Why did a campaign for women's suffrage develop in the years after 1870?
Ana Hamilton 11m
GCSE History Coursework
Assignment 1: Objective 1
Why did a campaign for women's suffrage develop in the years after 1870?
A campaign for women's suffrage developed in the years after 1870 because there were a growing number of unmarried wealthy women who did not have the right to vote and wanted to. They thought that the traditional women would be expected to live their lives totally at home and not work outside. As soon as they married they became the property of their husband and were not recognised as individuals or even parents of their own children. During the middle of the 18th century, men had stopped marrying as early as they should have done and this meant that there were a lot of women with time on their hands and they could not be the traditional housewife that society expected them to be. Because of their status there was lack of respectable jobs and this led to a large number of intelligent yet frustrated women watching their lives go by, without having achieved anything.
After 1850 some middle and upper-class women began to rebel against their situation, they wanted greater equality with men and the right to vote. Before 1832 however, not many men (about 10%) were allowed to vote, but then the 'Great Reform Act' was passed and this increased the number of men who could vote to about 18%. In 1867, there was a 'Second Reform Act' that increased numbers to about 30%. Many women had hoped they would receive the vote at this time but it did not happen, they were, or course, outrgaed by this. However, an MP called John Stuart Mill, who supported votes for women, was elected, but the Government rejected his ideas. A 'Third Reform Act' in 1884 again failed to give any women the vote but increased the numbers of men voting to over 50%. Some wealthy and educated women were extremely annoyed as more men got the right to vote, they were often richer and better informed about politics than men who got the vote, only their gender stopped them from voting. Women were also angry that men like criminals, lunatics, unfit servicemen and drunkards could votes, but even as respectable women they could not.
Women were finally given the vote in local elections in 1888, as long as they met the same rules and laws as men regarding income or property. This change of voting system showed that change could come and women could be treated equally with men in politics and voting. The women felt extremely proud that they had managed to gain the vote. Praise was given to the suffragists and suffragettes who had help their cause enormously!
In the 19th century there were several new laws passed that changed the status of women regarding property and marriage, for example, women could apply for a divorce rather than just be divorced by their husband, they could keep money that thye had earned and property that they had bought, this meant they were no longer their husbands property and this was a huge step for women.
There were also changes in education. The 1870 Education Act made it a legal requirement for all children to receive an education up to the age of 12. Many of the girls proved extremely capable and most of the time more capable than boys. So the law changed to allow them to go to University and Medical School.
During the 1860's, many small suffragist societies were set up. They campaigned for votes for women and were mainly found in the big cities like London, Manchester and Glasgow. These groups worked independently, but in 1897 many small suffragist societies were brought together as one organisation to form the NUWSS (National Union of Women's Suffragist Societies) and they were led by Millecent Fawcett.
Describe the ways in which the methods of the Suffragists and the suffragettes were different.
The terms "Suffragist" and "Suffragette" began to be used when the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) and the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) began to start campaigning for the right for women to vote in general elections. Although the two sets of franchise fighters were fighting for the same cause, their methods of doing so were completely different.
The Suffragists were peaceful in their arguments, and were the original members of the NUWSS. They believed that the way to votes for women was by using peaceful and legal ways to try and win the vote. Its campaign was entitled "Voiceless London", and they spread their hopes by putting forward bills for women's suffrage in the House of Commons, writing letters to MP's, organising mass petitions out in public, questioning MP's at meeting and organising civilized protests. However, many women felt that these peaceful and lawful methods were not working, and in order for them to work, more extreme action had to be taken. These women became known as suffragettes.
Some of these women, broke away from the NUWSS and joined the newly-formed WSPU, created in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Christabelle. In 1905, the WSPU decided to take stronger action due to the failure of using peaceful and legal methods, as bills were constantly being turned away from the House of Commons and not many people were accepting that women should be allowed to vote. Their tactics started off quite quietly, with suffragettes being arrested for holding meetings outside of the House of Commons. The arrests soon began to become more frequent, not to mention violent, with suffragettes being arrested for speaking to the crowd outside Liberal Party elections, and refusing to pay fines thus being sent to jail. However, they were quickly gaining popularity and they moved to London in 1906, to be nearer the capital. The Suffragettes vowed to beat the Liberal Party and get the Vote for Women, the Suffragettes even targetted some Liberal MPs.
These actions led to more frequent and violent arrests for various things, from causing disturbances, throwing stones at windows and chaining themselves to railings. When arrested, they had the choice of paying a fine or going to jail for two months. All of those arrested, chose the latter and were treated extremely poorly in prison. The WSPU used this to their advantage and took photographs to use as propaganda, showing their members being treated more harshly than some real criminals such as, murderers and thieves They realised by doing this, they could take advantage of the Liberal party.
