Women's Suffrage Movement

Political movement at the turn of the century when women struggled for the right to vote in elections –women over twenty-one finally won the right to vote in 1928.

Women Rights

Abby

The People’s Charter1 is a charter that was created to help the men of our society. The People’s Charter is not the “People’s” charter. It is the men’s charter. The bill addresses the rights of the men in our society. It does not address the rights of the women or of our children. The charter states the following:

·        Voting rights for all men

·        Equal electional districts

·        Abolition of the requirement that Members of the Parliament be property owners

·        Payment for M.P.s2

·        Annual General Elections; and

·        The Secret Ballot

We, as suffragettes3, agree with the Parliament that the men should be able to vote. We agree that the men should be allowed to Annual General Elections and the Secret Ballot but women need rights also. Voting rights, property rights, and marriage rights. Men aren’t the only people that live in our world.

Women have been protesting since 18324 to gain rights for women. It is now the year 1902. Seventy long years we have protested for women and their rights. We have asked the Parliament for bills of rights. When we ask, they laugh in our faces. We protested along the streets of our cities. We threw stones at window. When protesting one day, some of the leaders of the protest were arrested and put in jail but the protest didn’t end there. The women in the jails they on a hunger strike. Since the women wouldn’t eat, they were forced – fed.5 The police would stick long metal pipes down the women’s throats and noses and feed them through the pipe.6 We did everything that we could possibly do and every time the Parliament would laugh in our faces or the Parliament would try to pass a bill but they wouldn’t do all that they could. Women who were forced fed would either die from internal bleeding or damage that was done to internal organs/bones. Women all over the world agree with us. We don’t want to be pushed aside.

For years and years, women have had no choices that have had a positive outcome. Their limited choices were marrying, working in a factory, or becoming a governess. If women were to go off and marry, they would soon figure out that that was not the best choice to choose. For example, if a women, who was rich, went off and married, then all of her wealth would go to her new husband. If the women also had children, then her children would belong to her new husband. Often, the husbands would beat their wives. The women weren’t aloud to divorce or run away. They had to stay and suffer.

If a woman decided to work in a factory, she would have to work 12 to 14 hours a day. She would have short lunch breaks and short bathroom breaks. She would have to constantly tend to her assigned machine. Many women would have wear a wood pole on their back so that their posture would be straight because they had to bend down continuously. Because they had to wear that wood pole, many women would have back and lung damage later on in life. Some women would not wear the pole and would become crippled and would have to work in the factories to support their family.

If a woman decided to become a governess, then she would have to cook and clean all day long. She would have to tend to the children that lived in the house that she cleaned. Also, She would stay at a certain house all day long and would have to be gone from her own children and her own house.

Vittoria

The prison cell is dark and cold. This is the fourth day with no food. There is a noise in the background of the darkness. It sounds like chains and maybe a person walking. The noise and a lit candle ruined the stillness of the cell. The candle lit the cell with excitement. A guard came over toward some women and then over to me. He brought a bag over and got some food out when he opened it. The food looked good but there was no way to eat in a place like this. He took me out of the cell along with two other women. The other women looked scared. I know one of the two women; she had been brought into the cell with me. We had talked earlier and she was in the cell for the same reason most suffragettes1 were.

Walking into the room there was very little noise. This room was not familiar.

2The guard took the food and a metal pipe out of the bag and looked at a woman close to the door. She tried to get away from him but he dragged her to a chair and strapped her in it. He pried her mouth open and jabbed the metal pipe in her mouth. The pain was noticeable in her eyes though she made no sound. The guard then dropped a piece of food into the pipe and it fell in her mouth going to her stomach. After dropping a few pieces of food into her mouth he took the pipe out and there was blood covering it. The guard looked over in the corner and then picked another woman out of the bunch. He fought to place her into the chair and then he latched the straps. He worked hard to get her mouth open and as he shoved the pipe in it felt like cold stings from a bee in her throat. The food was dropped in just like the other woman’s had been and the blood was starting to build up in her throat. Pain was in everyone’s eyes as the chair started to shake and the woman’s eyes were starting to roll back.  Some women were thinking if they would ever have another rally and one day get their right to vote. Other women were thinking about the riot in the rally that got them into the prison.3 Only a few were thinking how they got here just by having the desire of being heard and listened to. A cold rush came over the room and the woman was lying dead in the chair, blood was still pouring out of her mouth and her eyes burned.4            A burning filled the room. It felt hard to breath in the silence of the room. The stranger just lying there in the chair strapped in.