In 19th century one of the few acceptable jobs for women was nursing. The most famous nurse of this time was Florence Nightingale. She was born in 1820 into a rich, upper-class, well-connected British family at the Villa Colombaia,
In 1900s poor women worked in very bad conditions. Middle and upper-class women stayed at home, but some British middle-class women worked as teachers or nurses and a few were doctors, anyway they still did not have the vote . In contrast, men have a vote even if they could have no job or be criminals . A growing number of women thought this was very unfair and their leader was Emmeline Pankhurst.
Emmeline Pankhurst was a political activist and leader of the British suffragette movement. Her real surname was Goulden. She was born on 14 July
In 1889, she started her first political group with the help of her husband: the Women's Franchise League, which fought to allow married women to vote in local elections. In 1903, she started the WSPU (Women’s Social and Political Union) to fight for the vote for women. The word “suffrage” means ‘the right to vote’ so the newspapers called Emmeline and her followers “suffragettes”
Emmeline's daughters Christabel and Sylvia were both active in the cause. British politicians, press and public were astonished by the demonstrations, window smashing, arson and hunger strikes of the suffragettes. In 1913, WSPU member Emily Davison was killed when she threw herself under the King's horse at the
Like many suffragettes, Emmeline was arrested many times over the next few years and went on hunger strike herself, resulting in violent force-feeding. In
In 1914, the action stopped because of the First World War. Emmeline turned her energies to supporting the war effort. “What is the use of fighting for a vote if we have not got a country to vote in?” – Emmeline said.
Women did men’s jobs during the war and this increased the pressure to give women the vote.
At the end of the war in 1918, women who were more than 30 years old and who were married with a home got the vote. Women did not get the same voting rights as men until 1928.
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