Learn About Suffragetto

Suffragetto is a feminist, political board game dating to the early 1900s. Read more about the feminism of Suffragetto in my article in ROMChip.

Physical Feminism and the WSPU

In 1903, Emmeline Pankhurst (1858–1928), along with her daughters Christabel and Sylvia, formed the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) because they were frustrated with the slow-moving pacifist methods of the mainstream movement. For over fifty years, UK women had campaigned for the right to vote, with little progress. Wanting to “wake up the nation” with “deeds not words,” the WSPU disrupted civic events and government meetings. They chained themselves to buildings, engaged in window-breaking campaigns, and committed arson in (unoccupied) government buildings, elected leaders’ homes, and high-end retail shops.

The WSPU formed in response to the slow-moving pacifist tactics of other suffragette groups. They engaged in attention-getting strategies, including disruption, occupation, destruction of public property, arson, and hunger-strikes. Police responded en force, leading the WSPU to create a thirty-woman bodyguard to protect its leaders and members. Known as “the Amazons,” these women trained in the form of jiu-jitsu called Bartitsu made famous by Sherlock Holmes and promoted self-defense for women internationally. The game, Suffragetto, is a way to interact with the kind of physical feminism promoted by the WSPU, through leisure, and enacts feminist ideology in a hybrid fantasy-real world environment. Further, it allows players to experiment with alternative forms of resistance.