The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies 1897-1914 (Routledge Revivals)

Book excerpt: First published in 1981, this book traces the history of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) from 1897-1914. Whereas most historians have focused on the more militant aspect of the struggle for female enfranchisement, embodied by the Women’s Political and Social Union (WPSU), this work provides an essential overview of the often dismissed non-violent and constitutional NUWSS — by 1914 the largest single women’s suffrage organisation. The author argues that, although a less dramatic organisation than the WPSU, the NUWSS was far more responsible for laying the pre-war groundwork for the enfranchisement of women in 1918.