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National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies

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National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies
PredecessorNational Central Society for Women's Suffrage and the Central Committee of the National Society for Women's Suffrage
SuccessorNational Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship
Formation14 October 1897
Dissolved1919
Headquarters22 Great Smith Street, Westminster
LeaderMillicent Fawcett

The National Union of Women Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), also known as the suffragists (not to be confused with the suffragettes) was an organisation founded in 1897 of women's suffrage societies around the United Kingdom.[1][2] In 1919 it was renamed the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship.[citation needed]

Formation and campaign

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Millicent Fawcett

The NUWSS was formally constituted on 14 October 1897[3] by the merger of the National Central Society for Women's Suffrage and the Central Committee of the National Society for Women's Suffrage, the groups having originally split in 1888.

The groups united under the leadership of Millicent Fawcett, who was the president of the society for more than twenty years.[4] The organisation was democratic and non-militant, aiming to achieve women's suffrage through peaceful and legal means, in particular by introducing Parliamentary Bills and holding meetings to explain and promote their aims. Local societies were affiliated as members of the NUWSS, but had a large degree of autonomy.[5] There were 16 affiliates in 1903.[6]

In 1903, the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU, the "suffragettes"), who wished to undertake more militant action, split from the NUWSS. Despite the split by the WSPU, the NUWSS continued to grow, and by 1914 it had branches throughout the country, with approximately 54,000 members.[7] By February 1913, it had spent £60,000 on meetings and propaganda.[8] Many, but by no means all, of the members were middle class, and some were working class.[9]

Until 1906, the NUWSS focused on lobbying Parliament and supporting Bills for women's enfranchisement.[10] For the 1906 general election, the group formed committees in each constituency to persuade local parties to select pro-suffrage candidates. The NUWSS organized its first large, open-air procession which came to be known as the Mud March on 9 February 1907.

The NUWSS headquarters were at 22 Great Smith Street, Westminster, London from 1910 to 1918.[6]

No 465 of The Common Cause, 1918

In April 1909 the NUWSS established its own journal, The Common Cause, edited by Helen Swanwick. It mainly financed by Margaret Ashton,[11] who sold her house in Didsbury to raise funds.[12]

Fawcett during the "Suffrage Pilgrimage" at Hyde Park in 1913

Fawcett said in a speech in 1911 that their movement was "like a glacier; slow moving but unstoppable".

Political bias

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Campaigning badge

Up to 17 July 1912 the NUWSS was not allied with any party, but campaigned in support of individual election candidates who supported votes for women. In parliament, the Conciliation Bill of 1911 helped to change this position. The bill had majority support but was frustrated by insufficient time being given to pass it. The Liberal government relied on the nationalist Irish Parliamentary Party for a majority and was insistent that time was given instead to the passage of another Irish Home Rule bill and the Unionist Speaker, Sir James Lowther, opposed votes for women.[13] Consequently, it did not become law.

Labour from 1903 was tied into an alliance with the Liberals and its leadership was divided on the issue of female emancipation. However, the 1913 party conference agreed to oppose any franchise bill that did not include extension of the franchise for women after a suffragist campaign in the north west of England effectively changed party opinion. The party consistently supported women's suffrage in the years before the war.

Fawcett, a Liberal, became infuriated with that party's delaying tactics and helped Labour candidates against Liberals at election time. In 1912 the NUWSS established the Election Fighting Fund committee (EFF) headed by Catherine Marshall.[14] The committee backed Labour and in 1913–14 the EFF intervened in four by-elections and although Labour won none, the Liberals lost two.

The NUWSS, by allying itself with Labour, attempted to put pressure on the Liberals, because the Liberals' political future depended on Labour remaining weak.

