Suffragettes

Historically speaking, women's suffrage, i.e. the right to vote in elections, is a remarkably recent development in the modern world. For instance, you'd be surprised to learn that Swiss women got this basic right in 1971. 

Nowadays women can vote in most countries, but women had to fight hard to be allowed to go to the polls. The so-called suffragettes epitomize this struggle. Some of them even became martyrs to the cause.

 Before you watch the video, do this vocabulary preparation activity:

Watch the video above and match the questions and answers:

Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom was a movement to fight for women's right to vote. It finally succeeded through two laws in 1918 and 1928. It became a national movement in the Victorian Era.

Browse the Internet to find the answer to the questions below. 

1. Were all suffragettes upper class?
2. Why is the suffragette Emily Wilding-Davison well known?
3. What was Emily Wilding-Davison's most famous exploit - the one that killed her?
4. What were the names of Emmeline Pankhurst's daughters that helped her set up the suffragettes?
5. Who was the first woman to go on hunger strike?
6. When all suffragette prisoners started to go on hunger strike, what did the authorities do to begin with?
7. Who formed the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies?
8. When was the Women's Suffrage and Political Union formed?
9. When did women get the parliamentary vote in the UK?
10. What was the difference between suffragettes and suffragists?

Emmeline Pankhurst was a British political activist and leader of the British suffragette movement who helped women win the right to vote.

Click on her picture to find out more about her.