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| Image courtesy of teachnet-uk.org.uk |
Fashion and politics, hardly a match made in heaven. Although fashion and politics couldn't be further from each other, it is the political movement brought about by women's suffrage groups that saw fashion change forever. Since the end of the Nineteenth century women's suffrage has struggled for equal rights for women.
Millicent Fawcett who became president of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (N.U.W.S.S) took on the role in 1890 and spent twenty years campaigning for women's opportunities for higher education and improved rights for women. However Emmeline Pankhurst, frustrated by the slow progress of the Suffragists, created a breakaway movement in 1903 which formed the Women's Social and Political Union (W.S.P.U). This group, the Suffragettes, used more violent methods of protest and even martyred themselves to make a statement.
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| Millicent Fawcett (Image courtesy of history.buses.co.uk) |
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| Emmeline Pankhurst (Image courtesy of historylearningsite.co.uk) |
These women campaigned tirelessly but in 1914 when the war began, Emmeline Pankhurst instructed the Suffragettes to stop their campaign and support the government and the war effort in any way they could. The work done by women in munitions factories, in fields and as nurses, was rewarded by the 1918 Representation of the the People Act. This gave women over the age of thirty who also owned property the right to vote. This was a major start for women's suffrage and in 1928 this was extended to all women.
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| leaner and longer, straight or hobbled skirts (Image courtesy of fash224.tripod.com) |
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| Women's skirts shortened after the war (Image courtesy of fash224.tripod.com) |
In 1910 women's clothes were still very heavy and impractical, dresses were full length, down to the floor, and putting on a pair of trackies was certainly not an option. Women's devotion to the war meant clothes had to be less restricting, so skirts were raised to above the ankles or even calf length and underskirts were put aside. In fact, it was the post war feminist movements which allowed hemlines to be pushed up to just below the knee for practical reasons, was this the beginning of the mini skirt?
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It is hard to believe that fashion today would be the same if it wasn't for the hard work and dedication of women like these, who strived to go further than the restraints of their society. The war and the the work of the Suffragettes set the stage for radical new fashions; this would determine the style of the twenties that saw women empowered and dressing more daringly than they ever would have before.