Intro

In their fight for women's voting rights, the Suffragettes were notorious for publicity-grabbing militant action, and were more than willing to break the law to raise awareness for the cause. This was one of many arrests of their figurehead Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928). In May 1914, her group marched to Buckingham Palace to see the King. She dodged the police and almost made it to the palace gates. There she was arrested in what the Daily Mirror called 'distressing scenes'.

Reflecting the establishment view, the paper called them 'militant suffragettes' with an 'impossible scheme'. But four years and one Great War later, a proportion of women were granted the vote, leading to full enfranchisement in 1928. The Suffragette struggle for the vote coincided with the growth of mass-circulation newspapers and the use of press photography. Just as today's protestors harness the power of television, so the suffragettes understood the power of the press.

Image Copyright: John Frost Newspaper Archive.

Shelfmark: British Library Newspaper Archive.