The Suffragists were also not successful because many women were opposed to giving them the vote. Queen Victoria was opposed to female suffrage, as she commented, ‘with the role, women would become the most hateful, heatless and disgusting of human beings. Where would be the protection, which man was intended to give to the weaker sex?’ She was a very important figure and as she had this view, it had an impact on women not getting the vote. Florence Nightingale agreed with female suffrage but felt it would take years and there were worse evils affecting women and more important issues to be dealing with than trying to get the vote. Many general women in the public also shared the view that women should not get the vote, and this was partly why they didn’t get the vote.
Many men were opposed to female suffrage, which again made the Suffragists unsuccessful. Most men did not agree with female suffrage because of the traditional view of women that had been around since the Victorian Era and they had the opinion that it was their responsibility to handle the voting. Mps also opposed the Suffragists aims. One of these was William Gladstone, who was the leader of the Liberal Party. He had the view that he did not want to trespass on the delicacy, purity and refinement of women by giving them the role of voting. An article from the times newspaper in 1867 shows the view was that women were the weaker sex and their role is to be married and be a mother, not to vote. A quote from that is ‘the great mass of women has been of weaker mental power than men.’ This means they thought there were a lot of women wanting female suffrage but men are more intelligent. This view amongst the men was one of the main reasons they were opposed to the Suffragists.
One of the main reasons the Suffragists failed in their efforts to gain female suffrage was that their methods were too moderate and did not force the issue. They did not cause the Government much concern and they were just seen as a group of campaigners, rather than something more serious. Typical methods involved speeches in meetings and handing out leaflets, which didn’t force the public’s attention on them much. Because of the lack of success the Suffragists had, the WSPU was formed in 1903. The leader was Emmeline Pankhurst. Emmeline had different views to Millicent about which methods were appropriate for getting the public’s attention and putting their views forward. She believed that more radical and militant methods were required in order for them to succeed. The Suffragettes caused a lot of damage to the campaign for female suffrage due to the methods they used.
The methods used by the Suffragettes started off as unacceptable but when these methods didn’t work and a long line of women’s suffrage bills ran out of time in 1908, more direct, military action began. The Suffragettes started off by disrupting political meetings and harassing ministers. The Liberal Prime Minister, Asquith, was firmly opposed to female suffrage and therefore he came in for particularly heavy abuse. They damaged their campaign in this way because it made the Government even more opposed to female suffrage and turned them against the Suffragettes because they were causing the Government hassle.
Another popular method involved Suffragettes chaining themselves to the railings of Buckingham Palace and other important buildings. An example of this was when Miss New and a nurse called Olive Smith chained themselves to the railings at 10 Downing Street on 17th January 1908. This was to allow Flord Drummings to get inside. The three were arrested. Other examples were protest marches and ambushes. In 1910 Suffragettes marched through London, and those in favour of violent action marched from Caxton to Parliament where fifty of them were arrested. In May 1914, 20-30 thousand Suffragettes converged on Buckingham Palace. Emmeline Pankhurst was at the front of this and she was arrested, which weakened the movement, as she was the leader. The Suffragettes vandalised a lot of buses, trains, buildings, and there was one serious incident where Suffragettes threw roofing slate at the Prime Minister’s car. One serious case of vandalism was in 1914, when Velasquez’s Rockby Venus (worth £45 000), was hacked By Mary Richardson. Arson was another method used by the Suffragettes and in July 1912 Christabel Pankhurst organised an arson campaign and attempts were made to burn down the houses of two members of Parliament who opposed the Suffragettes. In 1913, railway stations, cricket pavilions, racecourse stands and golf clubhouses were set on fire.
When the Suffragettes were sent to prison, a lot of them went on hunger strike and many of them had to be released on the point of collapse. In July 1909, Marion Dunlop refused to eat in prison and was released. Emmeline Pankhurst’s sister, Mary Clarke, was also force fed at Holloway Prison in December 1910. One of the most serious life threatening activities that happened was the death of Emily Davison. Emily was a very committed Suffragette but on 5th June 1913, she ran out in front of a horse at the Derby holding a banner, and was killed. The horse died too. The Suffragettes mainly used these methods to gain Parliaments attention, take them seriously and get their point across that women should get the vote. The Suffragettes were successful in keeping the issue in the public eye and gaining some support from sympathy and people agreeing with them, but the methods that the Suffragettes used made them unsuccessful in getting the vote. The way the Suffragettes were, consequently lead to short-term reasons why women did not get the vote before 1914.
