Explain Why Women Didn't Get The Vote Between 1900 and 1914?

Explain Why Women Didn’t Get The Vote Between 1900 and 1914?

It was by no means a new thing that women were campaigning for ‘universal suffrage’ before 1900. Indeed it can be traced back as far as 1776 when the American Abigail Adams called for the Continental Congress in Philadelphia to recognise women when drafting the declaration of independence.

Closer to home in 1792 Mary Wollstonecraft wrote a book called ‘vindication of rights for women’ which clearly advocated equality between men and women thus laying the foundations for a feminist movement. So, what we have to realise is that although this essay is largely centred around women failing to get the vote between 1900-1914, SOME women wanted the vote long before then.

Before 1857, the laws seemed to have been extremely harsh unjustifiably to women and it became the most apparent with regards to the marriage laws.

However, it was recognised by many men as well as women that the law was “very barbarous and very shocking” A lawyers Verdict page 310,source material and so because of this pressure parliament slowly passed three legislations in favour women, they are:

The Married And Divorce Acts Of 1857 And 1858

: Gave women the right to sue for divorce.

The Married Woman’s Property Act Of 1870

: Women could possess property in their own name after marriage.

The Married Women’s Property Act of 1882

: After 1882, property owned by a woman no longer became the property of her husband automatically following marriage.

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The Married And Divorce Acts Of 1857 And 1858

: Gave women the right to sue for divorce.

The Married Woman’s Property Act Of 1870

: Women could possess property in their own name after marriage.

The Married Women’s Property Act of 1882

: After 1882, property owned by a woman no longer became the property of her husband automatically following marriage.

Although women still were expected to give up work once they got married or had children and provide for her home, husband and children – regardless of whether she worked or not, these legislations were indeed a slow change in women’s favour. But because women were still seen as a protected and innocent party they still had no political representation and were still unable to vote by 1900.

Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia founded a union called the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), which became better known later as “the suffragettes”. Their policy was that “we want votes for women and we don’t want to wait for it.” Christabel Pankhurst, w.s.p.u meeting, 1905

The Suffragettes started off relatively peacefully but soon the plunged into a protest of violence – which cost them a lot of their original support e.g., David Lloyd George who although was said to be a supporter of women’s suffrage had his house attacked in February 1913. They vandalised Oxford Street, fire bombed homes and Golf courses were vandalised.

Many people felt sympathy for the suffragists trying to get the vote before this bout of violence including men – i.e. John Stuart Mill, Lord Lytton, - however many people felt the suffragettes had gone too far thus losing support. This is a reason why women didn’t get the vote between 1900 and 1914.

Why didn’t Women Get The Vote Between 1900 – 1914?

Asquith

Herbert Asquith was Liberal prime minister of Great Britain from 1908 to 1916 and is one of the most major aspects of why women didn’t get the vote in 1900 – 1914.

For example, in June 1910, Lord Lytton drafted a conciliation bill, which would have given women property owners, the vote. Although this bill was approved in parliament by the majority of M.P’s (299 to 189), Asquith demolished the bill by dropping a bombshell and calling for a general election, “This meant that the conciliation bill would have to start from scratch In the new parliament” Source Material page 321, thus delaying women’s suffrage.

This shows the role and responsibility this man had in stopping women having the vote between 1900 – 1914.

Society At The Time

There were many different reasons why women didn’t get the vote, but apart from Asquith there was no bigger influence on parliament than society.

To start with this time was a male dominated society therefore if men didn’t want the vote then women wouldn’t get it. Also some women were against having the vote.

Secondly SOME men simply undermined women. They did this by:

Not trusting women to vote, some men claiming “Women can be intelligent, but not with regards to politics”. Frederick Ryland 1896, the girls own paper.

Saying most women wouldn’t even bother to vote.

Men were also scared that women would outnumber them in the polls as there was said to be 1,000,000 more women than men. So really this contradicts what they said about women not even bothering to vote.

So to sum up, although parliament wasn’t letting women vote, society was a very crucial reason of why women didn’t get the vote between 1900 – 1914.

Conclusion

So to sum up, women had been campaigning peacefully for the vote for 150 years and got nowhere. Then when they began bouts of violence they lost a lot of their original support. But, we really have to ask did they have any choice? Personally I feel that women did well to patiently wait for 150 years peacefully and that is why I feel they had the vote long before.

But in 1914 the First World War began, could that have a massive affect on women’s rights.