Do you agree with the view that the militancy of the suffragettes was the main reason why women had not been given the vote by 1914? Explain your answer.
There are many reasons why women had not been given the vote by 1914, and the militancy of the suffragettes was definitely one of them. It most certainly could have been the main reason, but it was not the only one.
However, one large reason that women were not given the vote was because of the suffragettes’ stance on who got the vote. They were campaigning for equal rather than universal suffrage. The Labour party and other socialists did not believe this was right, as the women who were campaigning for equal franchise were all middle class and did not have much to do with the working classes – women or men. As there was no universal suffrage for men, them it could not be expected that only women should have universal suffrage, as it was more likely that men’s suffrage would become universal before women got the vote at all. They argued that they were superior to the working class, which every party disagreed with, so the chances of women being given the vote lessened as the suffragettes carried on campaigning in this way. Many other women’s suffrage parties also disagreed with the suffragettes, however, so changed their policies to all adult suffrage, for example the Women’s Cooperative Guild in 1909. The Suffragettes were also very anti men, on the point that Emmeline expelled her daughter Sylvia and the Pethick Lawrences because they did not agree with her views. This was also because of the autocratic leadership of the Pankhursts, who demanded very strict obedience, and expelled anyone who disagreed with their increasingly outrageous views. There were major divisions in the women’s suffrage campaign, with the NUWSS and the WSPU both being very different. Members of the NUWSS reportedly spat at members of the WSPU in the workplace who had just come out of prison for their militant acts. The NUWSS were very anti militancy tactics, and preferred peace, even in the First World War, where some members were very anti war. This showed the campaigners very divided, especially about whom to campaign to give the vote to. It could therefore be said that if the women presented a united front to the Government, then they would have been more likely to receive the vote before 1914. Instead, there were many splits and divisions in these women, which confused the Government, as they did not know who to support and give the vote to. The Government also had other, more important issues to deal with, for example the imminent civil war in Ireland, and the increasing likeliness of a huge war that would in time involve the whole world.
