Source B is a postcard, which was issued by the Suffragettes in 1910, showing an argument in favour of votes for women. The postcard showed “What a woman may be, and yet not have the vote”. This included successful women such as, Mayors, nurses, doctors etc. It also showed “What a man may have been, and yet not lose the vote”. This included convicts, lunatics, drunkards etc.
This postcard is bias because it does not show the bad things women may have been, or how successful a man is. The postcard is not very reliable because it does not show how other people may have felt about women getting the vote.
Source C is a speech made in 1912, by Lord Curzon, a Conservative leader. Before reading this speech, I know that it is going to be anti-Suffrage because the Conservatives did not believe in giving women the right to vote. The main purpose behind the speech was to make ordinary people feel that women were not educated enough to gain the right to vote. Many men, including Lord Curzon, were afraid that “if omen did gain the right to vote, it would mean that most voters would then be women. This was not a good thought because it would mean that women would be running Britain, which was out of the question at that time.
Lord Curzon also talked about women’s roles during the war, and how men and women could never be equal because women did not fight on the front line.
Another factor was that women had been coming more equal over the years. This was because of the First World War. Because all healthy men went to war, women had to take up doing their jobs. Women were allowed to work for a living but only for the war effort. They worked as road sweepers, post-women, shopkeepers etc. Braver women worked in munitions factories and women who worked with TNT found that their skin turned yellow. They were nicknamed the “canary girls”. It was later found out that this was a form of toxic jaundice, and was very bad for the health.
The cover of the War Worker magazine in June 1917 showed a man and a woman wearing different uniforms, and holding the British flag. This symbolised the equality between men and women, and that the only way to win the war would be with the cooperation of both. This form of propaganda by the government was effective because it showed the equality of sexes and the unity between men and women towards the war.
Some would argue that the First World War was a major factor in women gaining the right to vote. If war had not been declared, then women would never have done the jobs they did. They would not have worked under dangerous conditions in munitions factories, or tended to the farms etc. By doing these jobs, women successfully proved that they could be independent and work as good as men.
Source E shows male attitudes towards female workers, during the First World War. Male workers felt threatened by the amount of women willing to do their jobs and most males didn’t want to go to war because they were afraid of women taking over their roles completely. Some men went as far as causing accidents in factories, and blamed women. They told the government that women were too clumsy and careless to work under such dangerous conditions and their jobs should be given back to men.
Near the end of the war, the government realised that they could not forbid women to work, because women chose to work voluntarily. The main problem that caused these thoughts was the fact that the government knew that the war heroes would want to come home to their normal lives and jobs. So the government decided to give women the right to vote as a “token of appreciation” for working so hard during the war. This, in turn, allowed men to come home and carry on as normal as things can be after a war.
In conclusion, I think that the methods of the Suffragettes did not help gain the right to vote because the campaigns did not show people what women were capable of. I think that without the war, women would have never been able to prove their independence and would never have gained the vote.
