Suffragettes convicted during fight for women’s right to vote should be pardoned on 100th anniversary of right to vote, campaigners argue
FEMALE activists who were treated as criminals during their fight for the right to vote should be pardoned today on the 100th anniversary of their triumph, campaigners urged.
Suffragettes pursued militant methods in their campaign for equal voting rights, including violence and destruction of property.
The Government is now facing calls to overturn the convictions of protesters jailed for their activities before the implementation of the Representation of the People Act 100 years ago.
Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson has joined others in pushing for pardons, saying the suffragettes were simply righting the wrong of voting inequality.
Writing in the she said: "Voting was a value judgement, not an intrinsic right.
"That inequality is one of the reasons why I support calls by family members to offer a posthumous pardon to those suffragettes charged with righting that wrong."
Sam Smethers, chief executive of the Fawcett Society, named after suffragist Millicent Fawcett, said: "Suffragette activism was for a noble cause and many of them became political prisoners.
"It would be a fitting tribute to pardon them now.
"They made such sacrifices so that we could all enjoy the rights we have today.
"In any meaningful sense of the word, they were not criminals."
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While suffragists used peaceful methods to achieve women's suffrage, the suffragettes employed more militant tactics in their campaign.
There were more than 1,300 suffragette arrests according to the England, Suffragettes Arrested, 1906-1914 collection.
Many went on to be jailed, including leader Emmeline Pankhurst.
As a founder member of the Woman's Social and Political Union (WSPU), Pankhurst was sentenced to repeated stretches in prison as a result of her militant activity.
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