INTRODUCTION

“VOTES FOR WOMEN” was the rallying cry for thousands of British women from the late 1860s right up to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. For 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

the fight for the vote with courage and determination, holding meetings, organising petitions, marching and even taking direct action, such as refusing to fill in the census.

Hastings & St Leonards Suffragette & Suffragist Activity Book introduces you to some of the colourful local campaigners, like Barbara Bodichon, Muriel Matters and Elsie Bowerman. It describes some of the processions when women marched through the town and along the seafront with placards and banners, explains the different strategies they used, and looks at what they faced when they dared stand up and demand their right to vote.

Also dotted through the book are Activities that you can do either in your classroom, with friends or on your own. Activities include designing a banner, writing to the local press, or even organising your own campaign. The women’s vote may now be won but there are many other causes that still need fighting for.

Also included in this book is an illustrated map showing some of the main sites of local women’s suffrage campaign. Use the map to follow in the footsteps of local suffragists and suffragettes. You can find the homes and meeting places of some of the local campaigners, see where suffrage offices were located and trace the route of one of the biggest processions that took place here in Hastings and St Leonards.

Above: Suffragette poster parade, Hastings, 1913