Name/TitleNecklace: Votes for Women
About this objectBeaded necklace bearing the initials VFW (Votes for Women) and the green, white and purple colours of the WSPU. Date and provenance unknown. It is very unlikely to be an authentic item of suffrage jewellery (see linked blog post below) as there are no verified, documented beadwork examples like this from the period.
Medium and MaterialsInorganic, metal and glass
Subject and Association KeywordsWomen's suffrage
Subject and Association KeywordsFashion - accessories, jewellery
Subject and Association DescriptionGU Feminist History blog: The Jewel of the Suffrage Movement by Clare Mackintosh:
https://guhistfem.wordpress.com/2014/12/04/the-jewel-of-the-suffrage-movement
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women's_Social_and_Political_Union:
The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was a women-only political movement and leading militant organisation campaigning for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom from 1903 to 1918. Known from 1906 as the suffragettes, its membership and policies were tightly controlled by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia; Sylvia was eventually expelled.
The WSPU membership became known for civil disobedience and direct action. Emmeline Pankhurst described them as engaging in a "reign of terror". Group members heckled politicians, held demonstrations and marches, broke the law to force arrests, broke windows in prominent buildings, set fire to or introduced chemicals into postboxes thus injuring several postal workers, and committed a series of arsons that killed at least five people and injured at least 24. When imprisoned, the group's members engaged in hunger strikes and were subject to force-feeding. Emmeline Pankhurst said the group's goal was "to make England and every department of English life insecure and unsafe".
Named CollectionGlasgow Women's Library
Object TypeJewellery
Object numberGWL-2014-60
Copyright Licence
Attribution - Share Alike (cc)