Explain The Reasons Why Women’s Movements Failed To Win The Vote Before 1914
Explain The Reasons Why Women's Movements Failed To Win The Vote Before 1914
By 1900, the attitude towards women was still the very traditional view that women were the homemakers and belonged in the running of the household, bearing and bringing up of children and the supporting of their husbands. Women were regarded as morally superior to their male counterparts and had to be protected from the rough world of politics. Domestic service continued to be the most common occupation for working-class women and so women were still working as servants, which supported the view that their best qualities lay with household management, and not in the running of the country.
Even though suffrage eventually became headline news, no party was willing to adopt women's suffrage before 1918. The suffrage bills in Parliament were put forward by sympathetic MPs as private members' bills, which meant they had little chance of success because they did not have majority party backing. One of the main problems with women not being enfranchised before 1914 was that the Liberal government was not willing to give them the vote. The Liberals had won a landslide victory in the General election of 1906 and needed to keep this majority in order to stay in government. The Liberals began to introduce new welfare reforms such as the School Meals Act and Old Age Pension's Act to tackle the problem of poverty and generally improve the lives of the British public. These reforms took time and money to establish. And when the House of Lords vetoed the People's Budget of 1909, the Liberals were left without any money so they could not carry on. The Liberals needed to reduce the powers of the Lords so the bill would be passed and pay for the welfare reforms and the Dreadnoughts that had been constructed. The Liberals had no time to focus on the issue of votes for women. They were facing a constitutional crisis in the House of Lords and after their majority had been whittled down by a series of elections, they had concerns over the soon-termination of their time in power. By 1910, the Liberals relied on the votes of the Irish Nationalists and Labour Party to stay in office. It was unwilling to jeopardise its term of government for the sake of votes for women as the Irish Nationalists were opposed to giving parliamentary time to women's suffrage. After a lengthy struggle with the House of Lords, the Liberals managed to pass the People's Budget after the parliament act of 1911 was accepted. There were still problems for the Liberals, as Ulster Unionists were rebelling in Ireland over the proposed Irish Home Rule Bill, which the Liberals needed to pass in order to gain the votes of the Irish Nationalists. There was industrial unrest in Britain and the government had to deal with widespread strike action by trade unionists. This cataclysmic state of affairs helps to explain the unwillingness of the Liberals to put time aside for women's suffrage. The Liberals were ambivalent about women's suffrage and refused to promote it. This shows that women's movements were not going to get the vote before 1914, as the government was not in favour of giving it to them. The Women's Suffrage Bill was rejected in 1907 and then carried in 1908 but in 1909 when it received its second reading, Asquith failed to give it support so it failed. This proves that the government undercut the efforts of the advocates of women's suffrage.
The Liberal Prime Minister, Henry Asquith was a key figure in why women were not enfranchised before 1914. He was hostile to votes for women and obstructed any advance towards the enfranchisement of women and persistently refused to see women's suffrage deputations. His main reasons against women's suffrage were that a vast number of women did not actually want the vote, women were not fit to for the franchise, women were operated by personal influence and finally, it would upset the natural order of things. Asquith believed that a woman's place was in the home rather than what ...
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The Liberal Prime Minister, Henry Asquith was a key figure in why women were not enfranchised before 1914. He was hostile to votes for women and obstructed any advance towards the enfranchisement of women and persistently refused to see women's suffrage deputations. His main reasons against women's suffrage were that a vast number of women did not actually want the vote, women were not fit to for the franchise, women were operated by personal influence and finally, it would upset the natural order of things. Asquith believed that a woman's place was in the home rather than what he termed the 'dust and turmoil' of political life. Although some of the Liberal MPs supported women's suffrage, it was the Liberal leaders that did not endorse it and they were the ones with the most power to do something about it. The Liberal commitment to votes for women was largely muted because of Asquith's intransigence. The Conciliation Bill of 1910 was drawn up to give votes for women. It was Asquith who refused to give the bill more Parliamentary time, although it had received its second reading in July with a large majority of 100 votes. He suspended Parliament until November, and so the future of the Bill looked uncertain. The second Conciliation Bill was also carried in 1911 but again, Asquith announced he preferred to support universal male suffrage but which could support an amendment for the enfranchisement of women. This bill failed as the Irish Nationalists had voted against it, so they could have time to debate the Home Rule issue, which they wanted passed.
