Padlock and chain used by Suffragettes

Padlock and chain used by suffragettes for chaining themselves to railings. Padlocking themselves to the railings of government buildings gave suffragettes the opportunity of making lengthy political speeches. The women had as long as it took the police to cut them out of their padlocks and chains. Otherwise they would have been arrested immediately as they began to speak. In Votes for Women, March 1908, chaining was described as 'the announcement of a mental and moral revolt against oppression. It arrests attention and arouses thought and quickens perception of a wrong hitherto ignored or slothfully accepted'.