Suffragette

In a time without television or radio, women in the suffrage movement became experts onpublic campaigning, bringing awareness into the minds – and homes – of a nation. The early movement for the suffrage of women used tactics employed by abolitionists in previous decades, such as signing petitions and attempting to enact new laws.

But as the years went on, suffragettes became impatient. They saw that appearing in the local and national news, promoting suffrage newspapers and organised marches were key, but that a more clever, emotive approach was needed to really get their message across.

Here are some of the ways they marketed themselves – and how their opponents hit back.
Suffragette coloursIn 1908, the honorary treasurer of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), Mrs Pethick Lawrence, chose a colour scheme to unify participants in an enormous demonstration in Hyde Park. In a few weeks, members throughout the nation knew the suffrage colours: purple for dignity, white for purity and green for hop

Statuettes, badges, scarves and trimmings were made available for anyone who wanted a memento of the movement Lawrence said: “Purple… is the royal colour… It stands for the royal blood that flows in the veins of every suffragette, the instinct of freedom and dignity… White stands for purity in private and public life… Green is the colour of hope and the emblem of spring.”
Using these simple colours meant everyone could wear a symbol of the suffrage movement, even if they didn’t go out and buy something made especially for the event, by wearing scarves and ribbons or flowers, and with men wearing the colours on ties and hat bands. More than 30,000 women attended the Hyde Park rally, and somewhere between 250,000 and 500,000 watched as the demonstration went on.
In reality, there were two suffrage “team colours”: red, white and green for the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) and purple, green and white for the more militant WSPU – but it is the WSPU that is considered to be the first campaign organisation to use colour and design to create its own branded identity, one that was used right up to 1914 and the outbreak of war.