Les Suffragettes

On 3 August 1832 Mary Smith applied to the British Parliament for a petition, and she also claimed to have the right to make laws and elect representatives, since she too paid taxes like men. To this Frederick trench a deputy, replied that it was impossible to have male and female juries because they would be forced to remain hours locked together and the situation would not be adequate. Thus ended the first debate on women's suffrage in the history of Great Britain. At that time, women were denied the right to practice medicine and the law, the right to access positions in the administration and the right to vote. At the beginning of the 19th century only 20 percent of men in parliamentary regimes thought about women's rights. Indeed, people thought that this responsibility should be entrusted to well-educated men who knew how to manage their priorities. It was therefore in 1860, 30 years later, that the movement gained momentum around a great cause: The right to vote for women because indeed if they could draw up and vote laws they could also change those that belittled them. The movement gained in publicity thanks to the development of the press and education. As the philosopher John Stuart Mill said, “in a country ruled by Queen Victoria, who had demonstrated her ability to lead, why were women not given the same rights as men?” In 1867 a new law was passed and following an error Lily Maxwell one of the suffragettes was able to vote for a candidate close to the suffragettes. To prevent her case from being followed by many others, it was clarified a few months later that the law made no reference to women. But this mistake allowed the first woman to vote. This event allows them to be better known however it also generates an anti-suffragist movement because these people thought that it would allow husbands to have two votes or even worse if both did not have the same opinion to create tensions in the couple. In 1897 the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies was formed, led by Millicent Fawcett. They made speeches in the street to plead their case which was very frowned upon because the girls of the time were educated to remain discreet, so the police often had to relieve them of the violence they could receive. Despite these improvements, the vote remains distant for some suffragettes; this is the opinion of the founders of the Women's Social and Political Union created in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst in order to fight more effectively for the conquest of the vote. This union will become more radical and their actions will become more spectacular sometimes violent. At this time the feminist movement split into two the radical wing, the suffragettes, and the moderate, the suffragists. Hundreds of suffragettes were imprisoned and subjected to harsh conditions of detention as a result of their actions. To obtain the status of political prisoners and the improvement of their living conditions in prison, they went on hunger strike. This poses a problem for the authorities, who want to prevent them from becoming martyrs at all costs. The solution is therefore forced feeding, a painful and dangerous process, which only arouses sympathy among the population towards the suffragettes. To avoid the dangers of forced feeding, in 1913 the so-called "cat and mouse" law made it possible to free prisoners weakened by hunger and to confine them once recovered. In addition, the many violent acts done by the suffragettes make people less fond of the movement. It is at this moment that the great world war begins, the violent branch ceases to be active and remains only the suffragists. The political activity of this group and the contribution of women in the rear, while men fight on the front, convinces Parliament and a large part of society that they deserve to vote as much as their fellow citizens. In February 1918, the law was approved which granted suffrage to women over 30 years of age and extended it to all men over 21 years of age. The happiness among the suffragettes is immense, but incomplete. Campaigns continued until in July 1928 the age of the female vote was raised to 21, as for the male vote, during a parliamentary session attended by the protagonists of the struggle, such as Fawcett and Despard, aged 81 and 84 respectively. Charlotte Despard then said: "I have never thought I would see the vote granted. But when one dream comes true, you have to look for the next.”

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