The Government Franchise Bill of 1913 introduced universal male suffrage but this time, the amendment to enfranchise women was declared unconstitutional. Again, women were failing to get the vote, as politicians were not committed to the idea.
Most politicians wanted women to have the vote only if their party benefited from it. The Liberals in general believed women should have the vote, but they were fearful of the property qualification for the vote and were convinced new female voters would support the Conservatives as most women who held property were upper middle class. There was a practical problem about giving the vote to women as few of them actually could meet this existing qualification, and this also applied to one third of all men. Asquith was also committed to universal male suffrage and did not believe in enfranchising women over the lower classes of men who did not hold the property qualification.
The formation of so many different suffrage societies and the many divisions, which occurred within them further questions about female solidarity. The suffragette movement was seen mainly as middle class and it therefore was seen that not all women wanted the vote. At leadership level, these groups were dominated by the middle-classes. Probably because they were economically independent or married to men who were financially secure and could therefore afford to engage in political action. This shows that the government perhaps felt there was no point in giving the vote to women as only the middle classes wanted it.
There were anti-suffrage organisations, which had been set up by women, which support the view that again, not all women wanted to be enfranchised. The Anti-Suffrage League was set up in 1908. Most women felt more apathetic than antagonistic towards votes for women. Membership of the suffrage movement may have large but the majority of women did not belong to any suffrage group. This supports the view that women were seen not to be bothered by having the right to vote. The two most established organisations were the NUWSS and the WSPU, whose methods differed. There was no united front campaigning for votes for women. The NUWSS leaders, although working towards the same goal as the WSPU, grew irritated by the increasingly destructive tactics of the Suffragettes and felt it was harming the cause. They also did not reveal that they were working towards the 2nd Conciliation Bill because they feared the WSPU would react unfavourably as the bill gave more votes to men. The WSPU were furious and they became more violent and began smashing windows. The two organisations could not work together because of the WSPU's extremist actions. The WSPU's anti-men attitude also lost them male support. In 1907, there were divisions within the WSPU because of conflict so other members whom had left the WSPU set up the WFL. In 1914, Emmeline and her daughter, Christabel strongly disapproved of her daughter's involvement with working class women so Sylvia was expelled from the WSPU. This example shows that not even the WSPU, who was fighting for the vote, wanted to be associated with the working class, who in the end would be the ones to earn the middle classes the vote. The organisation itself was not united as the WSPU turned its main focus on getting the vote for women with property, rather than universal suffrage. This caused unrest and subsequently splits within the WSPU.
The Suffragettes' extremist tactics of arson, chaining themselves to buildings, slashing paintings and window smashing was self-defeating as they lost the sympathy and support of the country as a whole. They also provided the government with an excuse not to enfranchise them and were treated as lunatics, not political prisoners when they were jailed. Some women were force fed as they refused to eat. The Suffragettes tactics did not impress the Liberals, and consequently, they lost sympathetic MPs in the House of Lords. The unwomanly actions like heckling and pestering politicians, hurling missiles at the police and rowdy demonstrations outside halls from which they were banned, had alienated the more cautious sympathisers.
The public themselves were not all for votes for women, and their violent behaviour had an undesired response for the Suffragettes. Some members of the public took revenge and WSPU shops windows were smashed. Art galleries and museums all over the country were shut to the public completely, or sometimes just to women only. This shows that women were no longer seen as the quiet, domesticated sex but those driven by violence and extremist activities. This did not put them in a favourable light with the public or the government, who would ultimately be the ones to give them the franchise.
