The Women's Party was a minor political party in the United Kingdom. It was founded by Christabel and Emmeline Pankhurst when they dissolved the Women's Social and Political Union in November 1917. The party ran on the slogan ‘Victory, National Security and Progress’, in an effort to conflate winning of the war with the women's cause.
Policies
The party proclaimed the need for more stringent measures in support of Britain in World War I. Indeed, it gave out white feathers to all conscientious objectors. It changed the name of its paper from The Suffragette to Britannia, a paper which concentrated on enlisting women for the war effort. It claimed that this was far more important than the fight for women's suffrage, although it also had policies on equality for women and the abolition of trade unions.
Reception
The Women's Party was launched at a time of growing domestic support for the Labour Party and the international rise of Bolshevism in Russia. With this in mind, its anti-Bolshevik stance attracted the approval of the British Government along with industrialists, such as Lord Leverhulme.
In 1919, Christabel was chosen as the Coalition's Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Westminster Abbey, but in the event no by-election was held until 1921, when the Conservative Party chose their own candidate to represent the Coalition. The Women's Party wound itself up in June 1919.