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These actions led to more frequent and violent arrests for various things, from causing disturbances, throwing stones at windows and chaining themselves to railings. When arrested, they had the choice of paying a fine or going to jail for two months. All of those arrested, chose the latter and were treated extremely poorly in prison. The WSPU used this to their advantage and took photographs to use as propaganda, showing their members being treated more harshly than some real criminals such as, murderers and thieves They realised by doing this, they could take advantage of the Liberal party.
Those who were arrested still helped out with the cause. They took part in hunger striking, which led to forced feeding by the authorities. This was a huge propaganda advantage for the WSPU as it showed their members having tubes down their throat being forced against their will. The WSPU took pictures of staged prison 'attacks', which looked as if the suffragettes were being very badly mistreated.
A demonstration took place at Oxford Street in March 1912, where suffragettes broke every shop in the road. Over 200 suffragettes were arrested. This was a big blow to the WSPU, and other suffragettes were arrested for setting fire to theatres, post-boxes and cinemas. Many Suffragettes began to loose hope on ever gaining the vote, but still faught on until 1914.
In 1914, the WSPU split, due to some members disagreeing whether the level of violence was helping their cause. The increased action of suffragettes had also ended any alliance between the WSPU and the NUWSS, and they were left on their own.
However, Emmeline Pankhurst still called for more violence!
The suffragette's quickly took advantage of another Government scheme, called the "cat and mouse act." this was where the Government decided to allow the home secretary to release Suffragettes who were ill and then re-arrest them if their health had improved. At first, this seemed to work, however after a while the suffragettes pretended to be ill to be released and once out, went about their old ways, with little the Government could do. Suffragettes still felt very degraded and against men, so fought on more. This campaign even ended the marriages of some of these suffragettes!
On the 4th of June 1913, at the Derby horse race, a suffragette called Emily Davidson ran on to the course and stood in front of the King's horse. She was seriously injured and died a few days later. At her funeral, a vast number of women congregated to carry her coffin from Victoria station to Kings Cross station, showing how popular the cause had come.
Overall, I think that the Suffragette's cause was broken down slightly by their insistence to break the law to fight for their cause. As they had such large support, I believe it would have been better to organise protests and catch they eye of the Government legally, like the suffragists, But, overall the suffragette's were the more successful of the two, and throughout the period, suffragists were relatively quiet and without say in comparison.
Women over 30 gained the vote in 1918 mainly because of Women's contributions to the war effort. Do you agree?
I agree partially that women's contribution to the war helped them gain the vote for over 30s in 1918. But I don't agree that it was the only reason that they got the vote, there were many different arguments as to why they gained the franchise in 1918 but there are three main reasons and these are the arguments I will be discussing in this essay. I believe that all three of these arguments aided women in the progression of granting women's Suffrage, but not one is responsible entirely.
When the First World War was declared, women decided to abandon their Suffrage campaigning and join together with men to defend their country. This can be analysed in two different ways. Either they wanted to help defend their country from the Central Powers purely through their strong nationalism, or they saw the opportunity to show the government that they were able to handle the country while most men were away fighting.
Women were still just as passionate about gaining the right to vote during the First World War, but now they had seen a new way to go about this campaign. In 1914, there were still jobs regarded as 'men's jobs' and those regarded as 'women's jobs.' With many men away on military duty, women had to step in and take over. A poster produced by the government in 1916 (source F) shows that the Government was also keen for women to step into the men's jobs. Working as a munitions worker would certainly have been considered a man's job but now the Government needed the women to help. Many occupations acted similarly to this for women between 1914 and 1918. For example in 1914 only 2,000 women worked in government offices, by 1918 this had risen to 225,000 (source G). There was also a women's army corps set up and most of the medical staff aiding the injured were women.
There are many contradicting reasons to the giving of suffrage to some women after the war. Some people believe it was due to the efforts and hard work of women in the war. Others believe that the Suffragettes were the cause of women's suffrage being granted, dueto their violent protests. A third group believe that votes for women were only granted because votes for men needed to be sorted out afte rthe War. When men went out to war, they inadvertently lost their right to vote. After the war they needed to register to receive the vote again. Some believe that women's suffrage was just added on to the bill that sorted out votes for men. I believe this could be true but also that votes for women would never have been added to the bill in the first place had the campaign for women's suffrage gone on.
