Words and Deeds : Discord between the British Parliament and the Women’s Social and Political Union relating to the First Conciliation Bill of 1910

Abstract

This article focuses on the question of women’s suffrage in Britain by analyzing the interaction between the House of Commons and the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) - the radical suffrage organization founded in 1903 and led by the famous Pankhursts. Central to this study are parliamentary debates relating to the Parliamentary Franchise (Women) Bill, better known as the first Conciliation Bill in 1910, as well as the writings published in 1910 in WSPU’s periodical, Votes for Women. To give a fresh angle to existing research on the question of female franchise, the parliamentary aspect is emphasized and connected to the suffragettes, the members of the WSPU. The kind of influence the first Conciliation Bill had on the relationship between these two protagonists is of particular interest in this article. Consideration is also given as to how, on the one hand, Members of Parliament (MPs) justified their arguments both for and against female franchise, and on the other hand, how suffragettes validated their demand for the vote. This article proposes that there was a distinct interaction between the British Parliament and WSPU. This interaction not only consisted of arguments by MPs for and against women’s suffrage and the prosuffrage writings of the WSPU, but also of deeds, even violent ones. In 1910, the WSPU’s motto, ”deeds, not words”[1] was overturning to be ”words and deeds” or even ”words, not deeds”.