Protest, law and order in the twentieth century
6.4 Suffragettes and the media
Learning outcomes
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By the end of this topic you should be able to:
•
consider how the media reacted to the
suffragette protest
•
explore how successfully the suffragettes
used the media to promote their cause.
The death of Emily Davison
At the 1913 Derby horse race, suffragette Emily
Davison tried to stop the king’s horse as a protest
that would be seen by the royal family and all
the world’s media. Sadly, she was knocked down
and her skull was fractured by the horse’s hooves.
Three days later, she died without ever regaining
consciousness. The suffragette leaders didn’t know
that she was planning this protest. No one knows to
Source A: The front page of the Daily Sketch, 8 June 1913.
this day whether she meant just to stop the horse
or whether she intended to be run down by it.
At first, the media and the general public were
angry at what seemed a pointless death from an
irresponsible act. However, the WSPU organised
two massive funerals for her, one in London and
one in Morpeth, her home town. They made her a
martyr for the cause of votes for women.
The death of Emily Davison illustrates some
important themes in the suffragette protest. Only
a small number of women were ever involved in
the violent campaign for women’s suffrage, yet the
suffragettes managed to get massive media interest
in their campaign (which meant newspaper
coverage at this time). Why was this?
• Women breaking the law and being arrested and
imprisoned was dramatic.
• Edwardian society valued modest, decent women
who were happy to serve as wives and mothers.
Suffragettes were shocking to many and made for
good newspaper stories as a result.
• The suffrage movement put the government
under pressure and this was interesting to
newspaper readers.
• Newspapers themselves were for or against
women’s suffrage.
• The authorities used violence against newspapers
that supported women.
• The suffragettes were very good at publicity
– their tactics were always designed to get
newspaper coverage.
Some newspapers were always totally against
the call for women to be given the vote. This
was especially true of The Times, which often ran
articles and editorials condemning the campaign,
even before the WSPU began to damage property.
Source B: An extract from The Times, 1912.
The suffragettes are a regrettable by-product of our
civilisation, out with their hammers and their bags full
of stones because of dreary, empty lives and highstrung, over-excitable natures.
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Suffragettes 1903–14 (Political protest)
Not all newspapers had this attitude to the
principle of votes for women all the time.
• When campaigners restricted themselves to
non-violent methods, there was often support
for them in some newspapers.
• When the reactions of the police seemed
unnecessarily violent or inappropriate (as on
‘Black Friday’), some newspapers, such as the
Daily Mirror, reported the incidents and published
several photographs.
• The magazine Punch generally supported
women’s suffrage because it thought the Liberal
government had done such a bad job in tackling
the issue.
Source C: An extract from The Daily Chronicle, 1911, before
the WSPU began its more violent methods.
With sure and certain steps the cause of women’s
suffrage is marching to victory. Saturday’s remarkable
procession in London served as a prelude to the
inevitable triumph. This peaceful pageant was one of
the most impressive demonstrations that London has
ever witnessed.
However, by and large the newspapers were against
votes for women and were hostile to the suffragettes’
tactics. What is interesting is that newspapers only
really gave serious coverage to women’s suffrage
when the suffragettes started using violent tactics.
So, even though the newspapers might be critical of
the violent methods, they still gave the suffragettes
what they wanted – publicity.
How successful was the
suffragettes’ use of the media?
If most media coverage of the suffragettes was
negative, did that mean their campaign had failed?
It is fair to say that what the suffragettes were
trying to achieve was attention, and it didn’t really
matter whether it was positive or negative.
For the WSPU, though, the aim was to force change
by exploiting every opportunity to put pressure
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on the government. This brought negative media
coverage, and also their most militant tactics
meant that the WSPU began to lose members to
the NUWSS. Many important men tried to dismiss
the suffragettes by claiming that those involved in
such violent activities were mentally unstable or
hysterical. Although public opinion was often hostile
to the suffragettes, they kept the media’s attention.
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Activities
Study Sources A, B and C.
1 How does Source A cover Emily Davison’s
action (remember she died three days after the
accident, so was still alive when the story was
written)? What inferences can you draw from
the main heading (the word ‘wonderful’, for
example) about the way the media responded to
the suffragette campaign as a whole?
2 Source A is from the Daily Sketch. Would you
say this newspaper was closer to the viewpoint
of Source B or Source C, or somewhere in
between? Explain your answer by referring to
both sources and the information on this page.
For discussion
3 Do you think the actions of the suffragettes
helped or hindered their cause?
Summary
• The media gave lots of coverage to the suffragettes’
actions for many different reasons, but perhaps most
of all because the stories sold newspapers.
• The suffragettes designed their actions to get
newspaper headlines.
• Newspaper coverage was broadly hostile to the
suffragettes, with some exceptions.
• Newspaper coverage, positive or negative, fuelled
the protest and put pressure on the government
to respond.
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