Commercial Places, Public Spaces: Suffragette Shops and the Public Sphere

Abstract

This article analyses the development of shops in the campaign for suffrage by the Women's Social & Political Union (WSPU) in the UK. Suffrage shops created a public space in which the challenging and confrontational elements of the WSPU's other public activities were largely absent. While serving practical campaign purposes, suffrage shops offered the WSPU a means of reconciling the contrasting halves its public/private campaign. This article assesses the role of suffrage shops in negotiating this demarcation at both local and central levels. 

Keywords: History, Suffrage history, Suffrage shops, Suffragette shops, WSPU, Suffrage propaganda, Suffragette propaganda, Political marketing, Retail history