HS1SUF: Suffragette

Module code: HS1SUF

Module provider: History; School of Humanities

Credits: 20

Level: 4

When you’ll be taught: Semester 2

Module convenor: Dr Jacqui Turner , email: e.j.turner@reading.ac.uk

Pre-requisite module(s):

Co-requisite module(s):

Pre-requisite or Co-requisite module(s):

Module(s) excluded:

Placement information: No placement specified

Academic year: 2025/6

Available to visiting students: No

Talis reading list: Yes

Last updated: 3 April 2025

Overview

Module aims and purpose

This module considers the theory and practice of campaigns to achieve women’s full and equal participation in British democracy and political life though access to the vote. The module will focus on the militant suffrage campaigns of suffragettes or the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) between 1903 and 1918 and responses to the organization and its leadership.  It will enable students to:

• position the WSPU and militancy within the wider suffrage movement
• understand and engage with concepts of democracy and citizenship, civil disobedience, radicalism, protest and propaganda
• evaluate and interpret primary and secondary sources on the progress of female radicalism, protest and the feminist philosophy of the campaign for female suffrage.
• engage with women’s life writing, oral and written testimonies alongside contemporary evidence, understanding the challenges and benefits.
• construct written arguments and engage in oral debate that demonstrate academic maturity displaying some empathy for the subject but without emotion.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, it is expected that students will be able to:

1. Identify the sources of the topic in question
2. Trace its historical development
3. Be aware of differing historiographical interpretations of the pattern and causes of this development
4. Understand how ideas and events are shaped by their historical contexts
5. Organise material and articulate arguments effectively in writing, both under timed conditions and in assessed essays
6. Demonstrate familiarity with bibliographical conventions and mastery of library skills.

Module content

What is democracy? What is full and equal citizenship? Why are participation in the democratic process and full and equal citizenship important? Did all women really want the vote and did they agree on how it might be achieved and for whom?

This module considers the theory and practice of campaigns to achieve women’s full and equal participation in British democracy and political life though access to the vote. The module will focus on the militant suffrage campaigns of suffragettes or the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) between 1903 and 1918 and responses to the organization and its leadership.  The module will assess how women pressured and strategized their demand for the franchise and ultimately, we will question how far women’s full and equal participation in the polity was in the gift of men.  We will also consider how far the suffrage campaigns, especially the militant suffrage movement, represented the concerns of all women with reference to class, party politics and the anti-suffrage movement; or whether campaign for the vote was part of a broader movement for social change. Ultimately, we will ask whether women achieving the vote was enough and whether success in 1918 changed very much at all.

Structure

Teaching and learning methods

These are designed to encourage students to work and develop analytical skills both independently and in groups.  Particular aims are that by the end of the module students should be able to:

• identify the nature and origin of key types of gendered primary source material and interpret women’s writing.
• Consider the theory and practice of campaigns to achieve women’s full and equal citizenship alongside participation in British democracy and political life through access to the vote.
• be aware of differing historiographical interpretations of the pattern and causes of this development; historiography on this subject is vast and there is a great deal of writing for a public audience which needs to be identified and navigated.
• understand how political ideas and events are shaped by their historical contexts

The teaching will be centred on eleven weekly two-hour seminars and five one-hour seminars.

Study hours

At least 27 hours of scheduled teaching and learning activities will be delivered in person, with the remaining hours for scheduled and self-scheduled teaching and learning activities delivered either in person or online. You will receive further details about how these hours will be delivered before the start of the module.

Please note the independent study hours above are notional numbers of hours; each student will approach studying in different ways. We would advise you to reflect on your learning and the number of hours you are allocating to these tasks.

Semester 1 The hours in this column may include hours during the Christmas holiday period.

Semester 2 The hours in this column may include hours during the Easter holiday period.

Summer The hours in this column will take place during the summer holidays and may be at the start and/or end of the module.

Assessment

Requirements for a pass

Students need to achieve an overall module mark of 40% to pass this module.

Summative assessment

Penalties for late submission of summative assessment

The Support Centres will apply the following penalties for work submitted late:

Assessments with numerical marks

• where the piece of work is submitted after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): 10% of the total marks available for that piece of work will be deducted from the mark for each working day (or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of three working days;
• the mark awarded due to the imposition of the penalty shall not fall below the threshold pass mark, namely 40% in the case of modules at Levels 4-6 (i.e. undergraduate modules for Parts 1-3) and 50% in the case of Level 7 modules offered as part of an Integrated Masters or taught postgraduate degree programme;
• where the piece of work is awarded a mark below the threshold pass mark prior to any penalty being imposed, and is submitted up to three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline), no penalty shall be imposed;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): a mark of zero will be recorded.

Assessments marked Pass/Fail

• where the piece of work is submitted within three working days of the deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): no penalty will be applied;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): a grade of Fail will be awarded.

The University policy statement on penalties for late submission can be found at: https://www.reading.ac.uk/cqsd/-/media/project/functions/cqsd/documents/qap/penaltiesforlatesubmission.pdf

You are strongly advised to ensure that coursework is submitted by the relevant deadline. You should note that it is advisable to submit work in an unfinished state rather than to fail to submit any work.

Formative assessment

Formative assessment is any task or activity which creates feedback (or feedforward) for you about your learning, but which does not contribute towards your overall module mark.

Choose a suffragette (whose name is not Pankhurst).  Construct a 1000-word biography assessing her contribution to the campaign for the franchise utilising primary and some secondary material which should include the subject’s written or oral testimony. This can be submitted as a word document or as a poster.  The template for the poster can be found on Blackboard.

Reassessment

Additional costs