1906 WSPU march
1906 WSPU march | |||
---|---|---|---|
Part offirst-wave feminism | |||
Date | 19 February 1906 | ||
Location | House of Commons,England 51°29′59.6″N0°07′28.8″W/ 51.499889°N 0.124667°W | ||
Caused by | Fight forwomen's suffrage | ||
Methods | Demonstrations, marches, hectoring politicians | ||
Resulted in | 300–400 women march to theHouse of Commons | ||
Parties | |||
Lead figures | |||
Emmeline Pankhurst(WSPU) Prime MinisterHenry Campbell-Bannerman | |||
Followed by:Mud March (organized by theNUWSS) |
The1906 WSPU marchon 19 February 1906 was the first march held in London to demand theright to vote for women in the United Kingdom.Organized bySylvia PankhurstandAnnie Kenneyof theWomen's Social and Political Union(WSPU), the event saw around 300–400 women march through central London to theHouse of Commons.It was held to coincide with the King's Speech and theopening of Parliament.[1]
Two hundred women fromBow,Bromley,Canning TownandPoplarin the East End marched toCaxton Hall,near the Commons, fromSt James's Park tube station.[2]There,Emmeline Pankhurstheard there was no mention of votes for women in the King's Speech and led the women on another march to the CommonsStrangers' Entrance.Over the following two hours, the women were allowed to enter in groups of 20 to lobby their MPs.[3]TheDaily Mirrorreported the event on page 5: "Voteless Women. 3,000 [sic] Demonstrators March Behind a Red Banner. Smiling but Earnest."[4]
Emmeline Pankhurst saw the march as the beginning of a militant women's suffrage movement.[5]The women "were awake at last", she wrote. "They were prepared to do something that women had never done before—fight for themselves. Women had always fought for men, and for their children. Now they were ready to fight for their own human rights. Our militant movement was established."[6]
References
[edit]- ^Purvis 2002,p. 79.
- ^Kelly 2004,p. 333.
- ^Kelly 2004,p. 334;Van Wingerden 1999,p. 75.
- ^Kelly 2004,p. 334.
- ^Van Wingerden 1999,p. 75.
- ^Pankhurst 1914,p. 38.
Works cited
[edit]- Kelly, Katherine E. (2004). "Seeing through Spectacles: The Woman Suffrage Movement and London Newspapers, 1906–13".European Journal of Women's Studies.11(3): 327–353.CiteSeerX10.1.1.900.525.doi:10.1177/1350506804044466.S2CID143436264.
- Pankhurst, Emmeline(1914).My Own Story.London: Eveleigh Nash.
- Purvis, June(2002).Emmeline Pankhurst: A Biography.London and New York: Routledge.
- Van Wingerden, Sophia A. (1999).The Women's Suffrage Movement in Britain, 1866–1928.New York: Palgrave Macmillan.