Attitudes against women were one of the main reasons why they were not enfranchised before 1914. Women were still seen as the weak and feeble sex, and they just were incapable of voting. Although they had the municipal vote, it was seen that they would vote for a government with more class cries, permissive legislation, domestic perplexities and sentimental grievances and give greater importance to questions of a social nature, at the consequence of constitutional and international issues. Women were viewed that if they could vote, they would vote for issues, which were relevant to their own gender roles, and this influenced men not to support them.
Women were not seen as capable of full citizenship as they were not available for the purpose of national and imperial defence, and did not do military service. After the war however, women were granted the vote, which suggests this was one of their major holdbacks in obtaining the vote. The physical nature of a woman considered them unfit for the franchise as they were sometimes emotionally uncontrollable and they just were not the same as men. Women were seen to already have the municipal vote, which made them eligible for membership of most local authorities. These bodies dealt with education, housing, care of children, workhouses and so forth, all of which were considered to be within a woman's sphere. Parliament was thought to deal with more 'masculine' subjects such as the administration of a vast empire, the maintenance of the Army and Navy, and with questions of peace and war, which were believed to lie outside the legitimate sphere of woman's influence.
It was commonly believed that women did not want the vote and therefore they should not be given it. Most women were thought to want to stay at home and look after their husbands and children. It was also viewed that involving females in the Imperial electorate would be seen be seen by dependencies in the British Empire and colonies as weakening the centre power in the United Kingdom.
In relation to female matters, it was viewed that the interests of women were perfectly safe in the hands of an all-male government as there had been no problems in the past. Women apparently had a large indirect influence through their men folk on the politics of the country and so there was no real point with them being enfranchised as they already had an affect on the running of the country without the vote. They were also supposedly represented but the men in their family and generally shared the same political views as them, so again there was no need for them to have the vote as men did it on their behalf. Women were not seen suitable for the franchise, as they would not be able to contribute to the force of government due to the physical, moral and social reasons behind their nature.
Many Antis feared the reforming zeal of enfranchisement of women because it would undermine the authority of the male. Men were still the dominating sex and still seen as the providers. Many people did not agree with the idea of women in government, as they did not really contribute to society in the same way that men did. People believed women with vote would lead to the collapse of moral and social order as they would no longer listen to men, who were still considered much more intelligent than women and predominantly, always right.
Above all, women did not get the vote before 1914 as people were not used to the idea. It was not until 1900 when women could first become doctors. Although there had been many legal changes which had improved the status of women during the 1800's, they were still seen as second class even though they had access to a better education and were able to have respectable occupations, which had only previously be done by men. Women did not contribute an active role in society as they had always been confined to the household. This was because women had to be protected from the dangers that men were allowed to be subjected to. Even after 40 years of campaigning, people still did not believe women were fit for the franchise because of their position in society. They did not do military service, which was seen as disqualifying them the right to vote. It was the men who went out and died for their country at war, not women. And because women suffered from PMT, they were not emotionally stable enough to vote. It was not only the psychological differences between men and women that were seen as a problem but also that women were already involved indirectly with politics, as men represented them in government. The Liberals did not only adopt most of these arguments but did not want women to have the vote and this is proved by the fact that no bills before 1914 with an amendment for women's suffrage were passed. Indeed, there was support for the enfranchisement of women within political parties but it was not until 1908 that the Suffragettes intensified the political pressure and promoted new and confrontational methods to force MPs to give women the vote. This shows that in context, politicians were only faced openly with the campaign of the vote for six years. Compared to the view of women up till this point, the idea of a woman in government was ridiculed. There were many factors contributing to why women did not get the vote, but probably the one that had the most impact was the attitude people had generally. Women were seen as weak, incapable and not intellectual compared to their male counterparts. The Victorian typical view of women had stuck with the female sex through into the early 1900's, and it was not until the First World War when women could show they were capable of men's jobs, and kept the country going whilst men went off to defend against the enemy. Women proved to be able to do the same jobs as men, and work just as hard. They were no longer seen as weak and finally showed the government they were not mad women but women who put their country before their own desire for the vote.
