Hello, thanks for joining me today.

My name's Mrs. Knox, and I'm here to guide you through everything that you need to be successful with your learning objective today.

So let's get started.

Welcome to today's lesson.

This 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 our lesson today, we'll be learning about the suffragettes.

And by the end of the lesson, you'll be able to explain why some women were frustrated by the lack of progress of the N-U-W-S-S and why the more radical W-S-P-U was formed.

To get us started, here's some key words that we'll use in our lesson.

The first word is suffrage.

This means the right to vote.

The second word is suffragist.

A suffragist is a person advocating for the extension of the right to vote, especially to women.

Our third word is suffragette.

A suffragette is a woman seeking the right to vote through organised and sometimes violent protests.

And our final word is radical.

Radical means departing from tradition.

Now, our lesson today will have three parts.

The first part, which we'll start now, is the reasons for the creation of the W-S-P-U.

In the early 20th century, women were excluded from voting.

In this image from a British magazine, the man is telling the woman that she should go home and leave the voting to men.

The Women's Social and Political Union, or the W-S-P-U was created in 1903 and was born out of the suffragist movement.

Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst, who had been a member of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, the N-U-W-S-S, decided to form a separate organisation because she was impatient with the suffragists' lack of progress in gaining female suffrage.

Whereas the suffragists had decided to use peaceful methods of persuasion such as speeches and petitions, the model of the W-S-P-U was deeds, not words.

This meant their members were prepared to take a more radical approach to get the vote.

Pankhurst believed that speeches and petitions were not getting anywhere, and that the issue of women's suffrage was so important that she was prepared to use violent methods of protest.

Women who supported a radical approach were called suffragettes.

Unlike the suffragists, which included men and who campaigned peacefully, the W-S-P-U was a woman-only group prepared to use militant or violent types of protests.

Pankhurst created a well organised society in which she was assisted by her daughters, Christabel and Sylvia.

Many high profile suffragettes were from middle or upper class backgrounds, like the Pankhursts or Princess Sophia Duleep Singh, who was an Indian princess and goddaughter to Queen Victoria.

However, there were also working class suffragettes like Annie Kenney, a Yorkshire factory worker who became involved with the campaign in order to highlight inequalities within society.

It is time for a quick check of your understanding.

I'd like you to answer this question.

What does the W-S-P-U stand for? Is it A, the Women's Social and Political Union, B, the Women's Suffrage and Political Union, or C, the Women's Secret Political Union? Press pause and when you finished your answer, press play.

That's right, you should have said that the correct answer is A.

The W-S-P-U stands for the Women's Social and Political Union.

Here's another quick check of your understanding.

Is it true or false? The W-S-P-U included men as well as women.

Press pause and when you're ready, press play.

The correct answer is false.

Why is the answer false? Is it because A, the W-S-P-U excluded men and was for upper and middle class women only.

Or B, the WSPU excluded men and was for working class as well as middle and upper class women.

Think carefully about your answer.

Press pause, and when you are ready, press play and I'll go through the answer.

You should have said that the reason the answer was false was because the W-S-P-U excluded men and was for working class as well as middle and upper class women.

Now we're ready to put everything we've learned into practise.

I'd like you to attempt this question.

Why was the W-S-P-U created? You should try to list at least two reasons in your answer.

Press pause and when you're finished, press play and I'll go through some possible answers.

Welcome back.

So you might have said that the reason why the W-S-P-U was created was because Emmeline Pankhurst believed that not enough progress was being made by the N-U-W-S-S.

You might also have mentioned that Pankhurst wanted deeds, not words.

She did not think that speeches or petitions were achieving anything.

Finally, you might have said that Pankhurst thought that the cause of women's suffrage was so important that she was prepared to use militant types of protests, which the N-U-W-S-S would never have allowed.

Well done if you got any of those points.

It's time now to go on to the second part of our lesson today, which will focus on suffragette tactics.

The suffragette campaigns became gradually more violent over time.

