National Union Of Women's Suffrage Societies
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The National Union of Women Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), also known as the ''suffragists'' (not to be confused with the
suffragette A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...
s) was an organisation founded in 1897 of
women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...
societies around the United Kingdom. In March 1919 it was renamed the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship.


Formation and campaign

The NUWSS was formally constituted on 14 October 1897 by the merger of the
National Central Society for Women's Suffrage 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. In March 1919 it w ...
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 Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett (; 11 June 1847 – 5 August 1929) was an English political activist and writer. She campaigned for Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, women's suffrage by Law reform, legal change and in 1897–1919 led Brita ...
, who was the president of the society for more than twenty years. 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. There were 16 affiliates in 1903. In 1903, the
Women's Social and Political Union The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was a women-only political movement and leading militant organisation campaigning for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom founded in 1903. Known from 1906 as the suffragettes, its membership and p ...
(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. By February 1913, it had spent £60,000 on meetings and propaganda. Many, but by no means all, of the members were middle class, and some were working class. Until 1906, the NUWSS focused on lobbying Parliament and supporting Bills for women's enfranchisement. For the
1906 general election The following elections occurred in the year 1906. Asia * 1906 Persian legislative election Europe * 1906 Belgian general election * 1906 Croatian parliamentary election * Denmark ** 1906 Danish Folketing election ** 1906 Danish Landsting e ...
, 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. In April 1909 the NUWSS established its own journal, '' The Common Cause'', edited by Helen Swanwick. It mainly financed by Margaret Ashton, who sold her house in Didsbury to raise funds. Fawcett said in a speech in 1911 that their movement was "like a glacier; slow moving but unstoppable".


Political bias

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 The Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP; commonly called the Irish Party or the Home Rule Party) was formed in 1874 by Isaac Butt, the leader of the Nationalist Party, replacing the Home Rule League, as official parliamentary party for Irish nati ...
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. 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. 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

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. In April 1915, Aletta Jacobs, a suffragist in the
Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
, invited suffrage members from around the world to an International Congress of Women in
The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...
. This caused some members, such as
Catherine Marshall Catherine Sarah Wood Marshall LeSourd (September 27, 1914 – March 18, 1983) was an American author of nonfiction, inspirational, and fiction works. She was the wife of well-known minister Peter Marshall. Biography Marshall was born in Johnso ...
, Agnes Maude Royden and journal editor Helen Swanwick, to resign from the NUWSS. 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. 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 World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
in France, such as the
Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service The Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Services (SWH) was founded in 1914. It was led by Dr Elsie Inglis and provided nurses, doctors, ambulance drivers, cooks and orderlies. By the end of World War I, 14 medical units had been outfitted and ...
(SWH). 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

Officers and members of National Union of Societies to Equal Citizenship after Royal Assent to the Equal Franchise Act on 2 July 1928, 248x248px In March 1919, the NUWSS renamed itself as the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship and continued under the leadership of Eleanor Rathbone with Eva Hubback as Parliamentary Secretary. It focused on a campaign to equalise suffrage, which was achieved in 1928. The records of the NUSEC are held in the
Women's Library The Women's Library is England's main library and museum resource on women and the women's movement, concentrating on Britain in the 19th and 20th centuries. It has an institutional history as a coherent collection dating back to the mid-1920s, ...
at
The London School of Economics and Political Science The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...
. Several of the oral history interviews undertaken as part of the Suffrage Interviews project, titled ''Oral evidence on the suffragette and suffragist movements: the Brian Harrison interviews'' refer to the NUSEC. The Scottish suffragist, Helen Fraser, a member of the NUSEC executive committee spoke about the structure of the organisation, and her membership of the Glasgow branch. The British feminist, Gertrude Horton, who took over from Eva Hubback, in 1927, as Parliamentary Secretary discusses her role in the NUSEC, as well as how the organisation was run, its methods of communication and lobbying of MPs, and what its premises were like. Vera Douie, first librarian of the Women's Service Library shared details of the objectives and relationship between the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship (NUSEC) and the Women's Service Society. In 1928 the NUSEC 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.


