Suffragettes: feminist heroines of early democracies

In order to understand the present, we must delve into the past and the first movements that started the shift from despotism to a time when there is much more equality. In the case of gender equality, the first people to push for change were suffragettes, representatives of one of the first forms of feminism.

But... Who exactly were the suffragettes and what did they stand for?

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What are suffragettes?

The suffragettes or "suffragettes" in English, were a political-social group that emerged at the end of the 19th century and was consolidated at the beginning of the 20th century. In its beginnings it was headed by the famous Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928), an atypical figure since its inception, fleeing from the traditionalist feminine laminate (that is, in part, because she did not receive a education of a "little princess", as historians point out, but she was raised and educated in the bosom of a family that vindicates rights civil).

It is therefore a political and social movement of organized women that during the 19th century they had a political battle with the authorities of male-dominated England, in a context in which women experienced abuse sexually in their jobs by the masters, they were denied the right to study and the husband had the power to punish his wife as he considered timely.

Roughly, the suffragettes distance themselves from the conventional peaceful demands or by word of mouth to take action: "Deeds, not words" (Facts, not words).

This motto was spearheaded by this movement on a permanent basis, suggesting acts that would attract the attention of the British authorities. Well, this guideline was taken at face value, and therefore the pressure exerted by this political group became impossible to ignore.

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Inspiration and political references

Like any great important and influential person in history, Emmeline Pankhurst received from her childhood an upbringing and awareness of social progress. These values ​​were evident in the movement that she led.

The suffragettes were motivated by the feminist magazine "Women’s Suffrage Journal," founded in 1870 by Lydia Becker and Jessie Boucherett. Considered the earliest women's rights activists, Emmeline and her mother Sophia Jane met Lydia Becker at a meeting dealing with women's suffrage. "I came out of that meeting convinced that I was a committed suffragette," said Pankhurst.

Another turning point for the suffragette movement was the fact that seize the values ​​of the French Revolution with a little nuance: equality. All claims for civil and human rights, protests or other similar demands were intended exclusively for men, the movement denounced.

Modus operandi of suffragettes

Women's suffrage rights date back to the early nineteenth century, but it wasn't until the mid- this period that the suffrage movement did not settle in England (around 1855 approximately). Imitating any other type of protest policy, at the beginning the movement was articulated peacefully and democratically, introducing amendments in the English Parliament to expand women's rights.

It was at the end of the 19th century that the Suffragettes decided to take another path. When a petition was rejected in the House of Commons by Deputies John Stuart Mill and Henry Fawcett, the famous "Ladies Petition" to change the word "man" for "person" when referring to the suffrage, the National Society for the Suffrage of Women was created by the aforementioned Lydia Becker.

The revolution in the streets

After unfulfilled promises, misleading laws and institutional contempt for everything that had been claimed to date, the first public incidents are recorded at the hands of the suffragettes: riot, disorderly conduct, urban violence, property damage and even the occasional terrorist act against Finance Minister David Lloyd George on his own Mansion.

One of the victims belonging to suffrage, Emily Wilding Davison, was a martyr in 1913 to the assault King George V's horse to show him the flag of his organization and give voice to his discontent. "A tragedy would prevent thousands to come," Emily defended until her death.

The legacy of the first feminist struggle

Thanks to the busy but successful track record of the suffragettes,some of the greatest achievements have been made for women's rights. Everything changed in 1928, when the right to vote for women was approved. Later, the admission of the students to Universities such as Oxford or Harvard would be accepted, including the female deputies in the European parliaments, protagonism in the world of cinema with films that recall the struggle of the suffragettes.

Another of the movement's greatest achievements is the union it achieved at the class level, thus absorbing another issue worthy of claim. Women workers in factories, servants of the nobility and women of that same nobility, fought side by side with elbow for a common goal: "freedom or death", as another of the slogans of the suffragism.