Why Did a Campaign For Women’S Suffrage Develop In the Years After 1870?

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Why did a Campaign for Women’s Suffrage develop in the years after 1870?

A campaign for women’s suffrage developed in the UK in the years after 1870 because women were being discriminated against and they wanted equal rights.

The main way in which women were discriminated against was politically – they had an extremely unequal political status to men. They couldn’t vote in general elections and until 1869 they couldn’t vote in council elections either. They weren’t allowed to stand for parliament until 1918, and they couldn’t stand for district or borough councils until 1917. They also had to pay the same taxes as men, but had no influence over the way their money was spent. Many British women felt that if women in other parts of the British Empire (such as New Zealand) had the vote, then why shouldn’t they?

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Married women were also discriminated against by the law. Until 1884, a married woman was legally considered a chattel (possession) of her husband. Also, until 1870 all of a married woman’s earnings had to go to her husband. After 1870, women could keep £200 of their earnings and give the rest to their husbands, but it was only in 1882 that married women could keep all of their earnings. The divorce laws also discriminated against women – men could divorce for custody but women couldn’t, and if there was a divorce where children were involved then men usually got ...

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