Why did a campaign for women's suffrage develop in the years after 1870

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Stephanie Dunne

 Why did a campaign for women’s suffrage develop in the years after 1870?

During the 19th century, women had no political rights. There had been some movement in the advance for women, but on the whole, men in society saw women as being ‘of weaker mental power than men’. A woman’s destiny was marriage, motherhood and a life of domesticity. Men considered themselves to be the only sex capable of making political decisions. It was this kind of thinking that accelerated women’s campaign for suffrage, the right to vote, in the years after 1870.

Men’s role in the 19th century was very different to that of women’s. Men were educated, something what eluded most women, only the very wealthy may have had the opportunity for an education. At home, a woman was expected to ‘obey’ her husband which was written into the marriage ceremony and not until the 20th century did women obtain the right to remove that promise from the wedding vows. Men controlled all the finances in the home as well disciplining the children. A woman had no means to support herself and if she chose not marry she was disapproved of by society. A man was able to choose his profession not something a woman could do. Men were also the decision makers in society, it was felt that women were not mentally capable or rational enough to make any political or legislative decisions, therefore it was left to the men. This led to laws and rights being biased towards men. An example of this was when in 1836 Caroline Norton was taken to court by her husband who requested a divorce. Caroline lost everything including property that was hers before the marriage. As a result of her endless campaigning for justice, laws were changed. In 1839, the Infants and Child Custody Act allowed women to ask for custody of children under seven. Before this fathers were given total custody of the children regardless of the reasons of divorce. This was followed by the Matrimonial Cause Act in 1857, which meant that a woman could now get a divorce which previously had required a special act of Parliament costing a significant amount of money. However, although this was a positive change, the Act was still biased to men. The reason for this was that a man could divorce a woman on grounds of adultery but this was insufficient grounds for a woman. Women had to prove a charge of desertion, incest or extreme cruelty to secure a divorce.

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Despite these advances the vote still escaped women. In 1867, Millicent Garrett Fawcett decided to approach Parliament with the idea of giving women the vote. Parliament passed the Second Reform bill which doubled the electorate by giving the vote to almost all working men. Mrs Garrett’s amendment to the bill, which would have substituted the word ‘man’ and replaced it with ‘person’, allowing women the chance to vote, was debated but rejected. This did however; open the way for other women to begin the fight for women’s suffrage and in 1897, Mrs Fawcett merged local groups to form the ...

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