.

Now, there will be some useful vocabulary in our lesson today so let's quickly have a look at the words we'll come across.

The first word is suffrage, which means the right to vote, and the second word is suffragist which is a person advocating for the extension of the right to vote, especially to women.

Our lesson will have four parts today, and we're going to get started now.

On the first part of the lesson, which is about the start of the suffrage movement.

There were several objections raised to the idea of female suffrage.

Firstly, it was feared that women might vote for opposition political parties.

The two main parties in Britain at the start of the 20th century were the conservatives and the liberals.

The newly formed Labour party wanted all adults to have the right to vote, so it was feared that women would vote for them and the liberals and the conservatives would lose power.

Secondly, it was said that female suffrage was a threat to family life.

Women who got involved in politics might neglect their family and household duties.

Finally, it was claimed that women were too emotional to make sensible political decisions, partly because they lacked the knowledge, but also because it was believed that women were emotionally unsuited to political decision-making.

Despite this, as you can see from the front page of this suffragist newspaper, women who joined the suffrage movement were willing to wait and hope to persuade men that eventually they should have the right to vote.

Despite these arguments against female suffrage, a number of suffrage groups were set up across the country from the 1860s onwards.

These were often in urban areas such as Manchester, Birmingham, and Edinburgh, and focused on local campaigning.

There was no national movement to begin with, although all groups had a common goal, which was to achieve the right to vote through peaceful means.

A common method of achieving this was to lobby, which was to seek to influence a member of Parliament, an MP, and get him to raise the issue in Parliament.

Some MPs such as John Stuart Mill, who was the MP for Westminster City, supported women being given the right to vote and were able to speak in Parliament on behalf of the women's suffrage movement.

Okay, it is time to have a check of your understanding.

Is the answer to this question true or false? "Early suffragist groups held regional meetings and petitioned at local level." Is that true or false? Pause the video now, and when you're ready, press play and I'll reveal the answer.

Well done if you said it is true that the early suffragist groups did have regional meetings and petitioned at local level.

Why is that the correct answer? Is it A, early suffragist groups appeared all over the country, but were small local organisations or B, early suffragist groups were only based in the south of England.

Press pause and when you've written your answer, press play and I'll go through the correct answer.

That's right, you should have said A, early suffragist groups appeared all over the country, but they were small local organisations.

There was no national campaign.

Okay, let's have another quick check of your understanding.

"Which two statements below are correct?" Is it A, the suffragists faced opposition because there was concern that female voting would harm family life? Is it B, the suffragists faced opposition because of their violent methods, or C, the suffragists faced opposition because there was concern about which parties women would vote for? Two of the statements are true, one is false.

Press pause now and then when you're ready to see the answers, press play.

Welcome back.

Let's have a look at the correct statements.

You should have said that A, the suffragists faced opposition because there was concern that female voting would harm family life was correct, and you should also have said that C was correct.

The suffragists faced opposition because there was concern about which parties women would vote for.

Well done if you got both of those correct.

Finally, this is to put your knowledge into practise.

Have a look at this question.

You need to identify five errors in Lucas' statement.

Let's have a look at Lucas' statement.

Lucas says, "The suffragist groups were set up in rural areas and carried out national campaigning.

They aim to win the right to vote through violent means.

They forced MPs like Richard Stuart Mill to support them.

Press pause and when you finished your answer, press play, and I'll go through the correct answer.

Okay, welcome back.

Let's have a look at the five errors in Lucas's statement.

Lucas said, "Suffragist groups were set up in rural areas." He should have said in urban areas, and carried out national campaigning.

He should have said regional campaigning.

They aimed to win the right to vote through violent means.

Lucas should have said peaceful means.

They forced MPs.

Lucas should have said they persuaded MPs like Richard Stuart Mill.

He should have said John Stuart Mill to support them.

Well done if you spotted all five of Lucas' mistakes.

We're ready now to move on to the second part of today's lesson, which we'll focus on Millicent Fawcett and the creation of the NUWSS.

In 1887, the various suffragist societies across Britain became a national movement.

Their leader was Millicent Fawcett.

They joined together to form the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, the NUWSS.

Millicent Fawcett was born into a wealthy family from Suffolk, and from an early age, started a campaign with her sister, Elizabeth, on the issue of female suffrage.

