This is an account of the British Suffrage movement from its inception until its victory in 1918. It is based around the experiences of seven women whose participation in the British Suffrage movement is little-known.

Introduction 1 FROM ‘SURPLUS WOMAN’ TO INDEPENDENT PERSON Elizabeth Wolstenholme and the early women’s Movement 2 ‘THE REVOLT OF THE WOMEN’ Sexual subjection and sexual solidarity 3 A ‘STRANGE, ERRATIC GENIUS’ Jessie Craigen, working suffragist 4 ‘THE GRANDEST VICTORY’ Married women and the franchise 5 AMONG THE ‘INSURGENT WOMEN’ Hannah Mitchell, socialist and suffragist 6 ‘A MERRY, MILITANT SAINT’ Mary Gawthorpe and the argument of the stone 7 WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE AMONG THE BOHEMIANS Laurence Housman joins the movement 8 ‘ON THE HORNS OF A DILEMMA’ Alice Clark, liberal Quaker and democratic suffragist 9 MEN, WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE AND SEXUAL RADICALISM, 1912–14 10 WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE AND THE FIRST WORLD WAR 11 LAST WORDS Women’s suffragists and women’s history after the vote