Manchester, England. 1908.
Wikimedia Commons St. Catherine's church burns after being set on fire by two suffragettes.Hatcham, London. 1913.
Hulton Archive/Getty Images A protester clashes with policemen on Black Friday.These women had come out to protest Prime Minister Henry Asquith's delays in passing the Conciliation Bill, which would have given property-owning women the right to vote. When the women tried to run past the police, it turned violent. 119 people were arrested.
Westminster, London. 1910.
Museum of London/Heritage Images/Getty Images Suffragette Ada Wright is viciously beaten by police officers on Black Friday.Black Friday would be a turning point in the women's suffrage movement. From here on, Emmeline Pankhurst and her suffragettes would start using guerrilla tactics like arson and vandalism to fight for their right to vote.
Westminster, England. 1910.
Wikimedia Commons A Suffragette is force-fed.Many suffragettes protested their arrests by going on hunger strikes. Guards resorted to force-feeding them, a painful procedure that often involved shoving tubes up their noses.
London. 1911.
Wikimedia Commons Suffragette Emily Davison meets her tragic end.Davison ran out onto the racetrack at the Epsom Derby and stood in front of King George's horse in protest (although some claim she had other motives), getting herself trampled to death in the process.
Surrey, England. June 4, 1913.
LSE Library Emily Davison lies trampled under the king's horse.There are countless theories about why Davison let herself get trampled to death by a horse. Some see it as an act of protest, like a self-immolation. Others think it was an accident and she was only trying to attach a banner to the horse. And some think she was simply suicidal, looking for a way to end her life with meaning.
Surrey, England. June 4, 1913.
Wikimedia Commons The house of Liberal MP Arthur du Cros, burned to cinders by suffragettes.Hastings, England. 1913.
Museum of London/Heritage Images/Getty Images A defiant suffragette is pulled away by police.London. 1913.
Library of Congress A hammer confiscated from a suffragette, used as part of the window-smashing campaign.London. 1913.
Topical Press Agency/Getty Images The Kew Gardens Tea House, burned to the ground by suffragettes.London. 1913.
Library of Congress American suffragette Helena Weed behind bars.Washington D.C. 1918.
Wikimedia Commons The Rokeby Venus, a painting by Diego Velázquez, after being hacked with a butcher's knife by a suffragette.London. 1914.
Wikimedia Commons Suffragettes proudly hold up a smashed window.London. 1912.
Museum of London/Heritage Images/Getty Images Emmeline Pankhurst speaks to a crowd at Wall Street.New York City. 1911.
Library of Congress A watchfire burns outside the White House.This fire wasn't the only one set outside the White House that day. One woman made an effigy of President Woodrow Wilson and set it aflame.
Washington D.C. 1919.
Wikimedia Commons Suffragette Susan Fitzgerald plasters bills in support of women's suffrage.Massachusetts, United States. 1911.
Library of Congress A crowd gathers to see a suffragette protest.United States. 1908.
Wikimedia Commons The roughly repaired window of a shop that has been damaged in the window-smashing campaign.London. 1912.
Library of Congress A suffragette is arrested for trying to storm Buckingham Palace.London. 1914.
Flickr/Leonard Bently In the wake of the window-smashing campaign, police stand guard outside of a shop.London. 1911.
Topical Press Agency/Getty Images Mary Leigh leads a group of suffragettes on a parade.Leigh had one of the boldest track records of all the suffragettes. She was the first to smash windows, she tried to burn down a theater in the Dublin, and she threw an ax at the Prime Minister.
London. 1909.
LSE Library Elizabeth Elmy, called "England's oldest militant suffragist," waves to a crowd.England. 1911.
LSE Library Police arrest a group of suffragettes, protesting outside a Senate office building.Washington D.C. 1918.
Library of Congress A male supporter of the suffrage movement is forcibly ejected from a building.He joined a group of women who stormed the City Temple to interrupt a speech from the chief secretary for Ireland.
London. Circa 1907-1914.
LSE Library Flora Drummond and a group of other women are arrested for trying to storm the House of Commons.London. 1906.
LSE Library The Women's Social and Political Union plans their next move.England. 1913.