Millicent Fawcett married an MP, Henry Fawcett, a campaigner for votes for women.

She went on to lead the campaign for women's suffrage, and today there is a statue of her in Parliament Square in London in recognition of her important role in the women's suffrage movement.

Okay, let's have a quick check of your understanding.

What does NUWSS stand for? Is it A, the National United Women's Suffragist Society? Is it B, the National Union of Women's Social Suffrage or C, the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies? Press pause and when you're ready, press play, and I'll reveal the answer.

Yes, well done, if you remembered that the NUWSS stands for the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies.

Like Millicent Fawcett, other leaders of the NUWSS were all upper and middle class women.

However, the NUWSS also attracted the support of working class women.

Although working class women had been pushing for change through trade union membership, they had found the trade unions to be male dominated organisations.

The NUWSS on the other hand, seemed to offer the chance to be part of an organisation promoting a stronger female voice.

The NUWSS gained support from factory workers in places like Lancaster and Glasgow.

One example of a working class suffragist was Selina Cooper who worked in a Lancaster cotton factory.

Women like Selina became known as radical suffragists, but they still believed in the peaceful campaign methods used by the NUWSS.

This helped the NUWSS to become an important national movement.

As to be successful, the NUWSS needed the support of women from the working class, not just the middle class.

And by 1914, the NUWSS had over 500 branches and 100,000 members.

Time to test your understanding once more.

Which two of these statements are correct? A, working class women supported the NUWSS.

B, the NUWSS was led by working class women.

C, trade unions worked hard for women's suffrage.

D, radical suffragists supported peaceful tactics.

Press pause and when you've completed your answer, restart the video.

Let's see how you got on.

You should have said that the two statements which are correct are A, working class women supported the NUWSS, and D, radical suffragists supported peaceful tactics.

Well done if you got both correct.

Finally, let's put everything that we've learned into practise.

What I'd like you to do is to read Jacob's point of view.

You need to come up with at least two reasons to support his view.

Let's see what Jacob's view is.

Jacob says, "The NUWSS was an important organisation which helped women gain the right to vote." Think now of two reasons which would support Jacob's view.

Press pause, complete your answer, and when you are ready, press play.

Let's see how you got on with the task.

To support Jacob's view that the NUWSS was an important organisation which helped women gain the right to vote.

You might have mentioned some of the following points.

You could have said that the NUWSS united the various suffrage groups and created a national organisation.

You might also have said that it was supported by working class as well as upper and middle class women.

And you also might have mentioned that by 1914, it had 500 branches across the country and 100,000 members.

It's time now to move on to the third part of our lesson today.

In this section, we'll focus on the tactics of the NUWSS.

The NUWSS used a variety of peaceful tactics.

One example was petitions.

A suffrage petition was a document signed by many people requesting that the government extend the vote to include women.

In 1866, 1500 people signed a petition, which was presented to Parliament by the MP John Stuart Mill, and in 1896, the suffragists collected 26,000 signatures for another petition.

A second method used by the NUWSS was lobbying.

This is where suffragists try to persuade MPs sympathetic to their cause to raise in Parliament the issue of votes for women.

The NUWSS would write letters to MPs to gain their support and to ask for their help in persuading other MPs to support their campaign.

A third tactic used by the NUWSS was holding marches.

This had the aim of raising awareness and displayed to the government and wider public that large numbers of people supported female suffrage.

For instance, in 1908, 10,000 women marched through London led by Millicent Fawcett.

Time to check your understanding.

"Which of these words best describes the tactics used by the NUWSS? A, aggressive, B, illegal, or C, peaceful?" Press pause and when you thought of your answer, restart the video.

Well done if you said the answer was C.

The tactics used by the NUWSS were peaceful.

Let's have another check of your understanding.

I'd like you to match up the NUWSS tactics to their correct description.

The tactics are on the left hand side of the screen.

We have petitions, lobbying, and marches.

Press pause now and when you finish matching them, press play and I'll reveal the answers.

Let's see how you got on.

For petitions, you should have said, it's the collection of signatures on a document for presentation to Parliament.

Lobbying is trying to persuade an MP to support female suffrage, and marches is when women showed their support for female suffrage by walking somewhere often carrying signs.

Well done if you've got them all right.

