The Suffragettes In Pictures

The Suffragette Movement was one of the most important political lobbying organisations in British history. Their fight for the right of women to vote highlighted the deep divide between the sexes that had existed for generations. Women sacrificed their positions in society and some, ultimately, their lives for the cause.

Theirs is a story of passion and personality from the famous figures of Emmeline Pankhurst, Annie Kenney and Emily Wilding Davison, to the behind-the-scenes activities at the Women’s Social and Political Union, their public propaganda work, the brilliant set-piece demonstrations and the escalation of militancy from ‘pestering the politicians’ to burning down buildings and attacking works of art.

These moving and often shocking images are central to this story are taken from the Suffragette Fellowship Collection.

Diane Atkinson lives in Shoreditch, London. She was born in the North-East and educated in Cornwall and London, where she completed a PhD on the politics of women’s sweated labour. She taught history at secondary schools in London before moving to the Museum of London where she worked as a lecturer and curator, specialising in women’s history.