LSE Library Emmeline Pankhurst is arrested inside of the Women's Social & Political Union office.London, England. 1908.
LSE Library Emmeline Pankhurst is dragged out of Buckingham Palace, in another one of her many arrest.London. 1914.
Wikimedia Commons Emmeline Pankhurst and fellow suffragettes Flora Drummond and Christabel Pankhurst in court.London. 1908.
LSE Library An entire division of a prison is set up to handle the massive influx of suffragette prisoners.London. 1910.
Museum of London/Heritage Images/Getty Images Christabel Pankhurst, daughter of Emmeline Pankhurst, holds up a banner that reads, "690 imprisonments to win freedom for women."England. 1911.
LSE Library Suffragettes wave out the windows of their cells in Holloway Prison.London. 1909.
Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images A friend helps suffragette Kate Heffelfinger after her release from prison.Virignia. 1917.
Library of Congress Emmeline Pankhurst steps out of court.When Mrs. Pankhurst went to jail and started her hunger strike, parliament panicked. They couldn't risk letting someone as influential as Pankhurst starve, nor could they let pictures of her getting force-fed go out to the public. They rushed through a law known as the "Cat And Mouse Act," which allowed them to let her go and then arrest her again the second she ate a morsel of food.
London. Circa 1908-1912.
LSE Library A crowd gathers to welcome Mary Leigh after her release from prison.London. 1908.
LSE Library A procession of women lead Mary Leigh down the road, celebrating her release. After a long hunger strike, they are taking her out for breakfast.London. 1908.
LSE Library Emmeline Pankhurst smiles, looking out at her supporters from the back of her car.England. 1910.
LSE Library
Deeds, Not Words: 38 Photos That Show The Militant Side Of The Suffrage Movement View GalleryWomen didn’t win the vote by holding up signs and waiting for men to give them permission. They took the fight to the streets – and, though history usually brushes over the dirty details, it was sometimes violent. Some of the more militant suffragettes smashed windows, set buildings on fire, and once even tried to assassinate Britain's Prime Minister.
These women largely came from the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), one of the leading organizations advocating for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom in the early 1900s.
For decades beforehand, women had generally tried to win their rights peacefully, but in 1903, that changed. That year, Emmeline Pankhurst formed the WSPU under the motto "deeds, not words.”
At first, most of the suffragettes’ “deeds” consisted of holding rallies and heckling politicians. Only a few were truly militant – like Mary Leigh, who started smashing store windows as a form of protest.
Leigh ended up in prison after one particular vicious day. She hurled an ax at Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, missing his head but wounding another man in his carriage. Leigh fled before they could find her, but was caught later in the day trying to burn a theater to the ground.
The suffragettes went guerilla in 1910, after a day that went down in history as “Black Friday”. When Asquith delayed passing the Conciliation Bill, which would have given property-owning women the right to vote, a group of 300 women tried to storm the House of Commons in protest. The police became violent, brutally beating the women and arresting 119 people.
From that day on, the suffragettes became increasingly violent. They took up Mary Leigh’s window-smashing campaign, walking through the streets with hammers and breaking every shop window they saw. They burned buildings to the ground, usually targeting the homes of politicians or clubs that only allowed men. Until they got the right to vote, they would make life for men hell.
Hundreds of women were arrested. In prison, many went on hunger strikes. Prison guards started force-feeding them to keep them alive, often having to jam tubes painfully up their noses to do it. Eventually, authorities passed the “Cat and Mouse Act,” a law that allowed them to set hunger-striking suffragettes free and arrest them the second they’d eaten a morsel of food.
Ultimately, World War I brought an end to the violence. The suffragettes called for a peace treaty during the war and, shortly after, women won the right to vote.
Time passed, and the memory of those militant days started to fade. Today, most of the stories we hear and photos we see of their movement are of women holding signs or handing out petitions – but it took much more than that to win the right to vote. It took a revolution – with hammers, axes, and fire.
Next, check out these photographs of the suffragettes who defended women's rights with jujutsu. Then, check out the vintage propaganda posters that people once used to try to stop women from gaining the right to vote.
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