To begin with, a key tactic was the organisation of large scale demonstrations.

These were frequently held outside of Parliament with some women even chaining themselves to railings as publicity stunts.

Political meetings were also disrupted and members of Parliament were taunted and followed.

Vandalism, such as window smashing, was another tactic used to gain attention, a spree of which occurred in late 1911 and the spring of 1912.

Some of the women involved in this spree were also convicted of arson, which is setting fire to property.

And between 1912 and 1914, the W-S-P-U launched an arson attack which involved the use of letter bombs.

Tragically, this campaign resulted in four deaths and a number of injuries.

The consequence of radical acts was imprisonment in places such as Holloway Prison in London where some 300 suffragettes were imprisoned for acts of sabotage.

These imprisoned suffragettes believed that their actions should not just be regarded as criminal acts, but they should be judged as political protestors instead.

At the time, political prisoners were treated differently in the prison system.

Some of the imprisoned women went on hunger strikes to gain further publicity for their cause, or to draw attention to the fact that they were not being classed as political prisoners.

At first, these women were released as the government feared criticism from the public.

But as time progressed and more women went on hunger strike, the women were force fed in prison.

This resulted in further government criticism as force feeding was a brutal process that could cause long-term, irreversible physical damage.

As a result of the force feeding, the imprisoned suffragettes gained a lot of public sympathy for their cause.

The headquarters of the W-S-P-U had originally been in Manchester, which was the hometown of the Pankhursts.

However, in 1906, the W-S-P-U relocated to London, and after this, their activities became more violent.

However, the most radical period of suffragette activity was in the 18 months prior to the outbreak of the first World War.

It was during this time that a suffragette named Emily Davison threw herself in front of the King George V's horse at the Derby horse race in Epson.

This resulted in her sustaining significant injuries and in her eventual death a few days later.

Historians are divided on Davidson's motive, but regardless, her death was used by the suffragettes to try to gain sympathy for the cause of female suffrage.

However, by this point, many politicians and members of the public felt that the suffragettes had caused too much disruption to British society.

And even within the W-S-P-U itself, there were disagreements about how much violence was justified.

Some suffragettes believed that violence helped to progress votes for women, but others felt it held back the suffrage movement.

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

I'd like you to answer this question.

Where did the headquarters of the W-S-P-U relocate to in 1906? Was it A, Birmingham, B, London, or C, Devon? Press pause and when you've got your answer, press play.

You should have said that the correct answer is B.

In 1906, the W-S-P-U relocated their headquarters to London.

Here's another quick check of your understanding.

Is the answer true or false? Suffragette tactics became more violent over time.

Press pause and then press play when you're ready to hear the answer.

The answer is true.

Why is the answer true? Is it because, A, the most radical tactics were used in the 18 months prior to the first World War, or B, there was a gradual increase in the use of speeches and petitions? Press pause, think of your answer and then press play when you're ready to go on.

You should have said that the reason that the answer is true is because the most radical tactics were used in the 18 months prior to the first World War, and therefore, the suffragette tactics did become more violent over time.

Well done if you got that right.

Finally, let's put our knowledge into practise.

I'd like you to match each of the suffragette tactics to its relevant description.

We have the tactics on the left hand side.

They are hunger strike, arson, and window smashing.

You need to match them up to the correct description.

Press pause now and when you've finished, press play and I'll go through the answers.

Okay, let's see how you got on.

You should have matched hunger strike to a method of protest during which food is refused.

For arson, you should have said, it is deliberately setting fire to a property.

And finally, window smashing is an act of vandalism where shops, businesses, or houses have their windows broken through stone throwing.

Let's try this question.

Can you explain which of the suffragette tactics you think would've been the most effective and why? Pause the video now and then press play when you're ready to see a possible answer.

Welcome back.

Let's see how you got on.

Your answer might have included the following.

In my opinion, the tactic of going on hunger strike would've been the most effective.

Smashing windows and arson attacks could have been seen as just criminal acts of vandalism.

