Why were some women given the vote in 1918?

by emilaay (student)

There were many reasons why women got the vote in 1918. The work of the suffragists and suffragettes was very important. The NUWSS was founded by Millicent Fawcett and it relied upon patience, peaceful protests and logical arguments to win the vote. She argued that if Parliament made laws and if women had to obey those laws, then women should be part of the process of making those laws. Although the suffragists did manage to convert certain members of the Labour Party, most men in Parliament still believed that women wouldn't understand how Parliament worked and therefore shouldn't take part in the electoral process – thus private members' bills to give women the vote all failed.

The Suffragists' progress was very slow, and many women were tired of waiting – cue the Suffragettes. The suffragettes were uncivilised, immoral and violent in their techniques of gaining notice from the government to try and encourage them to give them the vote. They were founded by Emmeline Pankhurst in 1903 and due to the Suffragist’s lack of success, Pankhurst intensified the movement tenfold and encouraged for more radical and militant behaviour in order to gain both public and parliamentary attention, and a considerable amount of publicity. The Suffragettes, such as Edith New, heckled politicians, held marches, members chained themselves to railings, attacked policemen, broke windows, slashed paintings, set fire to buildings, threw bombs and went on hunger strike when they were sent to prison. One suffragette, Emily Davison, ran out in front of the king's horse during the Derby of 1913 and was killed.

At the time, the Suffragettes caused a lot of anger and it has been argued that they lost support for the cause more than they gained. Certainly, women had not been given the vote by 1914, even after a lot of Suffragette violence. However some historians argue that, although they could not be seen to give in to Suffragette violence, politicians could not face a return to Suffragette violence after the war, and that is why they gave women the vote.

There were of course different ways of earning women the vote. Propaganda was a peaceful method of which both ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

There were of course different ways of earning women the vote. Propaganda was a peaceful method of which both suffragettes and suffragists made effective use of. The WSPU published a newspaper called “Votes for Women” which gave the suffragists great publicity. 1914, there were 440,000 people getting it and the suffragettes slogan “Votes for women” was found everywhere. The colours purple, white and green were used to sell jewellery, clothes, belts and shops started selling women new fashion featuring the suffragette colours. Particulary effective were the WSPU’s propaganda posters, postcards and leaflets such as the ‘Cat and Mouse Act’ and badged, various brooches in the suffragette colours of the WSPU.

However, it seemed as the suffragette militancy escalated and the more attention they gained, the more their opposition’s campaign matched them up. As a lash-out at the suffragettes, the government released an anti-suffragette poster clearly intending propaganda depicted five “Suffragettes who have never been kissed” – the poster was obviously published in order to change the public’s perception of the suffragettes. The women in the posters were cross-eyes, hideous old tacky women. The poster was clearly intended to attack the women emotionally by telling the public that only disgusting-looking, single, un-kissed women – who obviously could never be desirable to men – became suffragettes.

In 1911 there seemed to have been a breakthrough – the government promised a Conciliation Bill, which proposed to give women the vote. The suffragists held over 4000 meetings to support the bill, and the bill got a majority of 167. Then, Asquith the PM dropped the bill at the last minute and instead proposed to introduce voted for ALL men. The 'suffrage movement' began from 1907 and lasted till the beginning of world war one. This became a key point in the suffragist/suffragettes chances of getting 'the vote' as they had stopped because of the war effort.

Women’s contribution to the war effort was definitely a major factor in granting women the vote in 1918. To start with, women’s role was to stay at home and encourage men to fight. However, many realised this was total war, involving civilians as well as the soldiers. Women were needed to fill roles of men who had gone off to war, and so women of all classes volunteered to help the war effort. Some women were nurses and ambulance drivers on the front line. Others worked in munitions factories, which were dangerous as the TNT used in the factories was severely poisonous and over 300 women died from explosions or from TNT poisoning.

During the war, women served the nation and did men's work in many ways. When they were given the vote in 1918, almost every person who supported the motion in Parliament said that they deserved it because of their conduct during the war - they had proved that they could ‘go to war' with the men. This defeated the previous argument against women’s suffrage that women did not serve their country and so should not vote. Thus, women were enfranchised partly by a nation grateful for their contribution to Britain’s victory in the First World War. Furthermore, women had demonstrated their resourcefulness, convincing some who opposed women’s suffrage that they deserved the vote. Public opinion had changed, becoming more favourable towards women’s suffrage. Land girls had helped to change women’s fashion, by wearing trousers, while doing valuable work for their country. Thus, women began to wear shorter skirts and became more independent, earning their own wages during the war.

This signalled a change in social attitude as women were becoming more equal with men and so deserved the same rights. The problem with this argument is that only women who were householders over the age of 30 gained the right to vote in 1918, whereas the 1918 Representation of the People Act gave the vote to all men over the age of 21 so the war did not necessarily bring women equality.