European University Institute Library

Women in the National Archives, Original documents on the suffrage question in Britain, the Empire and colonial territories

eng

contains biographical information

no index present

non fiction

Women in the National Archives

electronic resource

800539159

AM Explorer collection

Original documents on the suffrage question in Britain, the Empire and colonial territories

Many of the documents in this collection concentrate on the women's suffrage movement in the UK between 1903 and 1928. It includes papers on government and police handling of the suffrage question, photographs and descriptions of leading suffragettes, police reports on suffrage meetings and disturbances, petitions, newspaper clippings, extracts from Parliamentary debates, Cabinet opinion and Committee reports on franchise bills, including the work of the Equal Franchise Committee of 1927-1928. There are also various sources relating to the arrest of suffragettes, their transit in police vans and treatment in prison. Accounts from suffragettes and their supporters, and reports from prison authorities provide details of hunger strikes, the 'Cat and Mouse' campaign and forced feeding. Prominent suffragettes include Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, the Pankhursts, Emily Wilding Davison, Clara Giveen and Rachel Peace (alias Jane Short). Colonial Office and the Dominions Office records relate to the subsequent debate and development of universal suffrage throughout the British empire, 1930-1962, with an emphasis on African countries, India, Sri Lanka, Fiji, New Zealand, Canada and the West Indies. This includes a sequence of substantial files from CO 1032 on suffrage arrangements in Colonial territories, 1954-1962