Question 1: Explain Why Women Failed To Gain The Right To Vote Between 1900 & 1914
There are several solutions as to why women between 1900 & 1914 failed to gain the right to vote:
Emmeline Pankhurst formed a social and political union (WSPU) in 1903 and was later known as ‘The Suffragettes’. This union was dedicated to winning the right to vote for women, they were so dedicated that the union became very militant; holding aggressive protests outside The House Of Commons and vandalising the building. When Liberal Government was elected into parliament for the first time ever the women of Britain believed that the Liberals would support them as shown on their election campaigns. To their disappointment The Liberals did the opposite and started a Anti-Suffragettes campaign lead by Henry Asquith. In August 1914 war was declared and Women stopped the protesting to help with the war efforts as more and more men were going off to fight. I believe this to be one of the main reasons as to why women didn’t gain the right to vote between 1900-1914 because the women were never given an equal chance, where as when all the men went to fight, women had to replace the men’s occupations e.g. train drivers, dock workers, bakers & brewers. The women also played a major part working in ammunition factories and as the government soon found out that women were equal to men and could do the jobs just as good as the males.
Another group fighting for suffrage in Britain were the Suffragists, a group formed by Millicent Garrett Fawcett. This group of women didn’t believe in the militant tactics being used by the Suffragettes but took a more steady approach towards the government by lobbying and public education. This organisation focused their suffrage efforts on a bill to give single and widowed women the right to vote. When this effort failed, the NUWSS (Suffragists) recognised that only the Labour Party had supported the struggle for women’s suffrage and even though Millicent had always been a Liberal, she was getting increasingly angry at the party’s unwillingness to support women’s suffrage so the NUWSS aligned itself formally to Labour. Predictably, many members left the NUWSS over this decision.
Approximately 1,600,000 women joined the workforce between 1914 and 1918 in Government departments, public transport, the post office, as clerks in business, as land workers and in factories, especially in the dangerous munitions factories, which employed 950,000 women.
I believe that the only reason women didn’t gain the vote between 1900 and 1914 is because the outrageous stunts pulled off by the Suffragettes only made the government angry and didn’t give the women the right to vote as they did not the citizens of Britain thinking they were weak. If the Woman followed the path of the Suffragists they might have got the right much earlier than wanted as the NUWSS were winning the national parties support over e.g. Labour Party by lobbying. It could be argued that women eventually gained the vote through their enthusiastic help and success in what were usually known as male jobs, this showed the government that the women of Britain were no different to the men, this is what I will be discussing in the following question.