It was this strong belief of how women should behave that set back the suffragette movement; it was men who were in power at that time so it was ultimately their decision as to whether to address the situation or choose to ignore it, and choose to ignore it they did. This was because they thought that there were far more pressing issues to attend to than that of women’s suffrage, for there was insurrection in Ireland, rebellion by the House of Lords and also widespread strike action by trade unions. There were also many other factors which meant that Liberals did not give women the vote when they came to office. Firstly the PM Lord Asquith was hostile to the movement, he was somewhat of a traditionalist and he believed that women’s lives revolved around at home and not in politics. Also very importantly the Liberals needed the majority in Parliament, since it had been whittled down by a series of disappointing elections. By 1910 the Liberals relied on votes from the Irish nationalists and also the Labour party to survive, the Irish nationalists were strongly against women suffrage and so the Liberals were unwilling to risk their term of government to women’s suffrage.
Between the years of 1906-1914, there was an awful lot of going back on promises by the liberal party. For instance in 1909 the Second Reading of Women’s Suffrage Bill is carried but Asquith failed to support it so the bill failed, also in 1911 the Second Conciliation Bill is carried but again ultimately failed because Asquith failed to give support. This treatment led suffragettes to see the liberal government as hostile to their cause.
Many women also felt an incredible injustice to the way the government treated their protests and movements. The government refused to accept petitions, meetings in public places were banned and the press was also censored. Not only this, the printer who printed “The Suffragette” was prosecuted and also many homes of leading suffragists were raided. This is a huge comparison compared to how the government treated the Ulster Unionists, they preached sedition in Ireland and also smuggled guns there, but the government turned a blind eye to their violence and continued to consult them over Ireland. This seems very unfair as the Unionists type of militancy was far worse than that of the Suffragists and even the Suffragettes, but of course the Unionists had somewhat more power than the women and so the government needed these people on their side. They did not see how allowing women’s suffrage would benefit themselves.
On November the 18th 1910, the government took a much harder line, when women protesters marched on the House of Commons the police were ordered to brutally force the women back. They forced them back by kicking and punching them, there were different views to why the police did this. The traditional view was that they were not experienced in dealing with this view as they were used to the rough east end and did not know what to do with middle- class women. Though the feminist believed that these women were seen as prostitutes, for it was only men and prostitutes who entered the public sphere of the streets. A respectable lady would have been at home in her “domestic haven.”
During the period of the suffragette movement, their were two distinct groups who were both campaigning for women’s rights, the suffragists were very much a constitutional and peaceful organisation, they believed in the power of the pen. It could be said that the suffragists laid the foundations of the movement as they were the first really large organisation; the way that they went about campaigning was by writing petitions and letters to MPs hoping that they would join in their protest. They were involved in marches and put up many propaganda posters hoping men might listen to their peaceful call; one limitation might have been that they received low level publicity and therefore everybody might have not taken much notice of what they were doing. Therefore the women needed a slightly more active and militant group who would really make people turn heads.
The suffragettes had very different ideas of how they were going to get the vote, they were involved in many illegal activities such as vandalising buildings and chaining them selves to railing, this was not all by a long way. Many women believed that women’s suffrage and taxation went hand in hand; this meant that many women refused to pay their taxes. This then resulted in many women being thrown into prison. They were also involved in an arson campaign which took place all over the country and other damaging behaviour, a great example of this was when Emily Davidson was killed at the 1913 Derby when she threw herself in front of the king’s horse in an attempt to end the race. This sort of death defying stunts resulted in the movement gaining huge publicity, though often the publicity was not very positive. Other examples are wrecking plants in Kew Gardens, cutting telegraph wires and burning messages into golf courses with acid (“no votes, no golf”). Another publicity stunt which gained a lot of news was the destruction of major works of art, for example Slasher Mary, Mary Richardson who attacked the Venus by Velasquez in the National gallery.
Many historians believe that if there had been a group which had beliefs which instead of being on either extremes, would have been something of a compromise in between. This would have been far more popular as they would have gained publicity and also the government would not have felt like they were giving in to militancy. Also during the suffragette movement these two groups very rarely helped or supported each other, neither groups believed that the other was helping their cause to get women’s suffrage and so maybe if they had worked together they would have got their dream much more rapidly.
In conclusion I feel that there were many different factors which contributed to the fact that women did not get suffrage between 1900 and 1914, the Liberal government was not prepared to risk their term in government and the lack of cooperation between the two groups proved that they were going nowhere. For this it was not until the beginning of the First War that people actually began to sit up and listen to the calls of women’s suffrage.
Attitudes towards women and their right to vote had changed by 1918. How important was the First World War in bringing about this change? Explain your answer