What did the Suffragists and Suffragettes want in the way of votes for women?
In the UK they were seeking the extension of the Parliamentary franchise to women (who, if they were property owners, had already had the county and municipal vote for half a century). Suffragette was a term of abuse, “adopted with honour,” like “Chicano,” “Black” or “Old contemptible,” but it came to be associated with militancy. A “suffragist” came to be limited to someone who thought votes for omen a good idea, but, even if she or he was prepared to campaign for it, would do so only strictly within the law. A “suffragette” came to denote someone prepared to use illegal methods (chaining one’s self to railings, breaking windows, or, in the most famous instance, committing suicide to prevent the king’s horse from winning the Epsom Derby). My father loved to cite the case of a woman friend who refused an invitation to join the suffragettes with the remark: “We have nothing in common: you ladies merely want the same privileges as your gentlemen friends. I want universal adult suffrage,”