NUWSS during World War I

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The NUWSS was split between the majority that supported war and the minority that opposed it. Fawcett resisted attempts by internationalist members to use the NUWSS to stop the war and tried to avoid fragmentation in the organisation.[15]

In April 1915, Aletta Jacobs, a suffragist in the Netherlands, invited suffrage members from around the world to an International Congress of Women in The Hague. This caused some members, such as Catherine Marshall, Agnes Maude Royden and journal editor Helen Swanwick, to resign from the NUWSS.[16]

During the war, the NUWSS focused on relief work rather than prioritising campaigning for enfranchisement whilst votes for women was not on the political agenda.[10] It set up an employment register so that the jobs of those who were serving could be filled. The NUWSS financed women's hospital units, employing only female doctors and nurses, which served during World War I in France, such as the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service (SWH).[15]

The NUWSS supported the women's suffrage bill agreed by a Speaker's Conference even though it did not grant the equal suffrage for which the organisation had campaigned.

Activities after World War I

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Officers and members of National Union of Societies to Equal Citizenship after Royal Assent to the Equal Franchise Act on 2 July 1928

In 1919, the NUWSS renamed itself as the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship and continued under the leadership of Eleanor Rathbone. It focused on a campaign to equalise suffrage, which was achieved in 1928.[17] It then split into two groups, the National Council for Equal Citizenship, a short-lived group which focused on other equal rights campaigns, and the Union of Townswomen's Guilds, which focused on educational and welfare provision for women.[18]

Notable members of NUWSS

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Archives

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The archives of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies are held at The Women's Library at the Library of the London School of Economics, ref 2NWS A collection of NUWSS material is also held by the John Rylands Library, Manchester, ref. NUWS.

Commemoration

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In 2022 English Heritage announced that the NUWSS would be commemorated with a blue plaque at site of their headquarters in Westminster during the years immediately before the passing of the Representation of the People Act 1918.[19]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Founding of the National Union of Women". www.parliament.uk. Retrieved 27 December 2024.
  2. ^ "Suffrage Societies Database Guide - Women's Suffrage Resources". www.suffrageresources.org.uk. Retrieved 27 December 2024.
  3. ^ Florey, Kenneth (6 June 2013). Women's Suffrage Memorabilia: An Illustrated Historical Study. McFarland. ISBN 978-1-4766-0150-2.
  4. ^ Wojtczak, Helena (2000). "The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies". Victorian Web. Archived from the original on 15 March 2024.
  5. ^ Doughan, David; Gordon, Peter (3 June 2014). Dictionary of British Women's Organisations, 1825-1960. Routledge. p. 112. ISBN 978-1-136-89777-1.
  6. ^ a b "National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies". English Heritage. Retrieved 26 February 2025.
  7. ^ "Women's Suffrage campaigns - Why women won greater political equality by 1928". BBC Bitesize. Retrieved 26 February 2025.
  8. ^ "National Union of Women Suffrage". The Mid-Lothian Journal. 21 February 1913. p. 5.
  9. ^ Alridge, Bailey. "National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) (1807-1928)". Towards Emancipation? Women in Modern European History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved 26 February 2025.
  10. ^ a b Cowman, Krista (31 July 2024). The Routledge Companion to British Women's Suffrage. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-351-36571-0.
  11. ^ Simpkin, John. "The Common Cause". Spartacus Educational. Retrieved 26 February 2025.
  12. ^ "Margaret Ashton". Suffrage Pioneers 1918 - 2018. Archived from the original on 30 June 2020. Retrieved 26 February 2025.
  13. ^ Roberts, Martin (2001). Britain 1846–1964 : the challenge of change. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press. p. 127. ISBN 978-0-19-913373-4.
  14. ^ Smith, Harold L. The British Women's Suffrage Campaign, 1866–1928. Seminar studies in history. London: Longman, 1998.
  15. ^ a b Holton, Sandra (2002). Suffrage Days: Stories from the Women's Suffrage Movement. Routledge. p. 212. ISBN 978-1-134-83787-8.
  16. ^ Litzenberger, C. J.; Lyon, Eileen Groth (2006). The Human Tradition in Modern Britain. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-7425-3735-4.
  17. ^ Harold L. Smith, The British Women's Suffrage Campaign 1866–1928 (2nd Ed), p. 4
  18. ^ Alyson Brown and David Barrett, Knowledge of Evil, p. 93
  19. ^ "Blue Plaques to tell stories of working class experience". English Heritage. Retrieved 18 February 2022.

Further reading

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