Most people believe that women's suffrage was granted because of women's acts during the war. Women stepped into the traditional 'men's jobs' and performed satisfactorily, some may even say they handled these jobs better than the men because some of the women had been so well educated and articulate. Even though they had been fighting against the very people they worked for. Many politicians thought that, women's efforts as loyal citizens and patriots should be rewarded with suffrage being granted. Though this may be the opinion of the majority. Source H shows that this is not necessarily the truth. Many women were not welcome in farms, factories and hospitals. Men were much more tolerant of them being nurses and teachers, but they were not keen on them being Dctors, surgeons and professors. The source goes on to state that Politicians were rewarding women with the vote for bringing up children successfully to fight for their country. It also says that only women over 30 were allowed to vote because then they would hopefully follow their husbands. This would have been to the favour of the current Liberal Government, as they would believe that as they were presently in power, they would be re-elected with a higher majority thanks to the votes of the women.
Many former Suffragettes held the opinion that they were the cause of women being granted the vote. The Suffragettes believed that their years of violent campaigning had done much to worry the government. They thought that it was their campaigning that led to the vote. This was backed up by the former Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith 'for three years the Suffragettes have not restarted that horrible campaign of violence. I therefore believe that some measure of women's suffrage should be granted'. This speech comes from the Prime Minister who for eight years was strongly against the vote for women. This shows that people were converted by this cause and the War effort was partly but not greatly to do with the Women gaining the vote!
Assignment 2: Objectives 2 and 3
What can you learn from Source A about the reasons given by the Suffragettes for demanding votes for women?
From source A which is a contemporary piece of evidence, I can infer than women would have been extremely angry to be denied the vote when the characters in the source such as, Convicts, Lunatics, unfit servicemen, drunkards and proprietors of white slaves would have been allowed to vote. I can relate to the suffragettes, and the reasons that they have given on the source are extremely valid. I can infer that these sources were used as propaganda to try and involve other women in the suffragette movement, and I can also infer than these such posters would have angered men greatly! The poster also shows all the good that women can do in the world. They can be Mayors, nurses, mothers, doctors, teachers and factoty hands, and frankly run the country but they cannot vote for a prime minister. I believe that the evidence on source A links to the fact that the suffragettes had every right to fight for enfranchisement when irresponsible men can vote for whoever they want.
Does source B support the evidence of source C about the suffragette campaign?
Source B is primary evidence of one women's opinions towards the suffrage movement. It basically blames women for the behaviour and attitudes of men towards women hoping to gain the vote. I can infer from the language used in this source that the women who wrote this book, did not support the campaign for the emancipation.
Source C is a cartoon that shows two women, one a suffragist and one a suffragette, arguing over wether the suffragettes protests have been to violent and are losing the female race sympathy towards gaining the vote. However source C is written form the male point of view and therefore may be biased. We already know that suffragettes and Suffragists supported each other to some extent so we have reason to believe that this support is not backed up by evidence.
Source B supports Source C to some extent and this is because they bothbblame women for this movement. In Source B everything that men do is blamed on women and in Source C the women are blaming each other for the bad press they have received. However, in contrast, these sources also are different in some ways. Source B Blames ONLY women for the suffrage, but in Source C there is mention that it is the violence itself that has caused damage.
In conclusion I would say that these two sources both comment on different aspects of the 'votes for women' campaign, and so do not support each other greatly.
Why, despite the Suffragette activity, had women not gained the vote by the outbreak of the First World War?
The campaign for women's suffrage had been going on since the mid-nineteenth century. The suffragists had been making peaceful demonstrations since 1860, but the right to vote had still not been given to them. The suffragettes took violent action and many were put in jail or injured. They even protested in prison by refusing to eat and were forcibly fed by the prison wardens and Doctors. Some even sacrificed their lives for the cause, for example Emily Davidson. The suffragettes put bills before parliament for women's suffrage, but they still had no success. The reason for this was because it required the male government to agree to it and most of them were against it. The male attitudes towards women were chauvinistic and they wouldn't agree to any of the bills.
The campaign for emancipation had progressed since 1860 and women now had slightly little more equality with men. They had greater equality of opportunity than they had had before, with medical and legal careers available to them, which had not been before, but very few women actually became doctors. Women also had greater equality of educational opportunity. They were now allowed to attend schools and colleges, but many parents were still reluctant to educate their daughters. The married women's property act was put into action. This meant that women were able to own property independently of their husbands, their property used to automatically become their husband's when they got married. They were also allowed to vote in local elections and for school boards. However there was still no general vote for women.
