The Women’s campaign for suffrage developed in the years after 1870, because women believed they had the right to gain the vote, and to have the same rights as men. They strived for equality between the sexes. The improvement in the laws with the few acts that were introduced, gave women the hope that there wishes could be maintained, and allowed them to continue fighting for their cause.
2. Describe the ways in which the methods of the Suffragists and the Suffragettes were different.
The Suffragists were a group of people who campaigned to win the vote for women. They were mainly women, but men were also involved in the campaign. They used peaceful and law-abiding methods to create publicity to show how women were treated unfairly and should get the vote. By the end of the 19th century their main organisation was called the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS).
The Suffragettes were a new women’s suffrage organisation, who had lost patience with the Suffragists non-violent strategy as they felt there was not enough publicity. They became known as the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), and used violent tactics to gain the right to vote. This was the main difference between the Suffragettes and the Suffragists.
The WSPU was founded by the Pankhurst family in 1903. They began to cause damage to gain publicity, and after organising a protest at a huge Liberal meeting, they realised to get the publicity they needed, their behaviour would have to be bad enough to get them sent to prison. Annie Kenney was sentenced to three days in prison for obstruction and disorderly behaviour, and Christabel Pankhurst ten days for spitting at and hitting policemen who were trying to arrest her for offences committed in the street. After 3 years of propaganda work in North England, the WSPU moved to London in 1906. Whereas the NUWSS only campaigned for the vote, the WSPU also wanted better working and living conditions for women. Their tactics were mostly violent, in hope that this would create more publicity. Another tactic used by the suffragettes from 1908 onwards was to confront or ‘pester’ senior Liberal politicians whenever they could.
Some other of their tactics involved smashing shop windows and setting fire to post-boxes. The first window-smashers flung small stones through the windows of the Prime Minister’s house, and the most famous occasion was when the Suffragettes simultaneously smashed all the shop windows of a busy department store that didn’t support women getting the vote, resulting in more than 200 people getting arrested that day. Those arrested then went on hunger strikes in prison, but were sent home to regain strength and health and then sent back when better. This then became difficult so force-feeding was introduced; some women tried to stop the authorities force-feeding them by barricading themselves into their cells. This however was used to their advantage because force-feeding could be used to show how brutal and harsh the women were treated. The WSPU continued using violence to gain publicity. On 10th March 1914, Mary Richardson slashed a famous piece of Art in the National Gallery. Telephone lines were cut, railway stations burnt down and greens on golf courses were attacked with acid and the slogan votes for women were burned into them.
The Suffragists spoke at local trades union meetings, distributed leaflets, signed petitions, organised marches and many meetings were held throughout Britain: petitions were collected, and literature was given away for free. The NUWSS organised its first London procession for 9 February 1907 which then became known as “the Mud March” because of the terrible weather that day. Over 3,000 women marched from Hyde Park to Exeter Hall.
With over 53,000 members, the NUWSS used peaceful methods as Millicent Fawcett, the leader, explained how she “wanted the NUWSS to show the world how to gain reforms without violence, without killing people and doing the other things that men have done when they wanted the laws altered”. This was the main difference between the Suffragists and the Suffragettes.
3. Women over 30 gained the vote in 1918 mainly because of women’s contributions to the war effort. Do you agree? Explain your answer
I agree that Women over 30 gained the vote in 1918 mainly because of Women’s contributions to the war effort.
Before the war in 1918, women had not yet gained the vote, nor had they made much progress regarding suffrage for women. Dispute persistent campaigning from the NUWSS and violent, direct campaigning from the WSPU, the government were still unwilling to give women the vote. This was because of many reasons.
Firstly the government felt it impossible to give women the vote, because they did not want to seem as if they were giving into violence. The WSPU made it more difficult, with there violent and disruptive methods. Giving into violent pressure, was a message that they could no afford to send out.
Other reasons hindered women’s efforts to get suffrage. The issue was not politically important at the time, the government were involved in various other issues such as the constitutional battle with the House of Lords, and therefore had no time nor felt it was a pressing issue which with to waste there time with. Liberal Politicians also feared that allowing women to vote, would create more Conservative voters, so they opposed it.
Before the war, it was clear that women were struggling and had made no real progress towards gaining suffrage.
However, all forms of campaigning stopped in August 1914, when war broke out. The Women’s Service Bureau was opened in early August, to draft thousands of women into new work of a wide variety. There was a great shortage in workers, as so many men were needing to enlist in the army, and so many women workers were needed to replace these men who were sent out to fight. Women did all sorts of jobs, such as drivers, cooks, clerks, messengers, typists, farmers etc.
As the war continued, and more and more women were required, Women began to take on more strenuous jobs, such as bus drivers, coal delivers, street sweepers, labouring in the fields, firewomen. And some women even worked in munitions factories producing bullets, assembling detonators. These women worked long hard days, of up to 14 hours, and were often exposed to the harmful effects of poisonous gases. Man suffered TNT poisoning, which caused infertility and their skin to go yellow. This is why they were given the nickname ‘canaries’. Many women even joined the armed forces, and by 1918 there were about 45,000 women working in the Voluntary Aid Detachments (VAD) were they were used as drivers, secretaries and nurses on the front line. Not only were women taking on harder jobs, but also women of all classes. For the first time, middle-class women were earning there own living.
A huge range of skilled jobs were being taken up by women, who before would never of considered working. By the end of the war, women had demonstrated that they were capable of such things. They should that they were not weak, vulnerable and in need of protection, unlike society’s opinion of them. They had contributed greatly to winning the war, and there efforts were both recognised and rewarded.
However, there were other factors which contributed towards women getting the vote. The laws regarding voting became faulted when men returning from the war found themselves to have lost the right to vote. Men had to be over 21, and have either been a householder for six months or have had lived in lodgings for at least twelve months. Men returning from the war found that they did not meet this criteria as they had not been living in Britain. This reflected on the Government badly, and forced them to change their laws.
The Representation of the People Act , meant that the vote was extended to all men, providing they were over 21. This meant it was easy for the Government to extend the law to women at the same time as they were redrafting legislation for men. It aloud the Government to reward women for their efforts in the war, without looking like they were giving into to violence. The Government also feared that if they didn’t not allow women the vote, that the violence of the WSPU would start again once the war had ended. And therefore in February 1918, women over 30 were aloud to vote.
Having considered all the information, I agree with the statement that women over 30 were given the vote in 1918 mainly because of women’s contributions to the war effort. Before, the war it is clear that women were not achieving much success in attaining women’s suffrage. The Government felt unable to give the vote to women, because they didn’t want to seem like they were giving into violence. And they also had other issues which they felt much more pressing, and women’s suffrage was not seen as a priority. They had little support from politicians, and they seemed at a loss. It was only during and after the war, that women were given the opportunity to show that they were capable or hard labour like men. They proved they could accomplish tasks which had previously been owned by men, and they were without a doubt a huge contributing factor to Britain’s victory.
Because of these reasons, I believe that without the war women over 30 would not of gained the vote. As well as other factors such as the need for redrafting voting legislation for men helped increase women’s chances of being given the vote.
However, without women’s determination in previous years, and there work in organisations such as the NUWSS and the WSPU, women would not of even been considered to be given the opportunity. The strength of the women’s movement helped contribute towards the change in 1918.