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Suffragist letter from 1913 reminds how hard women fought to get the vote

She gave two options

Rachel Hosie
Friday 09 June 2017 14:36 BST
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Anne-Marie Duff, Carey Mulligan and Helena Bonham Carter filming the movie Suffragette
Anne-Marie Duff, Carey Mulligan and Helena Bonham Carter filming the movie Suffragette

In 1918, women over the age of 30 were given the right to vote in the UK. And in 1928, it was granted to women over the age of 21, on equal terms with men.

It didn’t happen without a long, hard fight though.

Unlike the suffragettes, the suffragists campaigned peacefully. And one suffragist in particular is currently enjoying a moment in the spotlight thanks to a letter she wrote that’s doing the rounds on Twitter.

The letter, by Bertha Brewster, was published in The Daily Telegraph on February 26 1913, when the fight for women’s suffrage was in full swing.

“Sir,” she writes.

“Everyone seems to agree upon the necessity of putting a stop to Suffragist outrages; but no one seems certain how to do so.

“There are two, and only two, ways in which this can be done:

“1. Kill every woman in the United Kingdom.

“2. Give women the vote.”

At the time that Brewster wrote her letter, demonstrations and protests were rife - suffragettes would chain themselves to railings and one, Emily Davison, even died when she jumped out in front of the king’s horse at Epsom Derby.

Over a century later, many women still feel an extra weight of responsibility to exercise their democratic right because of how hard women like Brewster worked to win the vote.

The UK now has a record number of female MPs, but parliament remains less than a third women.

We still have a way to go.

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