Factory Acts Regulations for Women

Factory Acts Regulations for Women by Emily Susan Ford 1908

This poster was a protest against the various Factory Acts where the regulations governing women's work were made by men in Parliament, elected by men, without consulting women workers.

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Campaigns for suffrage in the UK, including the Chartist movement of the first half of the 19th Century, included calls to include women, but often these calls were swept aside, either temporarily as something to achieve once men’s suffrage had been achieved, or permanently as it was considered undesirable.

A Woman’s Suffrage Committee was formed in 1867 and from 1893 worked within the Independent Labour Party (ILP), aimed at securing votes for women. The NUWSS, formed in 1897.

The NUWSS was dedicated to winning women's suffrage through peaceful means, and focused on trying to get sympathetic MPs elected to Parliament. The Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), split from the NUWSS in 1903 (when patience with the ILP had run out) and became known as the suffragettes, employing more militant tactics.

In the UK, before the start of the First World War, many Suffragettes were involved in a campaign of direct action, including bombing and arson, disruption and mass demonstrations. Suffragettes were often attacked and sexually assaulted by the police and special constables conscripted specifically for the purpose. Imprisoned Suffragettes who went on hunger strike were barbarically force fed. As their health deteriorated, they could be released and re-arrested when they were considered to have recovered enough.

At the outbreak of the war, the WSPU split as the majority decided to support the war effort. A significant group, including Sylvia Pankhurst, broke away, took a strong stance against the war and formed the East London Federation of Suffragettes. They published The Woman’s Dreadnought, which later became The Workers Dreadnought and was adopted as the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Great Britain.