There were many arguments against women having the vote. In a source written by Ben Walsh, a historian, it shows some of the opinions against women's suffrage. For example 'Women are pure and should be protected from the grubby world of politics'. Many men had the same view that women were weak, fragile creatures and they wouldn't survive in the world of politics. It also says 'Why worry about the vote? There are more pressing concerns such as Ireland and the trade unions.' This was an excuse for the politicians not to pass the bill for women's suffrage. They put it off because they didn't think it was that important. 'Giving respectable women the vote will also encourage them to develop their careers and neglect their family duties. Only the undesirable classes will have children'. Many people had traditional views of women, looking after the family, their place being in the home, and were frightened that this would change if they were given the vote. They also believed that women didn't have rational thought like men 'Women are not rational. They are too emotional to be trusted with the vote'. Also their campaign gained no positive response from the government which turned more people against emancipation for women.
Manty people thought that the suffragette's campaign was violent and irresponsible. They were thought of as terrorists by the government who would not give in to them. Lloyd George made a comment after having a suffragette bomb through his letter box, 'Haven't the suffragettes sense enough to see that the very worst kind of campaigning for the vote is to try to intimidate or blackmail a man into giving them the vote what he would otherwise gladly give'. The suffragettes however, pointed out that the government had thought more seriously about giving the vote than they had done before the violence started.
At this time wages for women were lower than those of men. People feared that if they got equality of votes then they would want equal pay, which meant increased costs for workers and lower profits. The main reason why the campaign was not approved by anyone was because Asquith did not approve of it. He was the Prime Minister at the time and he could over rule anything even if it got a minority vote.
Overall I believe that the suffragettes violent campaign was harmful to people's opinions of the movement, but if they hadn't done it then the idea of giving women the vote would not have been seriously thought about. The minds of some men were still biased by many other opinions and they couldn't accept change in the way women were treated, so they made up excuses to stop them from getting the vote for as long as possible, but after the War effort they couldn't prevent women from getting the vote, because they had no more excuses.
How useful are these two sources as evidence for the ccontribution of women to the war effort in the years 1914-1918? Use sources f and g
Source F is a poster that was produced by the Government in 1916. IT was a fomr of propaganda that would have encouraged women to come forward and enroll to help out in the factories while the men were away at War. This source is not useful because it is form the time and so we have no idea of how many women this poster would have recruited, however this source is useful because it keads us to infer that women are getting ready for War are motivated at preparing to do this. I would say this source was more useful than un-useful because we know form otherpieces of evidence from other times that propaganda is an exttremely good way of recruting people for a cause. This source shows that women were extremely willing to play their part in the war.
Source G shows statistics from a school textbook, published in the 1980's. This means that this source is secondary evidence and may not be reliable. The source is a table that show sthe employment of women in factorie sin Britain. The table show sus that from the industries mentioned (Metal, Chemical, Government, food, drink and tobacco.) that in 1914 there were 408,000 women employed but this rose to 1,158,000, this was a ris eof 750,000 and this statistical evidence proves that more women gained employment and contributed to the War, I would agree that this source is also a very useful piece of evidence a sit proves that women did contribute to the Great Britain in the wartime years!
'It was the work that women did suring the war that earned them the vote.' Do you agree with this interpretation?
In this essay I aim to address the key reason as to why it true or false that because the work that women did during the War gaine dthem the vote. I wil use sources H , I and J, along with my own knowledge to reach a conclusion.
Source H is a secondary piece of evidence that was written in 1980, may years after both the War and the campaign for womens suffrage. Source H talks mainly about how men resented women and had a poor attitude towards women as they believe dthat the women should not be doing 'their' jobs and should be doing stereotypical female jobs instead, such as, Nursing or providers or refreshements for troops.
Even though many men thought like this the Government believed that The women had performed a loyal service and women over thirty should been givien the vote, this was because by this time many women had already had a family and was married, were more sensible and were thought to vote the same way as their husbands.
Source I is also a secondary source which was written in 1980. It states that it was War itself that change dthe mood of the Government and made it more open to change and so this was why women were given the vote and it was nothing to do with their loyal contribution towards their country. This source is useful as it lays donw a good contrast to source H.
Source J is a primary source which comes form a speech made by the Prime Minister Herbert Asquith. It states that although he is gainst the women having the vote, he cannot deny it to them as they have not been violent for a long period of time, and also contributed well towards the War. The Prime Minister although added that only some measure of suffrage should be given.
Overall I believe that it was the War that bought the women emancipation because without the women having the oppoutunity to prove themselves as equals to men, they may still not even have the vote today.
