These were the pioneers of the movement. On a much larger scale, women gained new job opportunities. The emergence of department stores created reasonably well paid jobs with good conditions for young women. New technology like the typewriter created the female secretary, a job previously occupied by men. A number of new laws between 1857 and 1886 made the legal position of women slightly more equal than it had been before. Married Women by 1872 could now own property in their own right, rather than that property belonging to her husband.

These developments need to be kept in perspective. Many of the new opportunities which women gained came because men did not want them! Above all, women could not vote in national elections, although by the 1890s they played a full role in local elections. They also featured prominently on organisations like Schools Boards (the equivalent of today’s Boards of Governors).

A number of organisations had campaigned for women to be given the vote in the 19^th century. In 1897 these organisations came together to form the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). These Suffragists were mainly middle class women. They did not want the vote for all women. At that time all men did not have the vote. To qualify you had to own a certain amount of property. Women felt that any women who held the same property as men who qualified should also be allowed to vote. The Suffragists bombarded MPs with leaflets, letters and newspaper campaigns. They held rallies and demonstrations. However, they were up against some fierce opposition. Many women opposed women’s suffrage, and Queen Victoria was particularly opposed to it.

Despite the opposition, the Suffragist case was gaining support. There were 500 NUWSS branches at the turn of the century and the movement had gained the support of thousands of working class women as well. The Suffragist leader Millicent Fawcett believed that the growing support was like the slow but unstoppable movement of a glacier down a mountainside. By the early 1900s most MPs actually supported the idea of votes for women, but progress was hampered a combination of circumstances:

• Many Liberal MPs supported women’s suffrage. However, if women got the vote most were likely to vote for the Conservatives (the other main party of the time).
• Most Conservative MPs opposed women’s suffrage, even though they would probably gain from it.
• Both of the main parties felt that there were important matters for them to deal with than votes for women.

The frustration of this situation was too much for some of the more militant suffragists to cope with. In 1903 Emmeline Pankhurst founded the Women’s Social and Political Union. The WSPU believed that more radical and direct action was needed. The Daily Mail christened the new campaigners the Suffragettes. Throughout 1905-6 they disrupted political meetings. The plagued the Liberal Prime Minister Herbert Asquith.

Historians are divided about the impact of the Suffragettes. Some believed that although they achieved a high profile they actually set the cause of women’s suffrage back. Certainly the public was alienated by the more violent actions of the Suffragettes. The act of chaining themselves to railings was a curiosity, but slashing paintings in art galleries, cutting telephone wires and even arson were just too much.

We have to see Emily Davison’s death against this background. By 1913 the Suffragettes had lost much of the goodwill with the Suffragists had gained. There was also the fact that the country faced other terrible problems. There were frequent violent strikes and other industrial disputes as tensions between the rising trade unions and the employers became steadily worse. Ireland seemed on the verge of civil war. Above all, the threat of a great continental war seemed to be looming as Britain was involved in an arms race with Germany to build more and better ships of war. Against this background the apparently immature behaviour of a few women was not likely to be considered sympathetically.