Tolu Odelusi Womens suffrage Question 1
Explain why women failed to get the vote between 1900-1914?
In this essay I will be describing why women got the vote in 1914 how it came about and why it came about .There were long term conditions which made it a long process for them trying to get the vote such as men thinking their superior long before it was seen as their role to stay at home and cook and clean that was their role in society men saw them as less important and less intelligent. And short term factors such as men being put of and offended by the suffragette’s violence which involved vandalising golf courses chained themselves to railings and vandalised people’s property.
Long term problems meant that they were always around before the suffragettes formed and it meant that men believed in them. They were obstacles which made it hard for women because men and some women in opposition of women’s right to vote could always refer to them. Another long term factor was that the role for women in society for a long time was to be full time mothers to their children “and the duties they have” is what Lord Curzon said in defence of women getting the vote and he was right everyone had a place in society and staying at home and making sure the house was clean an tidy as well as the children was a mothers first priority. The women from the suffrage movement didn’t want to abandon that job “no woman who joins this campaign will need to give up a single duty she has in the home .it is just the opposite”. Is what Emmeline Pankhurst said in 1908.On the other hand scientists proved that women had a smaller brain therefore not as intelligent as men? Lord Curzon even stated “women do not have the experience to vote, their lack of strength” doubting women’s capability to make decisions for the country they live in. and also meant they were more emotional and less trustworthy making them mentally unstable .They were not really needed for the vote. Men also wanted to believe what they thought to be Gods will, that Eve came from Adams stomach .Therefore men had authority over women.
