"Unladylike Tactics": The Militant Actions Taken by the WSPU

            The June Purvis article titled “ 'Deeds, Not Words': Daily Life in the Women's Social and Political Union in Edwardian Britain” is especially important to the study of the women’s movement in Europe because she outlines the details of actions taken by WSPU members as well as other lesser known women’s suffrage organizations. Purvis reveals that the point of separation between the WSPU and these other organizations, as well as the reason why the WSPU’s fame continues today, is their “unladylike tactics” (CP 229).  This did not occur accidentally, as Purvis explains in the article, Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenney made a plan in October of 1905 to heckle male politicians in order to get arrested and gain attention for their cause (CP 229). The media attention that the women received that day was the beginning of the WSPU’s turn towards militancy.

                During its infancy, the WSPU seems to have been similar to other suffrage organizations that are now rarely discussed. The Women’s Freedom League and the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies are two of the groups which Purvis calls ladylike and law-abiding. To be more distinct, she calls these women “suffragists,” while the WSPU members are most commonly known as suffragettes, a thin but important difference. An example of their ladylike tactics includes campaigning at socialist and trade union meetings as well as creating posters and participating in marches (CP 229).

Although their “unladylike tactics” began in 1905 with minor offenses such as heckling politicians and spitting at officers, the actions taken by the WSPU women in 1912 were definitively militant in nature. June Purvis writes that the women burned golf courses and empty buildings, they cut telephone wires, and there was mass property damage at the hands of the WSPU including broken windows (CP 229). For being so militant, these women actually tried their best to remain ladylike throughout their protests. Purvis includes a quote from a suffragette in her article which reveals that the WSPU was concerned with acting humane. The suffragette stated, “Mrs. Pankhurst gave us strict orders about these fires: there was not a cat or a canary to be killed; no life; we were only allowed to give our lives” (CP 229). Clearly, the actions of the WSPU were well planned out and their intention was not to cause harm to anyone, but only to make people listen. The smile on Annie Kenney’s face in the picture below shows that she intended on being arrested so that her mission could get the publicity it deserved.