INTRODUCTION OTES FOR WOMEN” was the rallying cry for “V thousands of British women from the late 1860s right up to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. For
4
more than 50 years women lobbied, marched, protested, and campaigned for their right to vote in parliamentary elections and to stand for election as Members of Parliament in their own right. It was a long, hard and sometimes bitter fight. Finally a hundred years ago, in 1918, women achieved their goal and for the very first time some women were able to put their cross on a ballot paper and take part in national elections. Ten years later in 1928 all women won their right to vote equally with men. Using words and pictures, the Hastings & St Leonards Suffragette & Suffragist Activity Book explores some of the main features of that inspirational campaign. At the time much of the campaign focused on London, as the home of Parliament, but women were campaigning in towns and villages all over the country, including Hastings and St Leonards. For this reason, this book looks particularly on what was going on here, in Hastings and St Leonards. It describes how local women threw themselves into
