Terms of Suffrage Activist
began to emerge like those being pictured on women struggle for suffrage in Scotland:
„Suffragettes were prepared to break the law and go to prison for their beliefs. Scottish Suffragettes poured acid into pillar boxes, chained
themselves to railings, smashed windows and slashed portraits of the
King.‟ „Suffragettes often refused to eat and the authorities attempts to force-feed
them provoked
a major
public outcry.
‟ http:www.scan.org.ukeducationsuffragemovie.html
Julia M. Wright and Jason William Haslam 2005:27 Lady Lytton a
suffragette: „Concerted militant action started with marches to political sites such as
the house of commons, which led to arrests for disturbing the peace,‟ „the suffragettes were invested in publicizing their movement as much as
possible through both the spectacle of their demonstrations and representation of themselves in newspaper, pamphlets, literary, and other
artistic works.‟ The aim was to attract the readers in supporting their actions and made the
injustice suffrage case not being forgotten by the people. But, unfortunately, sometimes their militant actions drew negative publicity in newspaper. That was
why some suffragist did not agree and thought that suffragettes‟ way was wrong since it made the opponent thinking that women were too emotional and
thoughtless to be given the right to vote. In America, the activists working for womens voting preferred the term suffragist than “suffragette”, as Jone Johnson
Lewis wrote in his article that „Suffragette in America also carried more of a
radical or militant connotation that many American woman suffrage activists did not want to be associated with.‟ The differences between suffragist and suffragette
can be classified into the table below: 14
No. Angle Suffragette
Suffragist 1.
2.
3.
4. Membership
Tactic
Method
Going to prison Women only
Militant violent
and confrontational
Deeds, not words by holding marches or parade,
demonstration, picketing the white house, and so on.
Often Men and women
Moderate peaceful
persuasion and
constitutional Argument,
meetings, issuing
leaflets and
collecting petitions.
Never Suffrage plays a crucial role in democracy country. However, not all
people in United States as a democracy country were necessarily granted the privilege of citizenship, not all U.S. citizens have been uniformly endowed with
the right to vote. Throughout U.S. history, persons have been denied suffrage based on sex, race, age, and income.