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Mary Smith presents the first women’s suffrage petition to Parliament. In the same year, the Great Reform Act confirms the exclusion of women from the vote.
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John Stuart Mill MP presents the first mass women’s suffrage petition to the House of Commons. It contains over 1500 signatures.
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The National Society for Women’s Suffrage is formed.
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The MNSWS holds the first ever public meeting about women’s suffrage at the Manchester Free Trade Hall.
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The Isle of Man grants female suffrage.
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The Local Government Act is passed, which allows married and single women to vote in elections for county and borough councils.
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The National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies forms with more than 20 national societies in support. Its leader is Millicent Garrett Fawcett, based in Gower Street, central London.
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The Women’s Social and Political Union is formed in Manchester at the home of Emmeline Pankhurst.
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Militant campaign begins. Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenney are arrested and imprisoned. “Deeds, not words” and “Votes for women” are adopted as campaign slogans.
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WSPU members are arrested and imprisoned. A daily newspaper coins the term “suffragette”.
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At a mass rally in Hyde Park, 300,000 to 500,000 activists attend. The Liberal Prime Minister Herbert Asquith does not respond. To get his attention, suffragettes smash windows in Downing Street, using stones with written pleas tied to them. Some protesters chain themselves to railings.
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The WSPU starts protests, including those called “Black Friday” in which many women are injured, some permanently and later fatally, and are sexually abused by police.
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Emily Wilding Davison, arrested nine times and force-fed 49 times, decides to draw attention to the suffrage cause and disrupt the Derby. With a return train ticket and another to a dance that evening in her bag, she steps in front of the King’s speeding horse Anmer, possibly to attach a WSPU banner of suffragette colours to its bridle. She dies four days later of a skull fracture and internal injuries. Her funeral is attended by thousands of women.
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The Electoral Reform Bill passes in the Commons. It gives votes only to certain women: those over the age of 30, those over 21 who own their own house or those married to householders.
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The first female MP, Nancy Astor, enters the Commons.
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Amendment of the Representation of the People Act entitles everyone over the age of 21 to vote.