One reason why women did not get the vote because of the Suffragettes was because the methods were too violent and unacceptable. Parliament wasn’t prepared to give women the vote after they’d behaved like this because they had vandalised the Prime minister’s car, which turned him against them. Also they had cost the Government a lot of money in terms of repairing buildings and replacing everything they could that had been destroyed. They had caused the Government inconvenience by sending out bogus messages to the armed forces, and having big protests and marches took up police time when they had to deal with them. When Suffragettes went on hunger strike in prison, they were released then sent back when they were well enough. This was known as the Cat and Mouse Act and caused another inconvenience for the Government because many prisoners were being released when they hadn’t finished their sentence, because they had found a way to do it. The Suffragettes methods needed to be dealt with by Parliament, so they were distracted from other important issues in the world, which they needed to concentrate on and it was wasting their time. Therefore, the Government wasn’t pleased with the Suffragettes and would not give them the vote because they weren’t cooperating with them and were causing them hassle.
Another short-term reason was that the Suffragettes were trying to put forward the message that women are just as mature as men and can be equally trusted with the vote. They proved this was not the case due to the methods used, and showed they were not responsible enough to be given the vote. They particularly proved this on 10th October 1908, when Mrs Pankhurst, Flora Drummings and Christobel wrote a bill saying one course of action was to storm the House of Commons. These three members were arrested. It gave Parliament a reason for rejecting them because they were seen as criminals. The Suffragettes actions showed them to be violent and untrustworthy, so for them to be given the vote seemed like a bad idea. In this way, the Suffragettes harmed their campaign greatly. Another reason the Suffragettes failed to get female suffrage due to the methods they used was because the Government was not going to give into them and their wishes, just because they put the Government under pressure to stop the violence. They also did not want to give women the vote because it would stop all the vandalism and damage the Suffragettes were causing. They believed this was not the way to handle the problem, and would show that the Government was weak and lead to other campaigners using the same methods as the Suffragettes did and taking advantage of them if it meant they got their own way. MPs couldn’t give into violence because they would then have no hope when the Irish protested violently for home rule or if the dockers and mine workers protested for higher wages.
The movement was divided because the Suffragists disagreed with the way the Suffragettes used violent methods so Millicent Fawcett would not join with the Suffragettes. In Christabel Pankhurst’s writing in 1959 it says ‘if Mrs Fawcett and Mother [Emmeline Pankhurst] had stood together at the door of the House of Commons if might have opened. The Prime Minister could not easily have fought both wings of the Women’s movement’. This means that because of the disagreements between the two groups of campaigners, it lessened the chances of women getting the vote. This is because it showed that the women could not even organise and agree on issues between them, never mind being responsible enough to vote. The disputes between the two groups caused political upset, and this just gave Government the impression they were a nuisance. If the groups were united and they worked together to try and gain female suffrage, they would have stood a better chance of getting the vote by coming across as more powerful and working together, giving off a better impression of themselves.
Generally, the public was very alarmed by the methods that the Suffragettes used. The death of Emily Davison particularly alarmed the public, firstly because an innocent horse was killed because of her actions. Secondly, it showed her to be immature and foolish, which reflected on the Suffragettes as a whole. In the Times it said ‘she nearly killed the jockey as well as herself and she brought down a valuable horse. A deed of this kind is unlikely to increase then popularity of the women’s cause.’ The public were also shocked by the damage that the Suffragettes caused, and therefore the Suffragettes reputation went downhill. They became known as ugly spinsters who had nothing better to do. The attitude came about that no one would want to marry them and there is a Suffragette poster from the time that says ‘Suffragettes who have never been kissed’. It demonstrates how the public began to dislike the Suffragettes. The Government had to make decisions taking into account what the public thought to try and please them. Also, it was to try and stay popular by the public, be voted in again at the next general election, and stay in power. Therefore as a lot of the public became astounded at the damage caused by the Suffragettes, Parliament were against their aims, i.e. getting the vote, and it was another short-term reason for women not getting the vote. The failure of the Suffragettes and Suffragists were short-term reasons for women failing to get the vote before 1914.
The social reasons for women not getting the vote before 1914 were that the traditional view of women still existed and men’s attitudes towards women had not changed. These views had existed since the 19th century in the Victorian Era. Therefore, this was a long-term reason. Women were second-class citizens still and were inferior to their husbands. If they were married, the husband owned all of the property and children. Men were always the decision makers and therefore the ones who should vote, and the women needed to be protected, as they were viewed as the weaker sex. One of the arguments for women not getting the vote was because they should be protected from the grubby world of politics. The women’s role was to be the carer of the house and to oversee the servants if they were middle or upper class or to work, usually in domestic service and look after the children if they were working classes. N They would also support their husband wherever possible. Women were not allowed to go out to work, so they did not need a proper education.
