NATIONAL UNION OF WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE SOCIETIES

The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), also known as the Suffragists (not to be confused with the suffragettes) was an organisation of women's suffrage societies in the United Kingdom.

The group was founded in 1897.

The groups united under the leadership of Lydia Becker, although when she died in1890, Millicent Fawcett, who was the president of the society for over twenty years, took over. The organisation was democratic, aiming to achieve women's suffrage through peaceful and legal means, in particular by introducing Parliamentary Bills and holding meetings to explain and promote their aims.

In 1903, NUWSS suffered the split of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU, the "suffragettes"), who wished to undertake more militant action. Nevertheless, the group continued to grow, and by 1914 there were in excess of 500 branches throughout the country, with over 100,000 members. Many, but by no means all, of the members were middle class. Unlike the WSPU, their group also had some male members.

For the 1906 UK general election, the group formed committees in each constituency to persuade local parties to select pro-suffrage candidates.

The NUWSS organized the Mud March of February 7, 1907, its first large, open-air procession. Ms.Fawcett said in a speech in 1911 that their movement was "like a glacier; slow moving but unstoppable".

At the start of the First World War the NUWSS were split between the majority that supported war and the minority who were opposed. During the war the group set up an employment register so that the jobs of those who were serving could be filled. The NUWSS also financed women's hospital units, these employed only female doctors and nurses, and these units served in France.

In 1912 Fawcett and the NUWSS took the decision to support Labour Party candidates in parliamentary elections. The NUWSS was a much larger organisation than the WPSU and in 1914 had 500 local branches and over 100,000 members. Two days after the British government declared war on Germany on 4th August 1914, Millicent Fawcett declared that it was suspending all political activity until the conflict was over. Although the NUWSS supported the war effort, it did not follow the WSPU strategy of becoming involved in persuading young men to join the armed forces.

On the resignation of Millicent Fawcett in 1919, Eleanor Rathbone became president of the NUWSS. Later that year she persuaded the organization to accept a six point reform programme:

1. Equal pay for equal work, involving an open field for women in industry and the professions.

2.  An equal standard of sex morals as between men and women, involving a reform of the existing divorce law which condoned adultery by the husband, as well as reform of the laws dealing with solicitation and prostitution.

3. The introduction of legislation to provide pensions for civilian widows with dependent children.

4. The equalization of the franchise and the return to Parliament of women candidates pledged to the equality programme.

5. The legal recognition of mothers as equal guardians with fathers of their children.

6.  The opening of the legal profession and the magistracy to women.

After the passing of the Qualification of Women Act (1918) the NUWSS and WSPU disbanded.

A new organisation called the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship was established. As well as advocating the same voting rights as men, the organisation also campaigned for equal pay, fairer divorce laws and an end to the discrimination against women in the professions.

This led a small group of prominent members to leave and form the Women   's Freedom League.

Immediately following the WSPU/WFL split, in autumn 1907, Frederick and Emmeline Pethick Lawrence founded the WSPU's own newspaper, Votes for Women. The Pethick Lawrences, who were part of the leadership of the WSPU until 1912, edited the newspaper and supported it financially in the early years.

In 1908 the WSPU adopted purple, white, and green as its official colours. These colours were chosen by Emmeline Pethick Lawrence because "Purple…stands for the royal blood that flows in the veins of every suffragette…white stands for purity in private and public life…green is the colour of hope and the emblem of spring". June 1908 saw the first major public use of these colours when the WSPU held a 300,000-strong "Women's Sunday" rally in Hyde Park.

In February 1907 the WSPU founded the Woman's Press, which oversaw publishing and propaganda for the organisation, and marketed a range of products from 1908 featuring the WSPU's name or colours. From 1908 WSPU branches around the country, and from 1910 the Woman's Press in London, operated a chain of shops as part of the campaign.

In opposition to the continuing and repeated imprisonment of many of their members, the WSPU introduced the prison hunger strike to Britain, and the authorities' policy of force feeding won the suffragettes great sympathy from the public.

The Government later passed the Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act 1913, commonly referred to as the Cat and Mouse Act, which allowed the release of suffragettes when near to death due to malnourishment, but officers could re-imprison them once they recovered their health. This was an attempt to avoid force feeding.

A new suffrage bill was introduced in 1910, but growing impatient, the WSPU launched a heightened campaign of protest in 1912 on the basis of targeting property and avoiding violence against any person. Initially this involved smashing shop windows, but ultimately escalated to burning stately homes and bombing public buildings including Westminster Abbey. It also famously led to the death of Emily Davison as she was trampled by the King's horse, Anmer, at the Epsom Derby in 1913.

Included in the many militant acts performed were the burning of churches, restaurants and railway carriages, smashing government windows, cutting telephone lines, spitting at police and politicians, partial destruction of the then Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd George's home, cutting and burning pro-suffrage slogans into stadium turf,^[sending letter bombs, destroying the Tea House at Kew Gardens, chaining themselves to railings and blowing up houses. A doctor was attacked with a rhino whip and in one case suffragettes rushed the House of Commons. In March 1914 suffragette Mary Richardson (known as one of the most militant activists, also called "Slasher" Richardson) walked into the National Gallery and attacked Diego Velázquez's Rokeby Venus with a meat cleaver. In 1913, suffragette militancy caused £54,000 worth of damage.

Anticipating further violent clashes with the police and with unsympathetic members of the public, militant campaigners instituted a secret society known as the Bodyguard, whose duty was to physically protect leading suffragettes from abuse, injury and arrest, and to maintain order at public rallies. Organized by Canadian Gertrude Harding, the Bodyguard was formed largely of athletic single women, who received training in jujitsu (thus earning the nickname of jujitsuffragettes) and carried Indian clubs as weapons.

The organisation also suffered some splits. The editors of Votes for Women, Frederick and Emmeline Pethick Lawrence, were expelled in 1912, causing the WSPU to launch a new journal, The Suffragette, edited by Christabel Pankhurst.

The East London Federation of mostly working class women and led by Sylvia Pankhurst was expelled in 1914.

On the outbreak of war, Christabel Pankhurst was living in Paris, in order to run the organisation without fear of arrest. Her autocratic control enabled her, over the objections of Kitty Marion and others,^[ to declare on the outbreak of World War I that the WSPU should abandon its campaigns in favour of a nationalistic stance supporting the British government in the war. The WSPU stopped publishing The Suffragette, and in April 1915 it launched a new journal, Britannia.

While the majority of WSPU members supported the war, a small number formed the Suffragettes of the Women's Social Political Union (SWSPU) and the Independent Women's Social and Political Union (IWSPU).

The WSPU faded from public attention, and was dissolved in 1917, with Christabel and Emmeline Pankhurst founding the Women's Party.