Cambridge Women’s Suffrage Association (C.W.S.A.) was an independent, non-militant organisation founded in 1884, whose object was 'to obtain for women the right of voting for members of Parliament on the same conditions as it is, or may be, granted to men' 

 In the summer of 1913, The National Union of Women Suffrage Societies decided to organise a Suffrage Pilgrimage involving groups from around the country to demonstrate the strength of support for the campaign for votes for women. Cambridge Women's Suffrage Association quickly drew up plans to participate in the event which was to culminate in a mass meeting in Hyde Park on 26 July. 

Detailed itinerary and instructions for the procession through Cambridge and the march down to London. [Cambridgeshire Archives: 455/Q46c.]

CWSA members assembled prior to setting out on the ‘pilgrimage’, 19 July 1913. [Cambridgeshire Archives: 455/Q46g.]

 It was estimated that upwards of 50,000 women  gathered together in Hyde Park on the day. The Times carried a rather patronising report of the event commenting: 'some of the banners that they carried were extremely beautiful and they were an object lesson to trade unions and friendly societies whose solidarity is as a rule more pronounced than their artistic sense'

 Speeches were followed at 6.00 o’clock by a resolution demanding a government measure for the enfranchisement of women ‘carried everywhere to the unusual sound of women’s cheering’.

 Following the passing of The Representation of the People Act in 1918, which granted limited parliamentary enfranchisement of women,  the C.W.S.A adjusted its constitution and assumed a new title ‘The Cambridge Association for the Political Equality of Women’.
 
 Click on the link on the right for details of records of the Association and of other women's organisations held at Cambridgeshire Archives.