Have you heard of Suffrajitsu? Did you know many of the suffragettes learned martial arts to protect themselves?
In the early 1900’s women were fighting for women’s suffrage, the right to vote. The movement was particularly active in the UK and spread to the US and other parts of the world. Early in the movement, the Suffragettes were arrested. They started using hunger strikes to protest their treatment in prison. Guards took to force-feeding them. And the government passed the “Cat and Mouse” act, whereby women would be released before they starved and then captured again as soon as they were well.
Sylvia Pankhurst, the daughter of Emmeline Pankhurst, encouraged women to learn martial arts to defend themselves against attacks and police violence. Many of them were taught by jujitsu instructor Edith Garrud at the Dojo in London she ran along with her husband William Garrud. A group of Suffragettes formed The Bodyguard to protect Sylvia, and other leaders of the movement from capture by the police. The form of jujitsu they practiced became known as Suffrajitsu.