Formation
The WSPU was founded at the Pankhurst family home in Manchester on 10 October 1903 by six women, including Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst, who soon emerged as the group's leaders. The WSPU had split from the non-militant National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, disappointed at the lack of success its tactics of persuading politicians through meetings had found.
The founders decided to form a women-only organisation, which would campaign for social reforms, largely in conjunction with the Independent Labour Party. They would also campaign for an extension of women's suffrage, believing that this was central to sexual equality. To illustrate their more militant stance, they adopted the slogan "Deeds, not words". By 1913 the WSPU appointed the fiercely militant feminist Norah Dacre Fox (later known as Norah Elam) as General Secretary. Dacre Fox operated as a highly effective progandist delivering rousing speeches at the WSPU weekly meetings and writing many of Christabel Pankhurst's speeches.
Read more about this topic: Women's Social And Political Union
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