Why Did A Campaign For Women's Suffrage Develop In The Years After 1870?

The campaign for women's suffrage came about after many years of oppression to women. The vote was important to women because it meant they would have a say in how the country was run, politicians would have to make conditions better for women in order to gain their votes.

The women of the nineteenth century were clearly treated as the inferior sex. They had no legal rights, especially after they were married. After marriage, women of all classes no longer had any money or belongings, it all belonged to their husbands. This included themselves - the woman was now the chattel (possession) of her husband.

Divorce, although possible, was only legalised for men (i.e. women could not divorce their husbands). Violence and adultery by the man in the marriage was an extremely common problem, simply because there was no punishment for it. The Divorce Act of 1857 stated that only men may divorce their wives on the grounds of adultery. Once divorced, the only way a woman could see her children was if the father allowed it. The Custody of Infants Act in 1839 stated that women should have the rights to see her child, but still - if the man said no, there ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

Women, when married, had no rights to what they earned. However, what they did earn was almost insignificant due to its unfairness. On average, women earned half to two-thirds less than men for doing exactly the same jobs. This was the same throughout all areas of employment. As well as this, women were not allowed to become doctors, lawyers, have apprenticeships or gain technical knowledge of any job. Although there were many job openings after the Industrial Revolution in the new factories, women were being grossly underpaid. Despite this, women were educated, and in 1871 women were accepted to the newly founded Cambridge University; although they were not allowed the same class of degree as men.

Until 1832, it was only upper-class men that could vote. Then the Great Reform Act was passed which gave middle-class men the vote. In 1867, about a tenth of working-class men were allowed to vote, this was also when the first man made an argument for women's suffrage. Eventually, in 1884, all male householders had the right to vote, so why not women, or at least women householders?

Politicians saw women as more people to vote against them. Besides this, not all men had the vote yet, and so no one felt that women would be able to 'cope' with the vote. The general thinking was that women would be corrupted, so would stop marrying and having children and the human race would die out! At this time, there were not many politicians who disagreed with this view, one to name was the MP John Stuart Mills.

These events show how oppressed women were. They felt that if they had the vote, it would be the first step in getting the choice and freedom they needed. In the years after 1870, many laws aiming to help women were passed, as in 1873 when women were allowed to see their children if they had divorced their husbands; by 1884, women were no longer seen as a chattel of their husbands. After this time, there were many women striking because of their working conditions and, in 1884, two-thirds of men had the right to vote. For women to have the vote would mean political parties having to make changes to the way women were treated so as to get their vote. Women saw this as their only way to freedom and equality.