Both sources are about reform and that there needs to be something done about the unfair system in operation. However, the three points of view represented by the two sources, the Suffragette, the Suffragist and the opposition, are all different. The Suffragist and the Suffragette are both campaigning for women’s suffrage to bring about the change, but one is campaigning quietly using petitions and the other is campaigning violently, for example burning out buildings and chaining themselves to railings. Whereas the opposition, Marie Corelli wanted to change the way women brought up their children, i.e. sons to be more morally conscious; to make respectable choices with their vote, therefore women did not need the vote.
These three possible solutions to the problem of sexual inequality cover three different time scales. The Suffragette campaign will be noticed immediately because of the eye-catching propaganda they used. The peaceful Suffragist campaign would take months to be noticed, and Marie Corelli’s theory would take generations to come into action.
In conclusion, Source B does agree with the evidence about the Suffragette campaign in Source C. This evidence is that the Suffragette’s militant campaign was in fact not helping the fight for women’s suffrage, and was in fact ‘Its worst enemy’.
Despite Suffragette activity, women had not gained the vote by the outbreak of the First World War for a variety of reasons. For example, the Suffragettes managed to turn public opinion against them, political parties had other more pressing worries, members of the general public had well established views of opposition, and the cause had been pushed aside by other more important issues, for example, the distant prospects of war.
From Source E, a speech given by a Member of Parliament in 1913 about his resentment towards the campaign, relatively near the outbreak of the First World War, I can derive that he is heavily against women’s suffrage. For example, at the very beginning of his speech, he says, “I have no hesitation,” which means that he is very positive about his opinion. I can also conclude from this Source that the MP in question was also sexist. He says, “in giving women the right to vote, we will ultimately put the control of the country into the hands of women.” This explicitly states that he think that women controlling the country would be a very unfavourable event. Talking at time when we have a female monarch, it makes the statement even more conspicuous. The Member of Parliament making the statement probably shared the same sexist views about women as many other members. With the majority of men in Parliament having these derogatory views of women, it was no wonder that by the outbreak of the First World War, Members of Parliament had shown no signs of helping the campaign for women’s suffrage, and moreover, women had not gained the right to vote.
Source D is a short extract from a book titled ‘My Own Story’, by Emmeline Pankhurst, one of the leading Suffragettes in the campaign for women’s suffrage, and was written in 1912. This book, written two years before the outbreak of the First World War and six years after the WSPU began using more militant action to further their campaign. In this extract, Emmeline reflects upon the actions of the Suffragettes, and the reasons behind the stepping-up of their crusade. For example, “Now the newspapers are full of us.” One of the reasons the WSPU chose to become more militant was to attract public attention towards their campaign. Their actions over the following years did not fail to do this. However, the sheer scale of some of their attacks were so shocking to the British population, that public opinion began to change. Emmeline states in her book that, “in 1906, there was a very large section of the public who were in favour of women’s suffrage.” The militant turn the WSPU took was to attract more supporters, but over time, they only managed to disgust and distance their existing supporters.
In this extract, Emmeline also states that, “The argument of politicians and the Suffragettes has always been that once public opinion swings our way then without any force at all women will be given the vote.” The previous quote states that, “in 1906, there was a very large section of the public who were in favour of women’s suffrage.” Public opinion was already in their favour, and maybe without resorting to more violent forms of protest, and patiently waited for the government to decide, then women could have had the vote much sooner.
The political party in power in the run up to the First World War and during the most militant part of the Suffragette’s campaign was the Liberal Party. When the Liberal’s won a landslide victory in 1906, the WSPU were hopeful that this would lead to votes for women, because the Prime Minister at this time was Henry Campbell-Bannermann was in favour of votes for women. However in 1908, Herbert Asquith, who was strongly against women’s suffrage, replaced him. This new government led by Herbert Asquith did not continue to pursue women’s suffrage, as it had other priorities. These included trying to establish a pension scheme, helping the poor and building more public housing.
The liberal government was a reforming government who wanted to establish a Welfare State. However, they weren’t concerned about votes for women. This was because:
- The policy, ‘Votes for Women’, was only supported by 10% of the population, and they were afraid that if the supported it, it would make them unpopular.
- They were more concerned about immediate issues such as poverty.
- The Liberal’s needed the support of labour and the Northern Ireland Nationalists. Therefore, Trade Unions and Home Rule for Ireland were more important.
- Northern Ireland didn’t want Home Rule and threatened to revolt if it came in.
- Finally, there was tension with European neighbours that would eventually lead to World War 1.
It was clear that the government’s priorities lay elsewhere, and they were not concerned about the campaign for women’s suffrage. The Liberal Party was not interested in their cause, Members of Parliament and the public had deeply rooted views of opposition towards them and the militant suffragette movement had distanced their supporters. It was therefore no surprise that women had not gained the vote by the outbreak of the First World War.
Sources F and G are useful as evidence for the contribution of women to the war effort in the years 1914-1918.
Source F is a poster produced by the government in 1916 to attract women to become munitions workers. The poster shows a picture of a woman in front of a soldier in the war environment. At the top of the poster it says, “On her their lives depend.” It shows that for once, women are needed by their country to help support it in its war effort. It was a chance to prove themselves; to show men that they could do the same jobs as them, just as well as they could do them. The nature of Source F was to recruit as many women as possible to work in the munitions factories. This was now possible because in 1916, conscription was introduced. Because of the shortage in the labour market due to men being away at war, women were drafted in to work in different factories such as the munitions factories. This poster would have been used for propaganda purposes, so as many women as possible would decide to sign up to work in the munitions factories.
Although the poster tells us that women were needed to work in the munitions factories, it does not tell us how many women actually took up these positions. It is useful evidence that women were needed to work in the munitions factories, but not about women’s general contribution to the war effort.
