The first incident caused by the WSPU occurred in October of 1905, when two of their members were arrested for barging in to an election meeting in Manchester and disturbing the conference.
A similar occurrence took place a year later in the Houses of Commons in which ten women, including Pankhurst, were arrested for disturbing the peace.
Though these two events did generate more media coverage than the NUWSS were currently achieving, it was not enough to be seriously changing the minds of government on the subject of votes for women. This led to the first violent demonstrations in 1907, in which a rowdy group of WSPU protestors clashed with police, resulting in the arrests of many members.
Though this event did start to generate national interest in the group, it was not particularly for the desired reasons and many members of the public and government were now seeing exactly why votes shouldn’t be given to women – they were simply not trustworthy enough.
The WSPU were nowhere near finished yet though. In 1908, the first acts of criminal damages were carried out on 10 Downing Street as bricks were thrown through the windows and a few months later women chained themselves the railings.
One of the WSPU’s most shocking tactics began in 1909, when members that had been jailed for violence began to go on hunger strike. Scared of causing a national outcry over prisoner deaths, the prison service decided to tube-feed the women but this did not always go as planned and many put up struggles which meant that the tube was not inserted properly and caused serious, long-term injuries.
These events split the nation’s feelings. Some people began to feel pity for the women and believed they were very brave to be putting themselves through such an ordeal for their cause, others just saw it as a ridiculous ploy to gain the public’s favouritism and believed that someone who could do that to themselves did not deserve the vote.
The WSPU were still unable to gain the vote, despite rising violence and extreme methods, as the public (with the help of the government) began to see them as militants and terrorists, and knew that giving in to them would inspire other groups to begin similar violent campaigns in the hope of getting what they wanted too.
Despite the quite obvious downfall that was in progress, the WSPU continued their window smashing campaigns, criminal damages and even bombings up until the outbreak of war in 1914, when the government promised to release all Suffragette prisoners on the condition of peace and devotion to the war effort.
It could be said that the war was good thing for the campaigns of votes for women, as the WSPU had become extremists and a terrorist organisation that most of the country had come to despise and even fear. It was extremely unlikely that the vote would ever have been granted had the violence continued, as the government vowed time and time again that it would not give in to terrorism and make the country’s political system seem soft and breakable.
The Other Reasons
Though both parties, through many of their own faults, failures and mistakes, failed to gain the vote for women before 1914, it was not just themselves that were influencing factors on the situation.
The fact that women did not already have the vote was testimony to the fact that they were not heavily respected in society and were often seen as inferior to men.
Women were given very specific rules and requirements by society, they were expected to marry, have children and look after their families. A working woman was extremely rare and so it was taken that seen as they do little to fuel their countries economy and political procedures, they had no right to a vote. It would take a great deal of effort to counter this long standing belief of women being politically worthless and inferior.
There was also the fact that many women, including important figures, did not themselves want the responsibility of the vote. Many were happy where they were in society and did not see the need to be given extra rights. The majority were not fluent in politics and country decision making, and so many would be clueless of who to vote for at an election booth and why. Queen Victoria was an opponent of votes for women and so, being a role-model in society, she led many others to take the same opinion.
With so many women themselves opposed to the vote, it would have seemed stupid to grant them the vote and burden them with an extra responsibility which, quite frankly, many would rather have done without.
The media also had a very influencing factor on the situation, as many political publications and newspapers were opposed to women gaining the vote.
Political cartoons such as Punch often published amusing articles and images during the campaigns of Suffragettes and Suffragists, intended to ridicule them and dismiss the idea of women voters as a disaster for the country which would be laughed at by other countries.
The media at the time would have had a huge impact on the attempts of women to gain the vote, hence the reason why the WSPU tried all it could to get more media attention, and the dismay of the NUWSS as they watched their attempts ruined by the bad press that the WSPU were beginning to generate.
Without media backing, their attempts were sure to be futile and pointless.
Conclusion
Though both sets of campaigners tried their very different methods to gain votes for women, they failed to do so before 1914, after decades of campaigning and protesting.
Both sides in the end had created their own failure, as the NUWSS was seen as too weak to deserve the vote and the WSPU were made out as a terrorist organisation that should never be given in to.
The two sides could perhaps be thankful of the break in campaigns brought about by the war, as shortly prior to it their public and political support seemed to be getting ever slimmer.
There were also other factors affecting their chances of success, such as the nation’s hesitation and general opposition to begin with of giving the vote to women.
Both sides also failed to gain the support of the mass media, which was perhaps the most important factor in the whole scenario. They were either ridiculed or despised by newspapers and political publications.
The campaigners often gained the public attention they needed, but the majority of the time it was for all of the wrong reasons.
Question 2: “Without the First World War British women would not have gained the right to vote in 1918.” Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Explain your answer using the sources and knowledge from your own studies.
Before 1914, women failed to achieve the right to vote in Britain, despite much campaigning. Parliamentary discussion on the topic was brought to a halt throughout World War One as the nation’s security and the ongoing international war was seen as more important than any domestic national matters such as that of voting and people’s rights to it.
However, in 1918 the vote was finally awarded to women. Some say that this was a direct result of their efforts to keep the country stabilised in during the war and therefore they would not have received the vote without the war. Others, however, believe that women would have inevitably been given the vote regardless of the war and that the actions of the suffragettes or suffragists would have eventually ended in success.
