The first women achieved suffrage, the right to vote, in 1918. To celebrate the centenary, explore our selection of stories from LSE Library about suffragettes, suffragists, and the suffrage movement from its beginnings in 1866.
GalleryVotes for Women – a history on film
This International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, watch a history of the women’s suffrage campaign and its legacy at LSE.
The Women’s Library and archives at LSE hold the story of the campaign for women’s suffrage, which resulted in the first votes for women. Watch this film to find out what happened, how we are commemorating their work on campus […]
GalleryThe Mud March and the meeting at Exeter Hall
On 9 February 1907, in the rain, the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies held the first large-scale women’s procession through London. The finishing point was Exeter Hall on the Strand, now the site of the Strand Palace Hotel. LSE Curator Gillian Murphy introduces the LSE archive material on the “mud march”, and the speech given at Exeter Hall by Jewish […]
GalleryWhy the Pankhurst name is synonymous with Ethiopia as well as the suffragette movement
LSE’s Behailu Shiferaw Mihirete tells the story of Sylvia Pankhurst, daughter of prominent suffragette Emmeline, who became a relentless advocate for Ethiopia during the Fascist Italian invasion of 1936 to 1941.
The year 2018 marks the centenary of the year when some women (who met the age (>30 years old) and property criteria or who were university educated) succeeded in […]
GallerySuffragettes at dinner – from gaol to the Savoy Hotel
“Suffragettes at dinner – from gaol to the Savoy Hotel” was the headline from the Daily Mail about the banquet hosted by Millicent Garrett Fawcett held in the lavish surroundings of the Savoy Hotel for released suffragette prisoners on 11 December 1906. Curator Gillian Murphy outlines the LSE archives about this event.
In the Women’s Library collection is Millicent Garrett Fawcett’s […]
GalleryBook Extract: ‘Preserving Their Own Memory: Constitutional Suffragism and the Fawcett Society’ from Remembering Women’s Activism by Sharon Crozier De-Rosa and Vera Mackie
2018 marks the centenary of partial suffrage in Britain, when property-owning women over the age of 30 won the right to vote in parliamentary elections in the UK. To commemorate the historical link between LSE and the campaign for women’s suffrage, on 23 November 2018 the Towers at Clement’s Inn on LSE campus were renamed Pankhurst House, Fawcett House and […]
GalleryA mother and daughter at LSE – Herabai and Mithan Tata
LSE often runs in the family with several generations making their way to Houghton Street. LSE Archivist Sue Donnelly writes about an unusual mother and daughter duo.
In 1919 a young Indian woman, Mithan Ardeshir Tata enrolled to study at LSE. Mithan was born in 1898 into a Parsi family in Mumbai (then known as Bombay), the daughter of Herabai […]
GalleryDare to be Free – the Women’s Freedom League
LSE Library holds the archives of the Women’s Freedom League, more early neighbours of LSE. Curator Gillian Murphy introduces the League, who formed in response to what they viewed as “unconstitutional” actions by the Women’s Social and Political Union.
On Saturday 14 September 1907, a meeting was held at the Eustace Miles Restaurant, a vegetarian restaurant in Chandos Street, just off the Strand. […]
GalleryEdith Abbott – pioneering American academic
Edith Abbott, an economist, social worker and women’s equality campaigner, was the first American woman to be appointed the dean of a graduate school in the United States. She had studied at LSE in the early 1900s and was influenced by Beatrice and Sidney Webb’s work in social reform.
Edith Abbott was born in Grand Island, Nebraska in 1876 to Elizabeth Maletta […]
GalleryClement’s Inn – the first home of the Women’s Social and Political Union in London
In 1906, the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) moved from Manchester to London, and specifically to Emmeline and Frederick Pethick-Lawrence’s apartment at Clement’s Inn, writes LSE curator Gillian Murphy. Eventually the WSPU occupied 27 rooms within the building, before a split in 1912 saw the WSPU move around the corner to Kingsway. Today, the site at Clement’s Inn is […]
GalleryAlice Clark – a suffragist from LSE
Somerset-born Alice Clark came from a family of pacifist shoe-makers who were involved in the suffrage movement. LSE curator Gillian Murphy finds that Alice Clark also held a Shaw Research Studentship in economic history at LSE.
Alice Clark, daughter of Helen and William Clark, was born in Street in Somerset in 1874. She was a Quaker by birth, and also a Liberal, and her family were […]