ABSTRACT
Prior to 1906, votes for women had been regarded by many supposedly suffragist MPs as a hardy perennial to which support in principle might safely be given without further commitment being implied. Between 1906 and 1910, the suffragettes had succeeded in bringing the Commons to cease regarding votes for women as a provider of more or less yearly occasions for jocular remarks and desultory debate – by 1910, women’s claim to the vote was no longer of marginal interest to male politicians. The forming of the Conciliation Committee in that year particularly attested to the efficacy of militancy-in 1905, the forming of a committee with such a name and purpose would have been as inconceivable as it was unnecessary.
