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History Investigation Project Emmeline Pankhurst ~ Instrumental in leading women to the vote By Emma Puttock How it all started In 1903, a new suffrage society was formed. It was called the Woman’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). The society was formed by a group of woman who were determined to gain the franchise. The group of women, who lived in Manchester, had attracted thousands of woman right campaigners throughout the whole country within a few years. This meant they had to open offices in the centre of London. Unlike the suffragists, followers of the WSPU did not believe in using conventional respectable methods to gain the franchise. The WSPU was led by two outstanding woman, Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst, and her daughter Christabel. The union was extremely well organized, and was run like a volunteer army. The members were prepared to use any means to gain the vote for woman ... even to break the law. By using militant measures, they soon became famous and, in 1906, were nicknamed “suffragettes” by the Daily Mail Newspaper. The word suffragettes was first used as an insult to make fun of their unladylike behaviour, but the suffragettes were proud of the title and the name has stuck ever since. in Mrs Pankhurst’s autobiography she described the aims of the suffragettes: “...
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