Notable members of NUWSS

* Margaret Aldersley * Catherine Alderton * Betty Balfour *
Florence Balgarnie Florence Balgarnie (19 August 1856 – 25 March 1928) was a British suffragette, speaker, pacifist, feminist, and temperance activist. Characterised as a "staunch Liberal", and influenced by Lydia Becker, Balgarnie began her support of women's ...
* Anna Barlow *
Annie Besant Annie Besant (; Wood; 1 October 1847 – 20 September 1933) was an English socialist, Theosophy (Blavatskian), theosophist, freemason, women's rights and Home Rule activist, educationist and campaigner for Indian nationalism. She was an arden ...
*
Vera Brittain Vera Mary Brittain (29 December 1893 – 29 March 1970) was an English Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse, writer, feminist, socialist and pacifist. Her best-selling 1933 memoir '' Testament of Youth'' recounted her experiences during the Fir ...
*
Elizabeth Cadbury Dame Elizabeth Mary Cadbury (' Taylor; 24 June 1858 – 4 December 1951) was a British activist, politician and philanthropist. Her husband was George Cadbury, the chocolate manufacturer. Early life Born in Peckham Rye, Southwark, Surrey, she ...
* Margery Corbett Ashby * Lady Florence Dixie *
Millicent Fawcett Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett (; 11 June 1847 – 5 August 1929) was an English political activist and writer. She campaigned for Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, women's suffrage by Law reform, legal change and in 1897–1919 led Brita ...
* Helen Fraser * Alison Garland * Sarah Grand * Katherine Harley * Margaret Hills (née Robertson) * Louisa Lumsden * Margaret MacDonald * Chrystal Macmillan * Louisa Martindale * Catherine Osler * Clara Rackham * Eleanor Rathbone * Amelia Scott * Evelyn Sharp * Nessie Stewart-Brown * Janie Terrero * Laura Veale * Mary Ward * Edith Grey Wheelwright *
Ellen Wilkinson Ellen Cicely Wilkinson (8 October 1891 – 6 February 1947) was a British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician who served as Secretary of State for Education, Minister of Education from July 1945 until her death. Earlier in her care ...


Archives

The archives of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies are held at
The Women's Library The Women's Library is England's main library and museum resource on women and the women's movement, concentrating on Britain in the 19th and 20th centuries. It has an institutional history as a coherent collection dating back to the mid-1920s, ...
at th
Library of the London School of Economics
re
2NWS
A collection of NUWSS material is also held by the
John Rylands Library The John Rylands Research Institute and Library is a Victorian era, late-Victorian Gothic Revival architecture, neo-Gothic building on Deansgate in Manchester, England. It is part of the University of Manchester. The library, which opened to t ...
, Manchester, ref
NUWS


Commemoration

In 2022
English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...
announced that the NUWSS would be commemorated with a
blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom, and certain other countries and territories, to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving a ...
at site of their headquarters in Westminster during the years immediately before the passing of the
Representation of the People Act 1918 The Representation of the People Act 1918 ( 7 & 8 Geo. 5. c. 64) was an act of Parliament passed to reform the electoral system in Great Britain and Ireland. It is sometimes known as the Fourth Reform Act. The act extended the franchise in pa ...
.


See also

*
Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom A movement to fight for women's right to vote in the United Kingdom finally succeeded through acts of Parliament in 1918 and 1928. It became a national movement in the Victorian era. Women were not explicitly banned from voting in Great Brita ...
* The Women's Library (London) – as well as the NUWSS archive the Library has extensive suffrage holdings *
List of suffragists and suffragettes This list of suffragists and suffragettes includes noted individuals active in the worldwide women's suffrage movement who have campaigned or strongly advocated for women's suffrage, the organisations which they formed or joined, and the publi ...
*
List of women's rights activists Notable women's rights activists are as follows, arranged alphabetically by modern country names and by the names of the persons listed: Afghanistan * Amina Azimi – disabled women's rights advocate * Hasina Jalal – women's empowerment activis ...
* List of women's rights organisations *
Timeline of women's suffrage Women's suffrage – the right of women to vote – has been achieved at various times in countries throughout the world. In many nations, women's suffrage was granted before universal suffrage, in which cases women and men from certain Social ...
* Women's suffrage organisations * Liverpool Women's Suffrage Society


References


Further reading

* Hume, Leslie Parker. ''The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, 1897–1914.'' Modern British History, 3. New York: Garland, 1982. . {{Liberal feminism Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom 1897 establishments in the United Kingdom Feminist organisations in the United Kingdom Liberal feminist organizations Organizations established in 1897 First-wave feminism in the United Kingdom Suffrage organisations in the United Kingdom