Women's Social and Political Union

The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was a political movement for women. They campaigned for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom (allowing women to vote) from 1903 to 1918. They are sometimes called suffragettes.

The Women's Social and Political Union were known for civil disobedience. They held marches, set fire to post boxes, smashed windows and broke the law to get into prison. When they were in prison, they would go on hunger strikes, meaning they would refuse to eat. The government would force-feed prisoners who went on hunger strikes. The government created the Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act 1913, or the Cat and Mouse Act, so suffragettes who were close to starving to death could be released.Mary Davis, Sylvia Pankhurst (Pluto Press, 1999)  

Notable members

 Mary Ann Aldham
 Janie Allan
 Doreen Allen  
 Helen Archdale
 Ethel Ayres Purdie
 Barbara Ayrton
 Edith Marian Begbie
 Rosa May Billinghurst
 Teresa Billington-Greig
 Violet Bland
 Bettina Borrmann Wells
 Elsie Bowerman
 Janet Boyd
 Constance Bryer
 Lady Constance Bulwer-Lytton
 Evaline Hilda Burkitt
 Lucy Burns
 Eileen Mary Casey
 Joan Cather
 Georgina Fanny Cheffins
 Helen Millar Craggs
 Ellen Crocker
 Helen Cruickshank
 Louie Cullen
Alice Davies
 Emily Davison
 Charlotte Despard
 Violet Mary Doudney
 Edith Downing
 Flora Drummond
 Sophia Duleep Singh
 Elsie Duval
 Norah Elam
 Dorothy Evans
 Kate Williams Evans
 Theresa Garnett
 Louisa Garrett Anderson
 Edith Margaret Garrud
 Katharine Gatty 
 Mary Gawthorpe
 Katie Edith Gliddon
 Nellie Hall
 Cicely Hamilton
 Beatrice Harraden
 Edith How-Martyn
 Elsie Howey
 Ellen Isabel Jones
Annie Kenney
 Edith Key
 Aeta Adelaide Lamb
 Mary Leigh
 Lilian Lenton
 Constance Lytton
 Mary Macarthur
 Florence Macfarlane
 Margaret Macfarlane
 Margaret McPhun
 Frances McPhun
 Margaret Mackworth, 2nd Viscountess Rhondda
 Christabel Marshall
 Kitty Marion
 Dora Marsden
 Lillian Metge
 Dora Montefiore
 Alice Morrissey
 Flora Murray
 Margaret Nevinson
 Edith New
 Adela Pankhurst
 Christabel Pankhurst
 Emmeline Pankhurst
 Sylvia Pankhurst
 Frances Parker
 Alice Paul
 Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence
 Ellen Pitfield
 Isabella Potbury
 Mary Richardson
 Edith Rigby
 Rona Robinson
 Mary Russell, Duchess of Bedford
 Bertha Ryland
 Amy Sanderson
 Arabella Scott
 Muriel Scott
 Genie Sheppard 
 Alice Maud Shipley
 Dame Ethel Mary Smyth
 Harriet Shaw Weaver
 Evelyn Sharp
 Janie Terrero 
 Dora Thewlis
 Catherine Tolson
 Helen Tolson
Elsie and Mathilde Wolff Van Sandau
Patricia Woodlock
 Gertrude Wilkinson
 Laura Ann Willson
 Laetitia Withall
 Olive Wharry
 Celia Wray
 Rose Emma Lamartine Yates

 References 

Category:1903 establishments in the United Kingdom
Category:1918 disestablishments
Category:1910s disestablishments in Europe
Category:Civil disobedience
Category:First-wave feminism
Category:Women's suffrage

Category:Political organisations in the United Kingdom