Votes for Women Demonstration

Handbill promoting a 'Votes for Women Demonstration' to be held on July 1st, 1906 in Trafalgar Square. Printed on both sides the flyer provides details of the demonstration as well as a summary of the arguments for supporting female suffrage. The demonstration was organised by the Women's Social and Political Union in response to the imprisonment of Teresa Billington-Greig for leading a deputation to interview the Prime Minister Herbert Asquith. A handwritten annotation on the flyer notes that as well as the planned speakers whose names are printed on the leaflet Teresa Billington-Greig and Keir Hardie also made an appearance and spoke at the event.

Born in Preston, Billington-Greig gave up teaching to become an organiser for the Women’s Social and Political Union. She was one of the first militant activists, and served two sentences in Holloway Gaol. Known as ‘the woman with the whip’, Billington-Greig would interrupt meetings of the governing Liberal Party armed with a whip, which she would whirl around to prevent herself from being ejected. She left the WSPU in 1907, and together with Charltote Despard formed the Women’s Freedom League. She also left the WFL in 1911 and wrote 'The Militant Movement', which attacked militancy.