Chartists and Suffragettes
A global power1714 to 1901
The Chartists pushed for the vote to reach the working class and everyone else shut out without property, presenting petition after petition to Parliament, largely without success at the time. Change did come in part through the Reform Act, which gave many more people the vote and swept away the pocket and rotten boroughs, though working people still had no say in choosing Parliament.
Emmeline Pankhurst became known for helping to found the Women's Social and Political Union, the first group whose members were called suffragettes. Those suffragettes turned to civil disobedience: they chained themselves to railings, smashed windows, committed arson and went on hunger strike, to press their demand for the vote.
Rudyard Kipling was born in India and went on to write some of the era's best-loved poems and stories, work that carried the idea of empire to readers back home.
What to remember
| The Chartists | campaigning for the vote for the working classes and other people without property They presented petitions to Parliament; their six demands are a row of their own. |
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| The Reform Act of 1832 | increasing the number of people with the right to vote and abolishing the pocket and rotten boroughs More parliamentary seats went to the towns and cities. |
| Emmeline Pankhurst | helping to found the Women's Social and Political Union, the first group whose members were called suffragettes 1903; she was born in Manchester. |
| The suffragettes of the Women's Social and Political Union | civil disobedience: chaining themselves to railings, smashing windows, committing arson and going on hunger strike Emmeline Pankhurst was among those who went on hunger strike. |
| Rudyard Kipling | India 1865; he later lived in India, the UK and the USA. |
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