‘The Very Latest Craze!’: Strategic Thinking in Suffragette Themed Games
The Suffragettes needed a way to raise money for their cause and inspire the next generation to join the fight for women’s suffrage. Their solution? Card games, board games and puzzles. This was an ingenious method of propaganda which allowed the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) to carry their message into the heart of people’s homes and encourage their supporters to develop their strategical thinking and puzzle-solving skills.
Edwardian Suffragette Games
In 1907 the Kensington branch of the WSPU, created a card game called ‘Suffragette’. There were 54 cards and different sets such as ‘Prominent Supporters’, ‘Suffragettes’, ‘Piecrust Principles’ and ‘Voteless Women’. Each card contained questions about the key people and principles of the movement, and some had photographs of key figures. Playing this game allowed supporters of the WSPU to improve their knowledge of the fight for women’s suffrage.
‘Pank-A-Squith’ was a board game from 1909. The player would move the Suffragette across the spiral board after rolling the dice and would try and reach Parliament. However, the player would have to contend with the police, prison, and force-feeding. One square on the board read “Notice: Any player landing on this space must send a penny to the Suffragette Funds”. This game not only taught people about the issues and abuse the WSPU faced, but also allowed them to raise money for the cause.
‘Suffragetto’ was a board game that had a chequered board, and the players were either playing as Suffragettes or the police. The aim of the game was “to pass through the lines of the Police and to effect an entry into the House of Commons: and while doing so to prevent the Police from entering Albert Hall. The duty of the Police is to break up a meeting of the Suffragettes which is being held in Albert Hall, and to keep the Suffragettes out of the House of Commons”. There were 21 green pieces that represented the Suffragettes, and 21 blue pieces to represent the police. Arrested Suffragettes would be moved to the prison section of the board, while constables who were taken out by the Suffragette player would be moved to the hospital section. (Some Suffragettes learnt jiu-jitsu which allowed them to defend themselves against the police, which is why the injured police pieces find themselves in hospital). The winner would be the first player to move six of their pieces onto the opposing side, either the Albert Hall or the House of Commons. On the box, the game was described as ‘The Very Latest Craze!’.
Another game, called ‘How to Get Out of Gaol’ or ‘Suffragettes in and out of Prison’ saw you try and escape the maze of Holloway prison. You would have to avoid the policemen and the wardresses to escape. The game only cost one penny so would have provided a game for working-class women. The other games mentioned here would have been more expensive, and probably targeted at the middle class. Games created by the WSPU would have been sold to add to their funds. However, some games were created to profit off of the Suffragettes and the money made by these games was not given to the WSPU.
Suffragette Games Today
Today you’ll find the ‘Suffra-greats’ card game in museum gift shops, and, in America the ‘Votes For Women Board Game’ has been described as ‘one of the year’s best board games’. The Pankhurst Centre in Manchester has a game called ‘Rise Up Manchester’ which is based on the original, Edwardian spiral board games. For my MA Public History project, I created an online puzzle game entitled ‘The Mystery of the Missing Suffragette’. This game draws on Egham Museum’s archive and is inspired by historical events.
Some could argue, looking at the Suffragette’s arson and bombing campaign, that it is not appropriate to gamify these men and women. However, history and gaming have a long past and they allow people to experience a history that is more interactive, engaging, and emotional. Video games have often been used to explore historical events, from Ancient Egypt and Renaissance Italy in ‘Assassin’s Creed’, to the Victorian era in ‘Victoria 3’ and the First World War in ‘Valiant Hearts: The Great War’. Furthermore, the Suffragettes created their own board games and puzzles because they wanted to educate their supporters through games. In the fight for the right to vote, Suffragettes used secret codes and fake names to evade the police. Puzzle-solving was a key skill for Suffragettes, one that they encouraged through their card games and board games.
These games, and ‘Suffragetto’ especially, made clear to the players the obstacles they faced in their fight. Holloway prison, force-feeding, and police brutality all appeared in these games. Players had to rely on their own skill and intelligence to overcome them. It was also possible to lose the game. In ‘Suffragetto’, the police could win. It reinforced the idea that the fight for the vote was not guaranteed to end in success. The Suffragettes would have to use all their skills, their militancy, but also their cunning, to ‘win’ the right to vote.
Travel back to 1913 by playing the free online puzzle game ‘The Mystery of the Missing Suffragette’ to learn more about Suffragettes and Suffragists. Visit Royal Holloway and Egham, attend The Egham and District Women’s Suffrage Society meeting, and use your puzzle-solving skills to uncover the truth about “Mary Dean”. This game is suitable for ages 14 and over.
Further Reading:
Suffragetto, Media Archaeology, http://mediaarchaeology.pbworks.com/w/page/106760214/Suffragetto
3 Games That Helped The Suffragettes Win The Vote, Evangeline Holland https://www.edwardianpromenade.com/politics/3-games-that-helped-the-suffragettes-win-the-vote/