A cause worth dying for

JUNE 4, 1913, Derby Day. As the thundering hooves approached Tattenham Corner, a woman slipped through the railings and ran out into the middle of the course. She made straight for Anmer, the horse of King George V, and grabbed at the reins. The horse smashed into her, throwing her onto the turf, before losing its footing and crashing down on top of her.

Emily Wilding Davison suffered severe head injuries and died in hospital ten days later, never regaining consciousness. She was buried at St Mary's Church in her home town of Morpeth with the Suffragette motto "Deeds not Words" carved on her tombstone. The cause had its first martyr.

Emily was born in 1872. She studied English literature at Holloway College but had to leave two years later because of financial difficulties. Determined to complete her education, she worked as a schoolteacher and eventually raised enough money to return to university.

After graduating, she took a job as a teacher in Berkshire and in 1906, joined the Women's Social and Political Union. Political activities gradually took up more of her time until she gave up teaching entirely.

She was jailed several times, first in 1909 after being involved in a scuffle outside Downing Street as she tried to hand in a petition. The scale of her militant acts increased and in 1911 she was arrested for setting fire to pillar boxes. She was sentenced to six months in prison, where she went on two hunger strikes and, on one occasion, threw herself down an iron staircase. Her fall was broken by wire netting 30ft below but she suffered severe spinal injuries. It was a hint of what was to come at the Derby, but was that intentional or a publicity stunt that went horribly wrong?

Emily had a Suffragette flag under her coat and there were those who said she merely intended to pin the colours to the horse or disrupt the race.

Emmeline Pankhurst, however, was in no doubt of her colleague's intentions. In her autobiography, she wrote: "Emily Davison clung to her conviction that one great tragedy, the deliberate throwing into the breach of a human life, would put an end to the intolerable torture of women."

But while her death attracted enormous publicity, it may have done more harm than good to the Suffragette cause. There were a lot of assumptions at the time, both among men and women, that women weren't as intelligent or rational as men and shouldn't be involved in politics. If an educated woman like Emily was prepared to act in such an irrational manner, they argued, what hope was there for the rest?

But, despite opposition, changes were underway.

Dr Janice McLaughlin, lecturer in the department of Geography, Politics and Sociology at Newcastle University says: "A key text in the 18th century was Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Women. She argued that women were as intelligent as men but they didn't have education. If they were educated, they would be able to participate in the public sphere."

Towards the end of the 19th century, women were indeed entering education. Women's colleges began to appear and women, mainly from the middle classes, started to go to university and have careers of their own.

Dr McLaughlin says: "Education was a key factor. Another one was the anti-slavery movement. Many women became involved in campaigning activities. They realised they could participate in the public sphere but they also realised that they weren't being treated in the same way as men and wanted to know why not."

In 1897, Millicent Fawcett founded the National Union of Women's Suffrage. She believed in peaceful protest and felt that conflict and violence would only reinforce men's opinion that women could not be trusted to have the vote.

Progress was slow. Although she managed to attract support from some members of the new Independent Labour Party, many women felt it was half-hearted. In 1903, Emmeline Pankhurst, joined by her daughters Sylvia and Christabel, founded the Women's Social and Political Union. They weren't prepared to wait for the vote and were prepared to use violence to further their cause.

In 1905, the first major public disturbance occurred in Manchester when Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenny interrupted a political meeting to ask Liberal politicians Winston Churchill and Sir Edward Grey if they believed women should have the right to vote. Neither man replied and the women unfurled a banner bearing the words "Votes for Women". They were thrown out of the meeting and arrested but refused to pay a fine, preferring to go to prison.

It was the beginning of a campaign that saw Suffragettes burning down churches, breaking windows, chaining themselves to railings, vandalising golf courses and fire bombing the homes of politicians. They were prepared to go to prison, where they often went on hunger strike in protest at their treatment.

"Not everyone was militant but the militant activities raised the profile of the movement. It was wide enough to support both militants and more mainstream movements because everyone was agreed on their goals," explains Dr McLaughlin.

But the government remained intransigent. It is possible the Suffragettes would have become even more violent but in August 1914, war broke out and, in a display of patriotism, Emmeline Pankhurst instructed them to stop their campaign.

The advent of war did much to further the Suffragette cause. As men went to the Front in their thousands, women were left behind to do their jobs and support the war effort. It proved to the politicians they were just as capable and responsible as men and, once the fighting was over, they were reluctant to return to their pre-war roles.

In 1918, the Representation of the People Act was passed by Parliament, giving the vote to women over 30 for the first time. It was a victory and the more moderate groups were content but others wanted deeper change. Many moved into socialism, hoping to change the structures of society, but the movement fragmented and eventually faltered.

It wasn't until the 1970s that a new wave of feminism emerged. Its protagonists had become politicised by the events of the 1960s - civil rights demonstrations, campaigns against the war in Vietnam. They realised that although they had public rights, such as the vote, they still weren't being treated as equals. They began to look at wider issues such as family and employment. Their agenda was different from that of the Suffragettes but it was their legacy they were building on.

Today, when we take the vote for granted (and very often fail to use it), the struggles of the Suffragettes may seem distant, even irrelevant. But these brave women, in their hats and hobble skirts, changed the face of British society.

Dr McLaughlin says: "Women probably would have got the vote eventually - there were certain politicians and writers who supported the notion that they should have public rights. But it was the Suffragette movement that made it happen then. It gave women the confidence to be active in the public sphere and realise their own sense of voice and rights."

Emily Wilding Davison did not die in vain.

l Northumberland County Council is holding a series of events on Friday to commemorate the anniversary of Emily Wilding Davison's death, beginning with a service at 12pm in St Mary's Church, Morpeth. The service will be attended by Hilary Armstrong MP, who will talk about Emily's contribution to the move towards democracy. Flowers will be laid on her grave and there will be an exhibition of photographs and memorabilia.

For more information, contact the council on (01670) 533000.