Finally, let's try this question.

"Which of the tactics do you think should have been the most effective in persuading the government to grant women the right to vote?" Remember to explain your answer.

Press pause, and when you finish, restart video.

Let's see how you got on with that.

Your answer might have included some of the following.

"In my opinion, lobbying would've been the most effective tactic because having the support of MPs such as John Stuart Mill meant he was able to put forward the arguments in favour of female suffrage in Parliament As a man and an MP, Mill would've been taken seriously and would've been able to persuade his fellow MPs to support the cause.

Petitions in marches would've raised awareness but were less likely to result in direct change." You might have come up with an alternative answer.

Just make sure that you've given reasons to support your view.

We're ready to move on now to the final part of our lesson today.

In this section, we'll focus on the early campaigns of the NUWSS.

The early campaigns of the suffragists focused on gaining the support of Parliament through lobbying MPs.

The NUWSS leaders believed that the best way to raise the issue of women's suffrage was through debates in Parliament.

Their efforts resulted in debates being held on the issue every year leading up to the third Reform Act.

However, women were still not granted the vote.

Parliament could choose to ignore even large scale protests and did not have to change the law.

Although their lack of action could have lost in support of men who supported the suffragists, MPs had a greater fear of the impact that female voters might have on which political party was elected to form the government.

Eventually, in 1910, a proposal was made to pass a law which would've allowed women to vote on an equal basis with men.

This was known as the conciliation bill.

Some MPs did not support this proposal as they wanted all men and women to be allowed to vote, not just property owning individuals.

In addition, the liberal prime minister of the period, Herbert Asquith, refused to allow the bill to be given the time needed to pass through parliament to become law.

He was against female suffrage as he feared that female voters would vote for the conservatives and that the liberals would lose power.

Therefore, some historians argue that the early campaigns of the suffragists were unsuccessful.

At the time, some campaigners started to believe that too much time had been wasted lobbying and began calling for a more drastic, disruptive and violent approach.

Time for a check of your understanding.

I'd like you to complete these sentences.

Press pause and when you're finished, we'll go through the answers.

Let's see how you got on.

You should have said for number one, "That the NUWSS leaders believed the best way to raise the issue of women's suffrage was through debates in parliament." For number two, you should have said, "A petition for women's suffrage in 1896 was signed by 26,000 people." And for number three, you should have said, "In 1910, a proposal was made to pass a law which would have allowed women to vote on an equal basis with men.

This was known as the Conciliation Bill." Well done if you've got them all correct.

Here's another quick check of your understanding.

"What was the name of the liberal Prime Minister who opposed female suffrage? Was it A, David Lloyd George? B, Herbert Asquith, or C, Stanley Baldwin?" Press pause and then when you're ready to hear the answer, press play.

You should have said that the correct answer is B, Herbert Asquith.

Herbert Asquith was the liberal prime minister and he opposed female suffrage.

Here's a final chance to put what you've learned into practise.

I'd like you to explain why the early campaigns of the suffragists failed to gain women the right to vote by 1914.

In your answer, try to mention at least two possible reasons.

Press pause now and when you've completed your answer, press play, and we'll see a possible answer.

Welcome back.

Let's see what you might have said.

"One reason why the early campaigns of the suffragists failed to gain women the right to vote is because the Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith, was opposed to it as he feared that female voters would vote for the conservatives and the liberals would lose power.

Therefore, he delayed the Conciliation Bill.

Another reason that their campaign failed was because of the NUWSS tactic of lobbying, petitions, and marches.

Although these tactics raised awareness of the cause, their calls for female suffrage could largely be ignored as Parliament could choose to ignore even large scale protests and did not need to change the law." I hope you got on okay with that question.

So we've reached the end of our lesson today.

Time for a quick summary of everything we've covered.

"Suffrage societies were regional rather than national groups when first created in the 1860s.

In 1897, Millicent Fawcett set up the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, the NUWSS, which united these groups.

The suffragists included working-class, as well as middle and upper-class women.

The NUWSS used peaceful methods to persuade the government to grant female suffrage but have not succeeded by 1914.

Thanks for all your work today,.

and I look forward to you joining me again in a future lesson when we're continuing our work on the women's suffrage movement and asking the question, why did it take so long for women to get the right to vote in Britain.