Before 1914, the majority of the campaigning for votes for women was done by either the Suffragettes or Suffragists. Both of these groups, through various demonstrations and speeches such as that shown in Source A, claimed that women deserved the vote and were playing an important enough role in society to be able to vote for government. The campaigners clamied that women could be trusted with the vote and it would not affect what they do for their household in any way – in fact, according to Source A, they would be able to take on more responsibilities and provide a better service to the country if they had the vote. This was not the view taken by the majority of British citizens however, and in 1914 both groups of campaigners ceased their operations as the country became involved in Word War One.
During World War One, the majority of men who were able to perform duties in the armed forces were conscripted and sent to fight for their countries, with the majority of them been spread out to the various international front lines. This left a large shortage of workers for many of the industries within Britain. In order to prevent a total breakdown of the country and to support the war effort, women were allowed to take up many of the jobs which had been regarded as male only before 1914. These jobs included dangerous and unhealthy work in munitions factories, the mining industry and the tailoring industry, all of which were paramount to the safety of the country’s economy and success in the war.
This participation in the war effort lead many to have much greater respect for women in society and very much proved that they were just as able as men in many ways. An example of this is displayed by source D (a cover from the War Worker magazine, published in June 1917), where a women is quite prominently displayed holding up a flag of the union jack together with a male soldier; showing how both genders have put equal amounts of effort into helping the country during the difficult time it was facing, and showing unity between men and women – something which was unheard of during the protests and violent campaigns of the Suffragettes.
Source D was aimed at the general British public and is intended to give people the full information about things that were affecting them. It should be noted that this was a publication from war-time Britain and, as a result, it has probably been censored in some ways by the government for propaganda purposes meaning that it may not be 100% truthful and may have some points over-exaggerated. It does though allow us to see the general opinions of the public (and the press) towards working women in Britain.
Some believe that it is these actions of women during those troubled times that lead to them being awarded the vote at the end of the war in 1918.
Despite the new realisation of how women could be useful in society and their greatly increased responsibilities, there were still opponents to women gaining more powers in society. These people did not like how women were been able to get jobs in industry and still believed they belonged at home looking after the family and raising children. Needless to say these people still did not believe that giving the vote to women would be a good thing and so, based on their opinions, things were still very much in the same situation as before the war and some people had actually taken a further disliking to women due to the fact that they were now occupying men’s jobs – this worried some people because they believed that the women would be reluctant to give up their jobs when the men returned from the war.
Source E is an extract from a book which was published after the whole debate about votes for women. Due to its date of publication, it should be noted that it might not clearly and correctly represent the attitudes of people at the time of the events. Its aim is to show how some men had come to see women workers as very negative things in society, and explains how some actually went so far to sabotage the tools and equipment of women, so that their production rates would be hampered or even put their lives at risk – particularly when they were commonly working in environments where live ammunition was being developed and produced. Source E fails to provide any concrete evidence of these events though and as such cannot be taken as entirely accurate and truthful of the actual events that took place. It is however, a neutrally sided piece of writing so the author, as far as we are aware, should have no reason to be purposefully making his work biased.
Source C is an argument made for votes against women by Lord Curzon in 1912. Its highlights the main views of one side of the argument of votes for women and, since it comes from the time of the debate, it can be regarded as accurate despite it being biased because of its author, who was clearly against women obtaining the vote.
It shows us how, before the war, women were regarded as inferior, uneducated and weak (“the way women have been educated, their lack of strength, and the duties they have”). People did not believe that women had enough experience of the workings of the country, its economy and the government to be able to use the vote to any advantage. Many men did not want women to seem equal to them and would much prefer them to stay at home with the family and taking care of the home. This was not possible in World War One, however, and against the wishes of many, women were able to prove what they were worth. They were not as weak as originally thought, they did have an understanding of general politics and, most importantly, they showed how they could work to support the country.
Many of the reasons for not awarding women the vote before the war had now been completely dismissed and it now seemed wrong to still be denying women the vote when they had very much proven their worth.
Source B, the Suffragette postcard, though published in 1910 and somewhat biased due to its origin, highlights the situation which was still ongoing at the end of World War One. Women were able to take up jobs which were highly respected in society, such as teachers, doctors, nurses and even mayors whilst still not being able to vote. However, men that were in prison for serious crimes, in mental asylums and ones unfit for work were still able to vote. This situation had been greatly highlighted by the efforts of women during the First World War and the government was becoming increasingly aware of how unfair the situation was appearing. It was starting to be inevitable that women would soon be awarded the vote.
Based on my own knowledge of the situation, plus the information given in the five sources (A-E) I believe that the First World War played a large role in getting women the vote and that they would have probably not gained it had the war not have broken out.
During World War One women were, for the first real time, able to show the nation how much they could be trusted with important roles in society. I believe it was mainly their actions to support the war effort that lead to the favouritism finally being swayed in the favour on the debate over votes.
Without World War One, the Suffragette campaign would have been likely to continue and this would have been disastrous for women’s chances of been able to get the vote, as they were more and more been seen as an enemy who would be damaging to the country and could not be trusted in society.
