Explain why women failed to gain the vote between 1900 and 1914?

Before the First World War women were campaigning for the suffrage. In 1897 the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies was set up (NUWSS), it was led by Millicent Fawcett and they were called the Suffragists. There were two types of women activist groups, the Suffragists and the suffragettes. The suffragists tried constitutional law-abiding campaigns with leaflets, speeches, and marches. For example, the suffragists made the headlines on the 18th of June 1913 when they started their six-week pilgrimage to London; they tried to win MPs support. Miss Pankhurst the former member of the suffragists became very bored with their slow approach and did not think that they were gaining much publicity so she decided to leave and create her own group which used more militant tactics. She did not think the Suffragists peaceful activities attracted much publicity or interest for their struggle as pamphlets and petitions did not make exciting new.

Unlike the suffragists the suffragettes were extremists. In 1903 Emmeline Pankhurst with the help of her daughters set up the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). It could be argued that one of the major reasons why women failed to get the vote between 1900 and 1914 was because of the liberal government's reaction to the militant tactics of the suffragettes. The Suffragette's increasingly used violent and militant activities through 'direct action' including chaining themselves to railings and intentionally getting themselves arrested. The Suffragettes threw stones through the windows of 10 Downing Street, disrupted political meetings, put letter bombs through letterboxes and harassed ministers. This disgusted and appalled many people including liberal MPs who might have supported the cause before the violence. The suffragettes made the news headlines on the 18th of June 1913 when they burnt down Rowley Regis church. They caused the government at that time to believe women were not responsible or intelligent enough to be able to make political decisions, especially when they were breaking the law:

"Haven't the suffragettes the sense to see that the very worst kind of campaigning for the vote is to try to intimate or blackmail a man into giving them what he would otherwise gladly give?"

The Suffragettes also lost a lot of public support and those who had originally supported the women's suffrage movement turned against them including Millicent Fawcett and many suffragists: 'militancy is abhorred by me, and the majority of suffragists. None of the triumphs of the women's movement have been won by physical force'. As the historian Ben Walsh would argue 'there is little doubt that the suffragettes increasing violence alienated support for the women's cause'. I feel that one of the important reasons why women failed to gain the vote between 1900 and 1914 was because they were violent and therefore MPs could not be seen to give into the suffragettes as they were breaking the law, this also gave MPs a reason to reject them. The government could not give into the suffragettes as this would escalate the level of violence that they would receive from the Irish wanting home rule. The Media, due to the suffragette's militant campaign were also becoming unsupportive of their cause by portraying them as 'the shrieking sisters'.

MPs did not want to give all women the vote as this would resolve in all men been given the vote this includes; lunatics, drunkards and convicts: "giving the vote to women will mean giving it to all men - including layabouts and riffraff" Another reason why women failed to gain the vote was because the liberals were afraid that women would vote for the opposing party, and women would out number the amount of men. The government thought that giving women the vote would only result in everyone voting for the Conservatives, as they appealed to the wealthy people and most of the female voters would be middle class. For this reason the Conservative leaders wanted to give women the vote, however giving women the vote was against the Conservative MP's principles about the roles of women. These reasons were all factors for women not gaining the vote. Most people and the politicians were preoccupied with the war as this was the most important issue therefore they did not have time to consider giving women the vote.

Overall, although the suffragettes direct action was a key factor for women failing to gain the vote I feel the most important reason was the poor attitudes and inequality men put towards women during this period; the conservative party were adamant not to give women the vote even though it benefited them. They would not leave their principles because they thought women belong in the domestic sphere.