Epilogue

Abstract

After some women had won the vote, and the war had come to an end, the story of the constitutional suffrage movement is generally seen as continuing almost seamlessly — although not without tension — in the transformation of the NUWSS into the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship (NUSEC). This view takes no account of the sharp change of direction that had taken place in 1915, and ignores the broader vision of democracy which had informed the NU for the years immediately before the outbreak of war; if the transition in 1917–18 was seamless, that in 1915 had marked a sharp break with the pre-war pattern and direction. While the reincarnation in NUSEC was a triumph for good sense and a tribute to the importance that the suffrage movement had had for many women, changed circumstances ensured that it would not become the locus for democratic suffragism.