World of Art Global Vintage Anti-Suffragette Propaganda 'Don't Marry A Suffragette', circa. 1905-1918, Reproduction 200gsm A3 Classic Vintage Suffragette Poster

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While it is not known why Phillips decided to send the ephemera to the library, the institution's decision to save and store the posters proves that they were valued—an unusual attitude at the time. Though treasured today, protest signs of the period were typically viewed as ephemera. Women’s Freedom Leaguewas formed in 1907 following a split within the Women’s Social and Political Union. What was the degree of support for the movement amongst the public? Did it cross all classes? [Sources: working class female workers participation, middle class female supporters]

Search Discovery using keywordsalong with department code referencesMEPO for the Metropolitan Police, PCOM for the Prison Commission and HO for the Home Office. Use these departmentcodes in the ‘search for or within references’ fields, along with akeyword and dates (if you wish)in the appropriate fields. Why was it so important for the suffragettes to be viewed as political prisoners? [sources: photographs, prison document on treatment of prisoners, leaders’ statements]This lists women’s studies resources in The National Archives together with original documents relating to suffrage in Britain, the Empire and colonial territories. 3.8 Newspaper reports Edexcel – A Level History: Protest, Agitation and Parliamentary Reform in Britain c1780-1928: The Women’s Social and Political Union. The visible historical discourse that surrounds ‘the woman question’, and more specifically speaking, the acquisition of the women’s right to vote, most frequently evokes the question from the Suffragette or the Suffragist point of view. Articles, books, photographs and exhibits centre on the unrelenting combat waged for sexual equality, the vote on the ‘same terms as men’. A recent exhibit has revealed the photos taken by the police of the Suffragettes in prison. But it also goes deeper than that, because these anti-suffrage women are saying the vote is going to disturb the American home. It’s going to alter gender roles in a way that is disruptive and unhealthy,” Weiss explains. “It’s going to make women compete with men—the anti-suffragists argue there will be more divorces because husbands and wives will argue about which candidates to vote for—but even deeper, it unsettles the idea of what the family is.”

The Anti-Suffrage League collected signatures against women having the vote and at a meeting on 26th March, 1909, Mary Humphry Ward announced that over 250,000 people had signed the petition. The following June she reported that the movement had 15,000 paying members and 110 branches and the number who had signed the petition had reached 320,000. Anti-suffragette postcard (1908) These postcards trumpeted false and highly exaggerated implications that liberated women would beget on society and, chiefly, that husbands would be left to care for the house and children alone while wives would go about on their own in public. Nowadays we take marketing for granted, but it was first used politically by the W.S.P.U, who created their campaign as a brand. There were well-designed logos, stylish exhibitions, spectacular processions and meetings in London and the major cities. Special colours represented the movement, purple, white and green for freedom, purity, and hope respectively. Supporters wore the colours and they were used on badges, bicycles, chocolate bars, cakes, jewelry and even a motor-car.Although the following photographs show Suffragettes marching and a peaceful unidentified suffrage poster procession, this does not signify that their demonstrations were non-violent. Men’s League for Women’s Suffragewas founded in 1907 and supported the work of the WSPU and Women’s Freedom League. Records of the Men's League for Women's Suffrage and other men’s suffrage societies are dispersed throughout the collection.

The library is full of anti-suffrage posters, too,” Delap says. “There were a lot of sexist feelings at the time, and there were anti-suffrage societies at Cambridge, founded by some very educated students. This will make another exhibition in the future, I’m sure.” What’s most interesting about this broadside, Weiss says, is that it was created by women, to disenfranchise women. But it also speaks to men. Perhaps most telling is the caption under the illustration of the hen flying the coop, so to speak, which reads: “Suffragist-Feminist Ideal Family Life.”Some posters explicitly call for ‘law-abiding’ meetings. Delap explains that the movement became divided on tactics, as many felt the continued denial of rights forced more drastic action. Certain government departments were involved in managing the response to the suffrage movement. You can search within records created by these departments by using the associated department code reference in Discovery advanced search.

There was a large attendance – chiefly of ladies – at the Queen’s Hall on Friday afternoon, where there was a debate on Women’s Suffrage. Mr. Charles Everard presided. Mr. Maconochie spoke against the extension of the franchise to women. Mr. Maconochie was opposed to suffrage because there were two many women to make it safe. There were 1,300,000 more women than men in the country, and he objected to the political voting power being placed in the hands of women. (5) Almroth E. Wright, The Times (April, 1912)

Anti-suffrage societies

Women have often been depicted as or associated with cats and feline imagery was commonly used in anti-suffrage posters and postcards. While there was a lot of support and sympathy for women’s rights in the late 19th century, particularly within Government, public opinion took a nasty turn when militant feminist groups started taking more extreme measures – resentment spread. While we may be more coded in our anxieties about women’s progress today, America’s most powerful institutions—and the men who run them—still stake their control on the assumption that women do not deserve the right to self-determination. For proof, consider the #MeToo movement, the gender pay gap, or the sheer reality that Donald Trump, who bragged about grabbing women “by the pussy,” was elected president. For women of color, the attempts at degradation are only amplified, as suppression of racial equality—when not presenting itself outright—pulses beneath our politics, culture, and economics as powerfully, and surreptitiously, as it did in that 1920s poster. A surprising ending Searchthe official reports of proceedings in the House of Commons and the House of Lordsfrom the late 19th andearly20th centuries for reference to the women’s suffrage movement. 3.7 Women in The National Archives