The economical factor of women learning how to be a doctor or nurse also assisted the cause for women’s suffrage. Elizabeth Garret became the first female doctor in 1876. She was soon followed by Florence Nightingale who established nursing as a profession and was offering to train women. So, by the 1900s not only were women being welcomed into colleges but they were also beginning to learn the same professions as men. Women got what they wanted economically but still had little rights socially or politically. This was going to change.
Social changes had begun. The Married Women’s Act and the Married Women’s Property Act was passed in 1870, giving women the right not only to keep their property and earnings to themselves but also if their husbands decided to leave them they still had to pay for the woman’s welfare. These were significant social steps in the development of women’s suffrage as before women had no rights over any of their belongings but via these two acts they were equal socially for the first time. This showed that the court of England was willing to trust women with social rights so the question was raised why the government were not trusting women with the vote.
The act in 1886 called the Guardianship of Infants Act was another social aspect that not only aided women’s suffrage campaign but also allowed women to be their children’s legal guardian if their husband had died. This gave women the responsibility over property and their children that they had longed for. Now that women had equal social rights to men the next step was political equality.
The final major factor in this essay that helped the development of women’s suffrage was political rights. By the year 1875 women were allowed to vote in Health Board elections. This, for the first time, gave women some political rights that affected the country. But women felt this was not enough and wanted more rights to show that they could be responsible with the vote and hoped it would lead to them being trusted with the national vote by the government sooner rather than later.
The Local Governments Act of 1894 and 1899, another political factor that abetted the campaign for women’s suffrage, allowed women to vote in local elections. This triggered off countless arguments for women to vote in general elections. Women felt that this showed that they could be trusted with the local vote so why not the national vote. This almost happened in 1897.
In 1897 the House of Commons had a vote whether women were rational enough to be trusted with the vote. The majority voted for women’s suffrage however this bill did not pass. Even though this bill did not pass, it did show that votes for women was achievable sometime in the future. This political feature showed that women were seen by politicians and MP’s to be responsible enough to be trusted with the vote but not at that particular time.
In 1897 the NUWWS was formed. This brought in together 50 local organisations with more than 50,000 members. This group acted as a marshal for women’s views and with the number of people attending this, the only was forward. This massive organisation caught the people’s eye and showed the mass amount of women that felt the same way. It made an impact on the way people thought about women.
All these economical, social and political factors aided the campaign for women’s suffrage and even though women did not get the government vote by the year 1990, they did make many breakthroughs in education, politics and jobs for the first time. Now that women had equal rights in education and jobs why not in politics. This is what would inspire a campaign for women’s suffrage, the right to vote.
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