<P> Suffrage drama (also known as Suffrage Plays or Suffrage theatre) is a form of dramatic literature that emerged during the British women's suffrage movement in the early twentieth century . Suffrage performances lasted approximately from 1907 - 1914 . Many suffrage plays called for a predominant or all female cast . Suffrage plays served to reveal issues behind the suffrage movement . These plays also revealed many of the double standards that women faced on a daily basis . Suffrage theatre was a form of realist theatre, which was influenced by the plays of Henrik Ibsen . Suffrage theatre combined familiar everyday situations with relatable characters on the stage in the style of realist theatre . </P> <P> Suffrage dramas in favor of women's suffrage often portray strong female characters who illustrate the qualities of a rational, informed voters . They are meant to imply the obsolescence and inaccuracy of gender stereotypes that justified denying women the vote, such as separate spheres philosophy . Such characters often convince male or female anti-suffragists to revise their beliefs and support women's suffrage . Other plays satirize anti-suffragists as buffoons or narrow - minded individuals opposing progress . Many of these plays deliberately required few props and no sets . This was to allow amateur acting companies to perform the dramas at minimal cost, allowing them to be more widely performed and spread pro-suffrage sentiment . Due to the low cost of organizing a performance, suffrage plays were often performed in the drawing rooms of private residences and in small professional theaters . </P> <P> During the suffrage movement in the United Kingdom, eighteen short plays were published that have been coined women's suffrage drama but these represent only a few of the numerous plays with suffrage themes, the majority written in support of the Cause, that have been identified . Susan Croft's' Chronology of Plays addressing or supporting Suffrage Issues 1907 - 1914' lists 170, a figure further supplemented by additional plays, discovered since publication, listed online . Elizabeth Robins's Votes for Women and Cicely Hamilton and Christopher St. John's How the Vote Was Won are two predominant examples of suffrage plays . Elizabeth Robins's Votes for Women was one of the first published women's suffrage plays . It was performed in 1907 at the Court Theatre in London . Julie Holledge, British actor and director, wrote that Votes for Women "heralded the beginning of a suffrage theatre" and assisted in organizing actresses and "their involvement with the women's rights movement and their dissatisfaction with a male dominated theatre, these women had begun to develop a drama that could express the reality of women's lives...With the emergence of the mass suffrage movement in the Edwardian era, over a thousand actresses were thrust into the fight for votes for women . Out of their struggle the first' women's theatre movement of the twentieth century was born ." </P>

How the vote was won cicely hamilton summary