Expert: Joseph Logue - 9/5/2005

Question
What were the political and other differences between the suffragists and the suffragettes?

I'd be glad to have any onfo you have on the subject and/or foryou to suggest further online sources.

Thanks,
Aileen

Answer
Hi Aileen,

I'll try hard to fit this into my category of British History, but the explanation can be applied to anywhere the fight for voting rights has been fought.

Stemming from the word "suffrage," which had many meanings (I consulted the OED, but any good dictionary will illustrate the uses of the word), suffragists are, or were, people who fought for the extension of voting rights to all people.  Remember that it was  only in the 20th century that these rights were expanded; before then, relatively few people were allowed to vote.  Sufragettes were women who fought for voting rights (the suffix -ette being a feminine form, probably originally meant perjoratively but eventually being a label in which one could take great pride -- as my grandmother did).

In Britain, two great suffrage movements occurred in the 19th century:  the Chartist Movement and the Home Rule Bill.  The Chartist Movement (1838-1848) sought to expand the rights given to those not in the upper classes, including the right to vote.  The Home Rule Bill (there were four, actually) specifically referred to Ireland.  Originally introduced in 1886, it took four tries before the Irish were granted their own Parliament in 1920.

An interesting rhetorical argument about voting rights goes like this (I'll use women's suffrage, but it can be applied elsewhere):  that women were not "granted" the right to vote; instead, they were no longer "denied" the right to vote.  This implies that, as a democratic country, women had the right all along, but were denied this right by men.  It's an interesting way of looking at an issue that too many of us today take for granted.

For women's suffrage, this site is good:

http://www.louisville.edu/a-s/english/haymarket/morrison/suffragism.html

I think you will be better off going to your local library and asking for works on the subject.  Online resources, many of which are excellent, can be found by entering the term "suffrage" in a good search engine (I use vivisimo.com for searches like these).

Happy researching to you, Aileen, and thanks for visiting AllExperts!

Sincerely,

Joseph Logue