The struggle for the emancipation of women. - WHY did women get the vote and what is the most important reason they did?

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Cherry Robinson                                                                01/05/2007

Coursework: The struggle for the emancipation of women.

WHY did women get the vote and what is the most important reason they did?

They eventually got the vote in 1918 after the war ended on November 11th at 11 am. In 1918 a new law was passed to re-organise the electoral register it was called the ‘Representation of the peoples act’. Added onto that law was a clause saying that women over 30 could vote but there were conditions, they would have to have rented a house for 12 months or have owned a house. Finally in 1928 voting became completely equal.

        

        I agree that women’s efforts in the war helped them gain the right to vote. One of the reasons was that they helped out by making munitions (shells). They were made all over Britain in places such as Woolwich, Leeds and Birmingham. This was the first job women had during the war and the most important. Over 1 million women worked in munitions!! The reason they were allowed to start working in munitions factories was because the British army were severely low on shells after 1915. They were down to firing a few shells a day while we were bombarded with shells non-stop. The reason the shortage developed was because the government let too many of the munitions workers go and fight so there was a shortage of workers. When the shortage occurred the women again started asking for their right to serve but it was denied again. So they made a very famous march to Whitehall where they demanded the right to serve their country. Adding to that Mrs Pankhurst asked for women’s wage conditions to become fairer. The P.M. at the time David Lloyd George obliged and allowed them to start working and have equal wages.

Women did not only make shells they did lots of other significant work to make up for all the men that left to fight. Although after a while some of them had to be brought back e.g. the miners were called back because they were very important to the country back in Britain. Other jobs that women did included joining the Red Cross Society’s ‘Voluntary Aid Detachment’. They came to be later knows as VAD’s, an example of a famous VAD was Vera Brittain. The VAD’s only had basic medical training so they could give soldiers basic medical treatment. Most families of the VAD’s didn’t mind them doing other jobs but they were strongly against them being VAD’s. This was because they didn’t want them to mix with lower classes – ‘Tommies’. The only forms of painkiller the VAD’s had at their disposal were aspirin and morphine. Morphine came in tablet form and had to be mixed with water and then sucked into a needle then the nurse had to find a place near the wound to inject it. VAD’s did not get paid as it was voluntary but the sisters and matrons that organised them did. Because of the non-payment most VAD’s came from a social background where not being paid wasn’t an issue. Also during the war the Women’s Land Army was created. With so many men being away someone had to keep the farms going and that’s what the women’s land army was created for. As the German U-Boats were sinking our merchant ships coming from America we had to feed ourselves. We had to become self-sufficient and that’s where the land army came into it’s own. They were paid 18 shillings a week (near enough £1 now) but 12 shillings went to board and food so they didn’t make that much money. To save fuel for the war effort all corners were cut so anything that could be done by hand was, seeds were planted by hand, harvesting was done by hand and horses were used for ploughing just like medieval times!! There was such a need for more women to join the WLA (Women's Land Army) that recruiting officers didn’t check them that thoroughly, one girl Patricia Vernon who was 14 told them she was 18 and was immediately accepted!! This to me shows two things, how desperate the country was for women to start working and also how much young women were eager to help the war effort.

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Also during the war lots of military jobs opened up for women, from 1917 women were allowed to join the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps the W.A.A.C. They tried to employ women as cooks, drivers etc so even more men could go off and fight. The idea of this caught on and women were now being allowed into bigger military services. In 1918 women got their own royal navy (WRENS) and then a women’s royal air force was created the W.R.A.F. (women’s royal air force) But except from military services women still did other jobs like sewing, coal mining, factory ...

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