Explain why women failed to gain the right to vote between 1900 and 1914
There were many reasons as to why women failed to get the vote between 1900 and 1914, these are a mixture of long and short-term causes. For this assignment I'm going to determine these causes, stating whether they are long or short-term causes and explain how they contributed to the failure to gain the vote.
People’s attitudes were a large reason for this failure. In the nineteenth century people started to pave the way for a campaign for the vote for women, there was a negative attitude towards this from the majority of people. Many people believed that women and men had ‘separate spheres’ of existence and politics wasn’t an area where women need be concerned. It was believed that they weren’t mentally or physically strong enough to get involved. It was mainly men who opposed the idea of the women’s vote, and although some women also objected as the movement moved on through the 1900’s more and more women supported the campaign. Many women still opposed the suffrage movement and they didn’t think it was ‘proper’ for a lady to get involved with politics. Other women, who were in favour of the vote, argued if men with property could vote, why couldn’t women with property. Every time they received the same opposing arguments; women can’t see reason, women will only vote how their husbands tell them, women are too delicate, it would be dangerous for Britain, and women can already vote through their husbands.
