Believed to be the largest demonstration in British history at the time, drawing up to 500,000 people to demand women's suffrage.
Key Facts
- Date
- 21 June 1908
- Total attendance
- Up to 500,000 people
- Women who marched
- 30,000 women
- Number of processions
- 7 processions
- Banners carried
- 700 banners
- Organising body
- Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU)
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
The Liberal government in Britain had not committed to granting women the vote. Emmeline Pankhurst and the WSPU sought a large-scale public demonstration to pressure the government into supporting women's suffrage legislation, hoping a show of mass popular support would prove impossible to ignore.
On 21 June 1908, up to 500,000 people gathered in Hyde Park, London, for Women's Sunday. Thirty thousand women marched in seven processions carrying 700 banners, in what became the largest demonstration held in Britain up to that point. The event was organised entirely by the WSPU under Emmeline Pankhurst.
Women's Sunday demonstrated the enormous scale of public support for suffrage and established the WSPU as a formidable political force. The Liberal government, however, did not immediately grant women the vote, and the suffragette campaign continued, eventually becoming more militant in subsequent years before partial suffrage was won in 1918.