From 1839 the women started to gain things, they started to get an education, they got the custody of their children and they were allowed to own property, etc. By 1897 they had gained everything except the vote so this made the group suffragists start their campaign to gain the vote.
The suffragists were ignored throughout their campaign. There aim of getting the vote failed because not many people turned up on the first reading, on the second reading again not many people turned up because they had lost interest in the vote for women. The few people that did turn up spent ages giving their speech, o at the end they had run out of time and the women did not get the vote.
The government had to arrest women because of their violent actions. The suffragettes were treated roughly by men, the men found it difficult to deal with the women; they did not know how to handle them. When the suffragettes were sent to prison they went on hunger strike, the women were treated brutally and were force fed. This led to the government passing the “cat and mouse” act. This said that the prisoners could release the hunger strikers if their health was bad and when they had gone of hunger strike they could arrest them again. This was because the government was frightened that if anything happened to the women they would get the blame for it. It was called the “cat and mouse” act because the women were using methods on the men and the men were using methods on the women.
Because the parliament did not give women the vote the suffragettes got really violent they tried to burn down the house of Charles Hobhouse, he was a well known liberal opponent of women’s suffrage.
On 4th June 1913, Emily Davison a suffragette ran out in front of the king’s horse during the Derby race at Epsom. She ran into the kings horse `anmer‘and was badly injured. Emily Davison died 4 days later in hospital. Most people thought that Emily Davison was trying to draw attention to herself. But many people believe that she committed suicide to be a martyr for the women’s cause. I think that Emily Davison did not want to die. She just wanted to interrupt the race and gain publicity but unfortunately she ran straight into the horse and died.
The death of Emily Davison shocked the country throughout bringing the women’s right to vote back into the spotlight. Women around the country were inspired by her and renewed their fight with enthusiasm. But this campaign had to be halted, because of the WAR!
War broke out in 1914, and so far the women’s right to vote campaign was a failure. This was the third stage of the emancipation of women getting the vote.
The women decided to stop the campaign and they decided to help out in the war. They weren’t allowed at first by the government so the suffragettes organised a huge demonstration in London for the “right to serve”. The government was reluctant to let the women work at first because they were afraid that the women would prove that they are good at working. So after the demonstration the government had to give and the women were allowed the right to serve. All the men went into the army and the women began to fill the jobs that the men had left. There was an increase in women’s employment .women started to do industrial work and they began to help out in the transport and office work they even became teachers and lawyers. The employment of women in the munitions industry started to rise. The women did not have to rely on men anymore they had proved their point. They started to get their own wages and they started to go out on their own. Women got their independence. They were now proud of themselves they had now got a greater sense of value. After the war women were treated equally to men they were treated differently by the men. Because of this they felt that they should receive the vote. Lloyd George changed his mind from being against the women to being for the women. So in 1918 the parliament passed the representation of the peoples act. This was an act that gave all men over the age of 21 have the vote and all women who were householders and over the age of 30 to have the vote. But this also changed in 1928 when all the women over the age of 21 were given the vote.
I think that the main reason why women were given the vote was because of the suffragists. If they had not firstly started the campaign to gain the vote for women nothing would have happened. The suffragists could have been successful in the end because their peaceful organisation helped them get the vote in the end. The peaceful was more important it made the suffragists more convincing. Because it was taking to long the suffragettes could not take it any longer so they decided to use violent action. The suffragettes did not help in getting the vote for women but did help in getting the Medias attention. The war was a speeding factor, women would have got the vote in the end but it would have taken much longer for them to finally get it. The final thing is that one action led to another so that means that if there had been no suffragists there would be no suffragettes and their would be no vote for the women. The women would not have got the vote if there had not been the three stages.
