What can you learn from source A about the reasons given by the Suffragettes for demanding votes for women?

Drunkards, if they were capable of finding their way to the polling station, would not be able to make important political decisions. A proprietor of white slaves would simply vote irrationally for whoever would, for example, make them pay the least tax. Lunatics do not know enough about the subject to vote sensibly. However, were authorized the vote by the government.

2. Study sources B and C:

Does source B support the evidence of source C about the Suffragette campaign? Explain your answer.

Source B, taken from a book written in 1907 by Marie Corelli, states that women were to make voters, not to vote themselves. Source C, a cartoon drawn in 1906 by Bernard Partridge is clearly on the suffragist’s side as they are described as the ‘sensible women’ and the suffragettes are described as the ‘shrieking sisters’. Source B does support the evidence of source C as it is also not in favour of giving the vote to the suffragettes. By mentioning the ‘shrill cry’ of the suffragettes, Source B is therefore supporting source C’s caption about the ‘shrieking’ of the women.

However, in some ways source B does not support the evidence of source C about the suffragette campaign as it says that the men’s opposition and attitude about women’s place in society is due to the mothers who rear their sons in that direction whereas Source C implies that the ‘Shrieking’ women in the suffragette movement frighten off support by the way they act. The writer of source C is not against women’s right to vote but is against achieving it the suffragette’s way.

The writer of source B evidently feels strongly against the suffragettes as the title of her book is ‘Woman or Suffragette?’ meaning that one could either be a woman or a suffragette, suggesting that suffragettes were not eligible women and should not be classed under the same category as the ‘sensible’ women who hide in the shadows and fulfil the traditional role of women in that period. The book in source C is a rational argument whereas in source C, the tone is hostile and critical and suggests that the suffragettes cannot be taken seriously.