Whereas it is more likely that hunger strikers would've been considered as political protestors rather than criminals.

Furthermore, women on hunger strike would've received more sympathy, which would've encouraged more people to support the campaign for women's suffrage.

It's time to move on to the final part of today's lesson.

This will focus on the divisions within the women's suffrage movement.

Another division within the W-S-P-U concerned which women should actually be allowed to vote.

Although their slogan was "Votes for Women," there was a question mark over exactly which women should be included in the franchise.

It is important to remember that when the W-S-P-U was set up in 1903, only 60% of men could vote.

The poorest and the least skilled 40% could not.

Although there were some suffragettes who believed in universal suffrage, whereby all women should be allowed to vote, had this been granted, it would've led to a situation where there were more female voters than male voters.

Therefore, the aims of the W-S-P-U were revised in 1907 to become more conservative.

In other words, less radical.

"Votes for Women," no longer meant votes for all women, but instead it meant votes for women on equal terms with men.

This meant that the suffragette's revised aim was for female taxpayers only to be allowed the right to vote.

It's time to have a check of your understanding.

I'd like you to discuss this question with a partner.

The question is why were there disagreements within the W-S-P-U? Pause the video just now to have your conversation and when you are ready, press play.

Welcome back.

Here are some of the things that you may have discussed with your partner.

You may have discussed that some campaigners wanted universal suffrage.

In other words, for all women to be able to vote.

And that this caused a disagreement.

Something else they disagreed about was the issue of whether only female taxpayers should have the right to vote on the same terms as men.

Finally, you might also have discussed that there were divisions about whether violent methods were effective or not.

Well done if you got quite a few of those points.

Here's a question for you to try on your own this time.

In what year did the aims of the W-S-P-U become more conservative? In other words, when did they switch from wanting votes for all women to votes for women on terms with men? Was it in A, 1900 B, 1907, or C, 1918? Pause now and when you're ready to hear the answer, press play.

Well done If you said that the correct answer is B.

In 1907, the aims of the W-S-P-U became more conservative.

Instead of wanting votes for all women, they now only wanted votes for women on equal terms with men.

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

I'd like you to read the views of Laura and Sofia.

Who do you agree with the most and why? Let's hear from Laura first.

Laura says that, "The women's movement was mostly united in its goals." Sofia thinks, "The women's movement was divided over a number of issues." Pause the video now.

Think carefully about who you agree with and why.

Press play when you're ready to hear some thoughts.

Welcome back.

If you decided that you agreed with Laura, your answer may have included some of the following.

I mostly agree with Laura as both suffragists and suffragettes agreed on the key principle of women having voting rights.

Although they had different tactics, their key message about female inequality was the same and was effectively publicised through the different methods they used.

Despite internal divisions within the W-S-P-U, all suffragettes still had the same aim, women gaining suffrage.

Alternatively, you might have agreed with Sophia.

If you did, your answer might have included the following.

I mostly agree with Sofia as the women's suffrage movement was made up of a number of groups who did not even agree on the aim of their campaign.

Radical suffragettes hoped that all women would gain the right to vote, but some women only hoped to gain equal rights with men.

The use of violence was controversial and both suffragists and even some suffragettes became critical of these tactics.

We've reached the end of today's lesson on the suffragettes.

Let's have a quick summary of what we've learned.

The lack of progress made by the suffragists led Emmeline Pankhurst to create the W-S-P-U in 1903.

The suffragettes were willing to use more radical tactics than the suffragists in order to gain female suffrage.

The actions of the suffragettes became more violent and radical as their campaign progressed, especially after their headquarters moved from Manchester to London in 1906.

There were divisions within the W-S-P-U and the wider women's suffrage movement over how radical their tactics should be and which types of women should gain suffrage.

Well done for all your hard work in today's lesson.

I look forward to you joining me in a future lesson where we will continue to learn about the women's suffrage movement.

I hope that you feel confident that you've met your learning objective.