Suffragists And Suffragettes Essay

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During the later nineteenth century, a generally held view was that women were classified as ‘second class citizens’ –inferior to men, considered to be dim-witted, ludicrous mentally and emotionally and therefore incapable of voting. While men were ‘breadwinners’ who had a role to play in the government and professional life, women by contrast, were told to devote themselves on rearing the children and performing ‘good deeds.’ They desired to gain the right to vote to put an end to the society’s grudges and be citizens with equal rights as men. The government ignored their protests as they weren’t interested in paying heeds to just a bunch of low mentality individuals which led to the rise of ‘Suffragists and Suffragettes’ the former performing …show more content…

They hoped by doing this job it would increase publicity and empathy but unfortunately they had to be force fed by the prison doctor by feeding them with liquid food for achieving this bit they had to put a tube down the nostril and down into the stomach which was painful and dangerous and caused pneumonia. Along with this on 5th June 1913 Emily Wilding Davison sacrificed herself during the Derby race by obstructing the King’s horse, Anmer. She gained wide publicity following her death and proudly known as a martyr. In response to the two horrifying incidents, the government introduced a new law stating that “Once a suffragette who was on hunger strike became ill, will be released. Once the woman has recovered, they were re arrested, sent back to prison and left there until they completed their sentences this was known as ‘The Cat and Mouse Act’. However, it’s not true that the Suffragette campaign destroyed all support for the cause of women’s suffrage. Although the support for the cause decreased, since many women feared that it would create a bad image of themselves so they didn’t participate, If it weren’t for the Suffragette campaign, the government wouldn’t have even discussed women’s suffrage before