suffragette
Militant ballot advocate
A suffragette was a woman who campaigned for voting rights, particularly in Britain and the United States in the early twentieth century.
The term originally distinguished militants willing to use confrontational tactics—hunger strikes, property destruction, civil disobedience—from more moderate suffragists.
The suffragettes chained themselves to the railings outside Parliament.
Now often used interchangeably with suffragist for any women's suffrage activist of that era.
Formal choice expression
- franchiseLicensed business operation
- ballotVoting document
- pollingSystematic opinion gathering
- electorateEligible voting body
democracy · representation · citizenship · amendment · reform · petition · referendum · constituency
Release from legal bondage
- equalitySame status for all
- liberationRelease from constraint
- empowermentGaining authority or confidence
- patriarchyMale-dominated social order
sexism · discrimination · misogyny · sisterhood · solidarity · consciousness-raising · feminist · gender
One who advocates publicly
- protesterOne who publicly opposes
- demonstratorOne who protests publicly
- marcherOne who walks purposefully
- picketPointed fence stake
rally · boycott · agitator · organizer · grassroots · petitioner · lobbyist · speaker
Of early twentieth-century Britain
- force-feedingCompulsory food administration
- sashesDecorative fabric bands worn
- petticoatUndergarment beneath skirts
- legislationOfficial enactment of statutes
First to forge ahead
- groundbreakingIntroducing radical new ideas
- pioneerEarly explorer or settler
- forerunnerOne that comes before
- vanguardForemost position or group
revolutionary · reformer · visionary · torchbearer · pathfinder · leader · courageous · fearless
vote
Formal choice expression
electorate · democracy · representation · citizenship · amendment · reform · petition · referendum · constituency · election
emancipation
Release from legal bondage
- equalitySame status for all
- liberationRelease from constraint
- empowermentGaining authority or confidence
patriarchy · sexism · discrimination · misogyny · sisterhood · solidarity · consciousness-raising · feminist · gender · parity
campaigner
One who advocates publicly
- protesterOne who publicly opposes
- demonstratorOne who protests publicly
- marcherOne who walks purposefully
picket · rally · boycott · agitator · organizer · grassroots · petitioner · lobbyist · speaker · orator
Edwardian
Of early twentieth-century Britain
- force-feedingCompulsory food administration
- sashesDecorative fabric bands worn
- petticoatUndergarment beneath skirts
legislation · 1920 · Victorian · Holloway
trailblazer
First to forge ahead
- groundbreakingIntroducing radical new ideas
- pioneerEarly explorer or settler
- forerunnerOne that comes before
vanguard · revolutionary · reformer · visionary · torchbearer · pathfinder · leader · courageous · fearless · determined
- activistsactivist, Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights activists, protester, campaigner
- advocatesadvocate, activist, campaigner, crusader, defender
- changemakersactivist, advocate, reformer, revolutionary, pioneer
- feminismfeminism, feminist theory, gender equality, women's rights, feminist novels
- women's rightswomen's rights, gender equality, feminism, women's vote, right to vote
- American Reformsabolitionism, social reform, reform movements, women's rights, temperance
suffragettesuffragist
Voting rights advocate
constitutionalist · gradualist · moderate · incrementalist · conformist
suffragettetraditionalist
Adherent to established customs
male chauvinist · antifeminist · misogynist · old guard · conservative
- suffragette movementCampaign for female enfranchisement