Before the War, women didn’t have anything like equal rights to men. Even if women did the same jobs, men were thought to be more valuable, thought to do more work, and were therefore paid more. Women had been trying to change this for a long time, but most of them just accepted things the way they were, and didn’t try to change them. Women had been thought to be just housekeepers for centuries. As many people argued, this was a traditional role that women fulfilled. And women accepted this, as they didn’t know any other way, and going against tradition meant going against their parents and family. So women let men steamroll them into silence. Women were dependant on men, because they knew that the men earned the money for the family. They had grown up in a household where men were dominant, and as soon as they were married, men again dominated them.
In the later half of the 19th century, some steps were taken to make men and women almost equal. The earliest was the Custody of Infants Act, which allowed women to claim custody of children following separation from their husbands. These acts still weren’t a huge leap like the Great War, but they were a major step anyway, and many women could now take custody of their children, be granted civil divorces, could keep their own money after divorce, study medicine and, in some places like New Zealand, vote. This was what the women wanted from their lives. When John Stuart Mill, an MP and the husband of an early suffragist, Harriet Taylor, suggested giving the vote to women, many MPs agreed with him. Even though these numbers were not the majority in Parliament, they were still enough to start up hundreds of suffrage unions all over the country.
In 1897, all the suffrage societies came together to form the NUWSS (National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies). Millicent Fawcett headed this organisation. The organisation wanted to give women equal rights through constitutional campaigning, which was campaigning without breaking the law. They wanted to change the way things were done. They wanted to implement changes immediately that would give women freedom to do what they wanted, like men have. But these changes wouldn’t have been brought about any quicker if it hadn’t been for Mrs. Pankhurst and her daughters. They wanted quick action on the part of the Government, and they decided that the way to do this was through violence. They founded the WSPU (Women’s Social and Political Union), which advocated violence over peaceful protests. Mrs. Fawcette’s NUWSS were the suffragists, while Mrs. Pankhurst’s WSPU were the suffragettes. They both wanted the exact same things, but the means they used to get to the end were different. The suffragists planned peaceful protests through town squares, signed petitions, gave speeches, while the suffragettes smashed windows, tied themselves to railings and threw stones at important figures. The suffragettes wanted to use different methods to those associated with women’s campaigning (peaceful protests), but this slowed down the movement because MPs didn’t want to be intimidated into giving women the vote.
Both suffragettes and suffragists wanted public attention on themselves so the whole world would know who they were and what they were trying to achieve. They realised that if everyone knew that they were suffering, people would pity them and pressure the Government into giving women the vote.
At the beginning of the century, most women did not have paid work. According to a government census 8 years ago, 5 million adult women had a paid job, while 11 million women didn’t. Tradition still bound women, and they became housewives after marriage. They had a job, and that was to look after the husbands and their families. They had to accept this, because they lived in a male-dominated world. Working class women did jobs like servants and cooks, which was called going into service. But as soon as they were married, they had to give up their jobs, as this was considered respectable. Women had no choice in this matter, and couldn’t argue with their husband’s decision. If women didn’t work as servants, they worked in factories, especially in the Midlands and the North of England. Here, both married and unmarried women worked. Women also did jobs from home, like hat making, where they made the hats at home, and sold them later. For middle-class women, there wasn’t much change from then till now. They still got the softer jobs back then, like shop assistants, but were again expected to give the jobs up when they were married. This was unfair on both classes, but also explains the attitudes of suffragists and suffragettes. Suffragists were mainly middle-class women who could go back to a comfortable lifestyle, while suffragettes had more to gain and lose. They would have to go back to living in complete misery, unable to make any money for the family and eking their way through life. This meant that the suffragettes would have resorted to more extreme measures because they didn’t want to fail at what they had set out to do.
Over the last few years, leading up to the War, attitudes to women have changed a lot. More and more people have accepted that women are here and they’re here to stay. Men, at the start of the century, had become used to the fact that women think that they should have equal rights to men and most men agree to this now, as women have shown themselves responsible and capable of taking control of their own lives.
In terms of jobs, women have many more jobs now than they did back at the start of the century. During the Great War, women have had the freedom to do jobs that had been left behind by conscripted men that went to fight the war in France. They have greater freedom in their daily lives and have a greater number of choices. People’s opinions have changed since the start of the century, especially because of the suffragist and suffragette campaigning. This change hasn’t been as great as the one during and after the War, but is still significant because without this stepping-stone, women wouldn’t be as close to getting the vote as they are now. The War was a major milestone for women’s rights, as they replaced men in jobs where, without workers, the country would have failed in a time of war.
It should be noted that both the suffragettes and suffragists gave up their campaigning as soon as the War started. This meant that the Government had fewer things to worry about during the course of the War. The effect of this was the people respected the suffragettes and suffragists for their decisions and were pleased and impressed by the fact that they were helping the war effort by working in factories and taking up jobs on the front lines.
During the War, women worked in factories to produce goods that would be used on the front lines, from shells and bullets to tanks and aeroplanes. They worked in conditions that were dangerous and could be fatal. In munitions factories, for example, according to a woman worker, there were 16 to 18 casualties a night, but there were only 4 beds for men and women. Explosions were commonplace and these could not only maim and injure, they were also fatal. The chemicals used in the shells caused the workers to vomit and turned their skin yellow. But women still worked in these conditions, as they knew that this was their service to their country. While men served their country by going off to fight, women served by working in factories and keeping the country going.
All this was made possible by Ms. Christabel Pankhurst. She led a march of 30000 women who demanded a right to serve their country. Soon after this was granted, conscription was introduced and this meant that there were jobs that needed to be filled, or the country would grind to a halt. These jobs were filled by women, even though some of the jobs had never been done by women before, like bus conductors. By 1916, all London ambulances were driven by women, and did other jobs like chimney sweeps and policewomen. Women took more and more jobs, even though they had been done before, but never in very large numbers. For example, 160000 women worked in metal industries, but after the War, the metal industry employed almost 600000 women. And the Civil Service sector employed about 20000 women before the War, but had 110000 women working after the War.
Even popular public figures began to change their opinions. Ex-Prime Minister, Robert Asquith, changed his opinion about women, saying that they were responsible for Britain winning the War. “How could we have carried the War without (women)?” This was a great day for women everywhere, as Asquith has been one of the most prominent figures opposed to women’s suffrage. Millicent Fawcett herself wrote earlier this year that the history of women’s suffrage was a removal of intolerable grievances. Apparently, the war had caused Asquith to give up his stand against women’s suffrage. This was an “intolerable grievance” that the women removed. But now, after the War’s end, men are returning and they want their jobs back. They don’t know the situation back home and won’t be understanding if the women keep the jobs that belonged to the men in the first place.
When men returned from the War, they wanted their jobs back, but women were unwilling to give up these jobs as they symbolised the freedom they had got during the years of the war. Many women also lost their jobs, as there was no need to produce huge amounts of ammo or thousands of tanks or guns. But even then, there were still huge numbers of women that replaced men in the workplace. The estimate is that almost 575000 women have replaced men over the course of the War.
When the Representation of the People Act came out earlier this year, many women felt that their life’s work was almost done. The new law came out only because of the War. According to the Representation of the People Act, heroes of the War could vote. This meant that women should be able to vote as they had shown themselves capable in the battlefield. Women had even been serving in the WRNS since 1916. So women should have the vote, but most MPs thought that the women that had done most of the war work had radical ideas and were unwilling to enfranchise them.
As you can see, the Great War had a major effect on the women’s movement. Without it, equal rights for women would have come, but more slowly. The War did indeed lead to great change in the role of women in our daily lives.
