Attitudes toward women and their right to vote had changed by 1918. How important was the First World War in bringing about this change?

There were many reasons why women got the vote in 1918. The work of suffragists and suffragettes were very important. However, some historians claim that without the activities of the suffragists and the suffragettes, the idea of giving women the vote may not have been considered in 1918.

One of the most important reasons that women got the vote in 1918 is because of the suffragettes’ efforts. In 1915, Britain was short of industries workers, and munitions workers because there were so many men leaving to fight in Europe. Britain’s role in the war might have ground to a halt since food, armaments, and clothing for men were desperately short. The obvious answer was to recruit women to fill the gaps and the WSPU stopped all in 1914 militant action to support the war effort with the government. The government and the suffragettes worked together wonderfully to encourage women to go out to work. In fact, the number of women who were in employment was only about five million in 1914, however at the end of the war this had gone up to just over six million. In 1915, the WSPU organized the ‘Women’s Right to Serve’ march. The suffragettes renamed their paper Britannia and formed the Women’s Party in order to encourage women to work for their country by giving them self-confidence and pride. Suffragettes ended up becoming much more patriotic than men. They demanded conscription and they even started giving white feathers (symbols of cowardice) to men who were not in military uniform. The suffragettes put a lot of effort and they tried to help their country to win the war. As a matter of fact, their enthusiasm made it hard for the government to refuse women to vote since the suffragettes helped the government not to lose the war.

The other reason that women won the vote in 1918 was because of the work that suffragettes did before the war. The work that suffragettes did before the war was also vital. This was because the suffragettes raised the issue of votes for women by their violent and illegal methods. The suffragists’ campaigns for the vote for women, didn’t achieve that much before the war since they chose peaceful ways like persuasion, meeting and petitions to parliament to bring about vote for women. Therefore without the suffragettes’ efforts, the issue of votes for women would had been very hard to raise. The suffragettes used violence like window smashing, attacking works of art in art galleries, cutting telegraph lines, and attacking people in order to get vote. Even though their illegal methods gave the government a reason and an excuse to argue that it was wrong to give in to violence and supported the government’s view of women as too ‘emotional’, and ‘hysterical’, they brought the vote to the public and the government’s attention. The suffragettes’ activities before the war were very important because there is evidence that, as time passed the idea of women having the vote was no longer so strange since the suffragettes continually raised the issue of vote for women. Therefore, people were gradually getting used to the idea and beginning to accept it. Also Asquith (the prime minister) was already firmly against women getting the vote, so the violent methods did not make things any worse. Asquith’s views, and his Government’s harsh treatment of the suffragettes, were not caused by the violence of the suffragettes. As a matter of fact, the suffragettes’ efforts before the war helped women to get votes in 1918. The final reason that the suffragettes’ violent methods before the war were important is that it made the government afraid of suffragettes restarting their campaign after the war.

Lastly, the work of suffragists during the war was very important. They set up an employment register in 1915 and recruited many women to replace the men who had gone to the Front. The suffragists even ran training schools to train women for the new work they were to do. They also organized hospital units on the front lines of the war. Most importantly they never forgot the real reason for its existence: wining the votes. Therefore meetings were still held and petitions were still signed to ensure that pressure was kept on Parliament during the war. Accordingly, the ...

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Not only the work done by the suffragettes and the suffragists were reasons why women got votes in 1918, but also the work done by women during the war was an important factor in gaining the vote. The First World War transformed the position of women in society. During the First World War, industries, and especially munitions, were short of workers. Food, clothing and armaments had to be provided for fighting men. Also so many men were away fighting in the war that there weren’t enough people to do vital jobs. Therefore, women were encouraged to work and fill the gap that men left, by the government and the suffragettes. Women worked on all sort of things. For instance, women worked as tram drivers, laboratory assistants, munitions workers, police officers and house painters etc. Accordingly, many men were genuinely impressed by women’s contribution to the war effort. They had shown that they were mature and sensible, and were capable of doing most jobs. Mostly importantly they showed that they can keep their country going without men’s aid.

Women worked in the munitions factories and some women worked in engineering workshops which were very technical, and directly related to the war effort. Some women even joined women’s braches of the armed forces, and worked as nurses in military hospitals, cook, mechanics and drivers. Therefore one of the arguments against giving women was destroyed which was that women had no right to vote since they and not take part in the defence of their country.

Finally, the women’s wonderful work during the war gave MPs a convenient excuse to give up their opposition to votes for women. For example the government used to insist that the menstrual cycle of women made them unpredictable, irrational and moody and they argued that women were too sensitive and would not be able to take tough decisions. However, women showed that they could do the jobs of men in the workplace and run a home and family as well very sensibly. In consequence, the war work of women had destroyed many of their arguments. Also the government could have lost their public support, if they started to lock up the women who had helped win the war by not allowing them to have to vote. Therefore women’s dedication in the war devotion them to get vote in 1918.

Some historians claim that the war was not that important for women to get vote in 1918, they believe that the war just held up the granting of the vote. It is because the thousands of men who had volunteered to fight for their country had lost their right to vote; there was a rule that anyone away from home for more than a year lost this right. The government needed to do something to change the voting system to allow soldiers who had been away fighting to vote. Millicent Fawcett and the NUWSS heard about this and began to put pressure on the government to consider votes for women at the right time. It was a perfect chance to include women voting, if the voting system was going to be changed. Furthermore, Lloyd George who was Liberal replaced Asquith as Prime Minister in 1916. He was more sympathetic to the idea of votes for women therefore Lloyd George becoming a prime minister helped women to get the vote after the war. The other reason why that the historians argue that the war work that women did was not that important in term of giving women votes is that women over the age of 30 were given the vote. Because the Conservative MPs were concerned that young women under 30 working-class women would vote Labour, the Liberal and Labour MPs were happy that women over 30, since they were not going to all vote for Conservative. However lots of women worked in the war were less than thirty. As a result, the historians insist that if women got vote because of their war work, why not the many of women who are less than thirty and worked in the war? These are the reasons that some historians believe that the war was not that important for women to get the vote.

In conclusion, I believe that the suffrage movement for women in 1918 was the combined result of what women did before the war and during the war as well as a shake-up of the voting system and Lloyd George’s replacement of Asquith as Prime Minister.

One of the long term effects for this is the violence by the suffragettes, which occurred before the war. It also caused the post-war apprehension of the people who did not want another conflict. On the other hand, the suffragists employed petitions, persuasions and meetings to raise the issue of voting rights for women and made people getting used to the idea, eventually leading them to accept it.

For the first short-term consequence, the work of women during the war enabled them to get the vote by showing that they could do work like men. They worked in the munitions factories which were directly related to the war effort. This disproved the arguments that ‘women do not fight to defend their country’, proved that they were sensible and clever enough to get the vote and shattered the misconception of women being ruled by their menstrual cycle.

Secondly, it was an opportune time to include women’s suffrage when the voting system was changing anyway. Also Lloyd George, who is willing to help women to vote, became a prime minister in 1916.

Hye Rin Ra

20th.Feb.04.