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On 14 December 1918, some women across the UK were able to cast their vote in a general election for the very first time.

It had taken over half a century of both peaceful and militant campaigning, and proving that they too could take on roles usually saved for men in the workforce during World War One. But only women over 30 or with a property qualification of over £5 were able to cast their ballot, due to the limitations of the Representation of the People Act (1918).

The leaders of the women’s suffrage movement were not only able to vote but, in some cases, run for a seat in the House of Commons. Their names are often seen in history books today - names such as Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters, who famously led the militant Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), more commonly known as the suffragettes, and Millicent Garrett Fawcett, the leader of the peaceful, law-abiding suffragists.

Although they might be considered the faces of the movement, there were thousands of women taking different courses of action to win the vote. So why are some remembered, and not others?

Historian Helen Antrobus tells us more.

The class divide

For upper and middle-class women like the Pankhursts, wholly committing to the cause was not controversial. But a woman with domestic duties who decided to abandon her family to get involved in politics was seen as challenging the 'natural order of things'.

Hannah Mitchell, a suffragette who went on to become a councillor in Manchester, said: "…most of us who were married had to work with one hand tied behind us." Still, working class women were able to make their mark in their own ways, and many risked their health and their freedom to campaign for the vote.

Annot Robinson was a Scottish suffragette who moved to Manchester in 1908 and continued her activity with the WSPU. She was married with two children and known for her exceptional public speaking skills. When the WSPU's tactics gradually became violent, with arson, bombings and attacks on public buildings commonplace, several suffragettes were arrested for their acts. Annot was arrested in 1908 after attempting to break into the House of Commons in a furniture van. Her last letters home before imprisonment spoke of ensuring her husband and children were cared for in her absence.

Working class women also faced a much more brutal treatment in prison. Selina Martin, the daughter of a bookseller from Lancaster, was arrested three times between 1908 and 1910, once for throwing an empty bottle of ginger beer through the open window of the Prime Minister Herbert Asquith’s car. Selina became one of the first women to be force-fed while on hunger strike. Her harrowing accounts of her time in prison over Christmas were captured both in letters home and in statements taken by the WSPU. She described in detail the poorly ventilated cells, the brutality of the prison wardens, and the horrors of force-feeding.

Selina was awarded a Hunger Strike medal by the WSPU leadership for her courage, but her prison experience was too much. Despite the rallying cry of suffragette Lady Constance Lytton to join the newly-formed Women’s Party in 1918, Selina stayed away from public political action.

Different acts of defiance

But militant action was simply one way to protest for the vote. The National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) promoted peaceful activity, and many women found inventive ways to campaign. There were a wealth of organisations working for the cause, including the Church League for Women’s Suffrage, the Actresses’ Franchise League, and the Women’s Tax Resistance League, who refused to pay their taxes until they were given the vote.

Princess Sophia Duleep Singh was one of the most prolific members of the Tax Resistance League. An Indian princess and the goddaughter of Queen Victoria, Sophia became something of an icon, selling copies of The Suffragette newspaper outside Hampton Court Palace. Sophia was instrumental in World War One, raising money to support Indian allied soldiers.

Creativity and artistic contributions to the cause were also highly valued. Mary Lowndes was an artist, stained-glass maker and suffragist who established the Artists’ Suffrage League in 1907. She designed many of the powerful and illustrious banners that were marched by both suffragettes and suffragists. Many of them evoked feminist icons of the past, such as Boudicca and Mary Wollstonecraft.

Regional rebels

Big cities like London and Manchester acted as the hub for suffrage activity, but regional activity was equally as important, and even suffrage societies in the furthest parts of the United Kingdom were able to make their mark.

Christina Jamieson was the leader of the Shetland Suffrage Society and organised a ‘quiet but effective’ campaign on Shetland. From arranging lecture series to letter-writing and pamphleting campaigns, Christina might not have received the same publicity as the window-smashing suffragettes, but her tactics worked.

She used the logic of men being absentee voters (as they were fishermen) to her advantage, arguing that their wives should have the right to vote in their stead. These smaller, regional societies were vital to the bigger, national campaigns – they converted women and men to their cause on the ground.