# Suffragettes — What’s Wrong with the World character guide

> Suffragettes in What’s Wrong with the World by G. K. Chesterton.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** the Suffragettes, their

**First appearance:** 0019-part-iii-feminism-or-the-mistake-about-woman

## Snapshot

The women's suffrage movement, which Chesterton treats as a test case for whether the old ideal of woman as universalist amateur survives.

## Who they are

He argues that despotic states have admitted women to privileges while democracies have withheld rights, and that a thousand Pankhursts become a Bacchic orgy rather than a political force. Yet his deeper worry is the modern working woman who bears a double burden, enduring both the grinding officialism of the office and the devouring conscientiousness of the home. They matter because their cause forces the book to ask whether emancipation should mean more rights or more privileges, and what a free home might look like.

## In the story

### [VI: The Enemies of Property](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/chapters/vi-the-enemies-of-property)

Implied among modern women who rebel against domesticity in theory.

### [VIII: The Wildness of Domesticity](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/chapters/viii-the-wildness-of-domesticity)

Mentioned indirectly in the context of modern movements that Chesterton associates with wealthy biases.

### [Part III: Feminism: Or the Mistake About Woman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/chapters/part-iii-feminism-or-the-mistake-about-woman)

Critiqued for their militaristic and imitative approach to male politics.

### [I: The Unmilitary Suffragette](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/chapters/i-the-unmilitary-suffragette)

Criticized for being unmilitary, creating anarchy rather than revolution.

### [IV: The Romance of Thrift](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/chapters/iv-the-romance-of-thrift)

Implicitly referenced in the context of women's fight for dignity and thrift.

### [The Pedant and the Savage](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/chapters/vi-the-pedant-and-the-savage)

Implicitly referenced as 'the advanced person' who would question whether women's instincts are inherent or educated.

### [VII: The Modern Surrender of Woman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/chapters/vii-the-modern-surrender-of-woman)

Described as a prominent minority who have surrendered to men's values and now advocate for the vote with a conservative reverence for precedent.

### [Sincerity and the Gallows](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/chapters/ix-sincerity-and-the-gallows)

The Suffragettes are addressed as the proponents of female suffrage, whom Chesterton challenges to confront the real implications of voting, including the power to punish.

### [X: The Higher Anarchy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/chapters/x-the-higher-anarchy)

Implied as part of the modern capitulation of women to man's world.

### [XI: The Queen and the Suffragettes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/chapters/xi-the-queen-and-the-suffragettes)

Referenced collectively as a potential 'nightmare' or 'Witches’ Sabbath' in a democratic herd.

### [The Modern Slave](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/chapters/xii-the-modern-slave)

Referenced indirectly through the Feminist interlocutor who defends women's suffrage and political organization as necessary responses to industrial conditions.

### [Part V: The Home of Man](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/chapters/part-v-the-home-of-man)

Critiqued for their unmilitary approach and misunderstanding of women's role.

### [Three Notes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/chapters/three-notes)

Discussed in the context of their role and the critique of their methods.

### [I: On Female Suffrage](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/chapters/i-on-female-suffrage)

The Suffragists are referenced as the proponents of female voting rights who must convert a hostile majority.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/characters/suffragettes
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/characters