This stereotypical view of women had improved during the 19th century. There had been improvements in careers open to women. Common jobs available were working in cotton factories, washing, ironing and sewing in domestic service, or sewing and making objects such as brushes, boxes or candles in sweatshops. The number of women employed in domestic service increased up until the 20th century, then the number levelled off. Therefore more jobs were becoming available such as shop work, teaching, office work and nursery. Education for women had also improved throughout the 19th century. The situation began to alter in the 1850s and 60s. In 1870 education became compulsory for all children up to the age of 10. Later on this age was extended. The schools however cost money. Opportunities started to arise for women to enter professions such as secondary and higher education in universities, although there were still many more places for men than women.
A number of acts were passed in the Family. First, the Custody of infants Act was passed in 1839, and women gained legal custody of children under the age of seven, and over if they had not been found guilty of adultery. The next act to be passed was the Matrimonial Causes Act in 1857. This said that women who had been deserted by their husbands gained the right to own or bequeath property as single women. Also, it made it easier for men to divorce their wives for adultery, and women had to prove that their husbands had been cruel or committed an offence. Men were still far more free than women to divorce their partner. The Married Women’s property Acts in 1870 and 1882 said that married women had the right to own their own property and keep their earnings from work, but it still took many attempts to get the second act passed and allow women to do have this right. Parliament then passed two more important acts in 1886, which meant the mother became the legal guardian of the children in a family if the husband died.
Despite these improvements to the status of women, obstacles still existed, which prevented women getting the vote. Many women were against female suffrage, including Queen Victoria and Florence Nightingale. Queen Victoria thought that with the vote, women would become heatless and disgusting. Florence Nightingale thought there were more important issues to be dealt with. Many men were also against female suffrage. One of these was William Gladstone, the leader of the Liberal party. In one of his statements from 1880 he says ‘I do not wish to trespass on the delicacy, the purity and refinement of women’s nature by giving her the vote’. He was saying he would not agree to give women the vote because e it is against her role. A section of an article from the Times in 1867 says ‘ever since the world was created, the great mass of women has been of weaker mental power than men and with an instinctive tendency to submit themselves to the control of the stronger sex.’ This shows that women did not have the vote because they are the weaker sex and it is natural that the role of the man s to protect the woman.
The main social reason for women not getting the vote was the traditional view of women being the opposite sex and having a role different than one involving making important decisions, such as voting. Some ideas that men had were ‘Women’s place is the home,’ ‘the women’s business is to look after the baby,’ and that they were ‘the housekeepers of the nation’. The view was that women should stay at home and take care of the house, whilst the man went out and made the important decisions, such as who should be in Parliament. This view was a major long-term reason why women did not get the vote before 1914 and why most men were against it. Women also had little opportunity to show they were capable of the vote.
Finally, there were also political reasons why women did not get the vote. The situation in Parliament was that many backbench, Liberal MPs were in favour of women getting the vote, whereas Liberal leaders were opposed to it for fear that if better-off, property owning women got the vote they would vote for their arch-rivals, the Conservative Party. On the other hand, some Conservative Leaders were in favour of women’s suffrage because they liked the prospect of more Conservative voters. However, they did nothing because their backbench MPs were completely opposed because of the social reasons and the traditional role of women, which they did not want to change. Therefore, nothing was done about giving women the vote because MPs were in disagreement with it, and bills were defeated in Parliament. Asquith became Prime Minister in 1908, and was very anti-suffrage. He said giving women the vote was ‘wholly out of the question.’ This made female suffrage very unlikely.
In 1911 there was a setback in Parliament. The Government promised a Conciliation Bill, which won all part support. The Suffragettes suspended military action and held many meetings. The bill got a majority of 167, but then Asquith dropped the bill. This made the Suffragettes furious and encouraged them to carry on with their violent methods. This in turn lessened the chances of female suffrage. Another incident that did this was when Bamford Slack put forward a bill but it was dragged out and then eventually dropped because the time for it had run out.
Another political reason for women not getting the vote before 1914 was because Parliament had much bigger and important worries and issues to deal with. Examples of these were problems in Europe, which were leading to war, and there were problems in Ireland and industrial problems. The Suffragettes were seen as a nuisance, causing them more hassle and issues to deal with. This prevented the Government supporting their aims to get the vote.
Overall, the reasons why women failed to get the vote before 1914 were because of the failures of the women’s movements which were short-term reasons, the social aspect that it is not the women’s role to vote, which was a long-term reason, and the political reasons. The Suffragettes failed in their aims because they were too violent, turned a lot of people against them and gave the Government a reason to refuse female suffrage. They showed they were irresponsible and could not be trusted with the vote. The Suffragists were also unsuccessful. There was the traditional view that women are the weaker sex and it is not their responsibility to deal with important issues such as voting. The other reason was that in Parliament different MPs agreed and disagreed with female suffrage so a decision wasn’t made and they had other, more important issues to deal with. The main reason why women did not get the vote before 1914 were the violent methods used by the Suffragettes, which turned many MPs and men against their campaign and failed to change men’s attitudes towards women.
