What was the short term significance of Emmeline Pankhurst in bringing about the vote for women between 1903 and 1918?
Emmeline Pankhurst was a highly controversial figure throughout the suffrage movement, through her radical, militant methods of protests, ensuring that the cause was not to be ignored. However, in many ways the shocking violence somewhat hindered a movement that had been established by Millicent Fawcett in a more peaceful, law abiding manner. Although women (over the age of thirty) were eventually given the right to vote when the Representation of the People Act was amended in 1918, Pankhurst’s contribution to this can be considered minimal. Although Pankhurst’s methods generated a huge amount of media attention, alternate factors such as women’s role during World War One can be seen as being of more relevance to women being enfranchised. As well as this, Fawcett's contribution to the movement encouraged the support of thousands, and therefore cannot be ignored.
Emmeline Pankhurst can be seen as being a significant figure in bringing about the vote for women, due to the mass media attention her methods generated. In 1903, Pankhurst founded the National Women’s Social and Political Union. This was a response to the slow moving, gradualist approach from Fawcett, leader of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies. British politicians, press and the public were astonished by the of window smashing, arson, hunger strikes and violence against the police. Source A shows perfectly how Pankhurst’s militant methods resulted in the cause receiving a front page spread in The Daily Mirror, showing Pankhurst being arrested at the gates of Buckingham Palace. The Daily Mirror was a relatively new paper, however during this period it was the largest circulating picture paper with approximately one million readers. The images present Pankhurst as a highly