Source G is a table of statistics from a school textbook, published in the 1980’s about ‘Women in Employment in Britain’ in 1914 and 1918. The table is a secondary source used to show school children about the rapid increase of the amount of women working in Metal Industries, Chemical Industries, Government Offices and Food, Drink and Tobacco. The first set of results are from July 1914, just before war broke out, and the second set is from July 1918, just before the end of the war. From the table I can conclude that the number of women in employment grew dramatically during the four years the war lasted.
This source is competent as evidence for the contribution of women to the war effort in the years 1914-1918. It clearly shows the rapid rise in the amount of women in employment in Britain over four years, during the First World War. For example, from the table I can see that the amount of women working in Government Offices hugely increased, going from only 2,000 in 1914, to 225,000 in 1918.
Whereas Source F just portrays one of the jobs women took up during the period Britain was at war, Source G tells us how many women contributed their resources. However, neither actually describes the jobs the women actually did.
‘It was the work women did during the war that earned them the vote.’ From studying Sources H, I and J and using my own knowledge I will explain whether I agree with this interpretation.
Source H is an extract from a history book called ‘Women’s Suffrage in Britain, 1967-1928’ written in 1980. The emphasis of the extract is that “careful study shows how little changed from the war, not how much.” For example, “in the newspaper reports of the time, women workers received a warm welcome; but in farms, hospitals and factories they were greatly resented.” This was due to the unchanged views of most men. They still felt that “women should become nurses, provide of refreshments for the troops and bring up the fighting men of the future.”
This source explicitly states that women’s contributions to the war effort were not appreciated, and the author of this extract agrees with Politicians who “agreed with the idea that the women who had brought children up successfully had performed a service for the government which could be rewarded by giving the vote to such loyal citizens.” The extract also refers to the age limit of 30 being given to women voters because “these women seemed to be more responsible and more likely to vote the sane way as their husbands.” Therefore, even though women had been given the vote, it was in a way that was likely to change the overall results as little as possible. This source does not agree with the statement, “it was the work women did during the war that earned women the vote.” The overall emphasis of the extract is that women were given the vote as a result of ‘bringing children up successfully’ and this was their service to the government, not providing troops with healthcare and munitions.
Source I is an extract from a history book called ‘Women at War, 1914-1914’ written in 1980. This Source agrees that women did gain the vote partly from the war, but not necessarily from their involvement in the war effort. “During the four years of conflict a tremendous mood favourable to change had been created.” The writer of this extract believes that the vote was given to women out of a general feeling for reform, and not because of the courage they had shown on the battlegrounds caring for the wounded soldiers, taking over men’s jobs and learning new trades and skills quickly. The writer refers to “other great social and political changes that were happening as a result of the war.” He think that women’s rights should not be isolated from other critical events that took place due to the mood created by the war, and that it was only down to the new agreeable mood to change.
Source J is part of a speech by Herbert Asquith in the House of Commons in 1917. Asquith had been Prime Minister from 1908 to 1916 when he had opposed giving women the vote. In his speech Asquith talks about his “opposition to women’s right to vote being well known.” However, he goes on to commend the Suffragettes for “not restarting that horrible campaign of violence,” and “contributing to every service during this war except that of fighting.” He goes on to say that therefore, “some measure of suffrage should be given.” Herbert Asquith believed that because of their efforts during the war, the Suffragettes should be rewarded for not only stopping their violent campaign, but also vitally helping with the war effort. By saying, “some measure of women’s suffrage,” it leaves space for them to earn the rest and gives some control over the amount they would be given.
The three sources, H, I and J were written in two different eras. The first two were secondary sources, history books, written in 1980. Whereas source J is a primary source, a part of a speech given by a recent Prime Minister. The two sources written years after the war take the approach that women did not gain the vote through their work during the war. Source H says, “Politicians themselves agreed with the idea that women who had brought children up successfully had performed a service for the government which could be rewarded by giving the vote to such loyal citizens.” This Source believes that women were given the vote after the war because the government was satisfied with the way women had brought up their children.
Source I says, “the question of women’s rights must not be isolated from other great social and political changes that were happening as a result of the war. During the four years of conflict a tremendous mood favourable to change had been created.” The writer of this extract believed that the war had created a mood that was highly beneficial to the Suffragettes, but again it was not their efforts during the war.
However, in the last source, J, Herbert Asquith says, “They have contributed to every service during this war except fighting. I therefore believe that some measure of women’s suffrage should be given.” This was the only source that made reference to the Suffragettes gaining the vote and their work during the war. Moreover, this was the only source that was actually from the period it refers to, 1917.
From studying the sources, I have come to the conclusion that women did earn the vote because of the work they did during the war. gave women the opportunity to show a male-dominated society that they could do more than simply bring up children and tend a home. In , women played a vital role in keeping the soldiers equipped with ammunition and in many senses they kept the country going through their help in manning the transport system.
At the start in August 1914, the government had been left enraged by the activities of the and women had no political power whatsoever. By the end of the war, in November 1918, women had proved that they were just as important to the war effort as men had been and in 1918 women were given some form of political representation. The effort the Suffragettes put in during the war outweighed the bad reputation they had gained prior to the war. During the war, they volunteered to join the VAD's (Voluntary Aid Detachment) and FANY's (First Aid Nursing Yeomanry).
With so many men away fighting, someone had to bring in the harvests and keep the farms going. The Women's Land Army played a vital part in gathering food especially after 1916 when the killed and wounded so many young British soldiers - men who would normally work on the land. Finally, Some of the most important work done by women was in the ammunition factories. With so many men away fighting, women did this vital work, and it was these contributions that they made that I think earned them the vote.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Women’s Rights, Changing Attitudes 1900-2000, Kaye Stearman