Source H is a front cover of the ‘war worker’ magazine in 1917. It is a primary source and does not appear to be biased. It shows a male soldier holding the British flag and a woman worker holding a British flag. It portrays them both as patriotic and as serving their country and it also gives the impression that they are both equally important to the success of the country and victory in the war.
The government encouraged women to go and work as it meant men could go and fight in the trenches without leaving behind vacancies in jobs which were effort (e.g. munitions factories). Even the Suffragettes were involved in helping the war effort. They stopped their violent campaigns for the vote and concentrated on encouraging women to work and fight on the home front.
However, it can be argued that women would have got the vote anyway, without the war and the work they did in it. The Suffragettes were constantly campaigning before the war, sometimes violently, for women to get the vote. By doing this, they frequently hit the headlines of the newspapers and made women’s suffrage a daily topic of conversation. Pressure by the Suffragettes was being put on and the government before the war and some believe that they would have to give in to the pressure sooner or later. The Suffragettes stopped their violent campaigns during the war. The war was a time when people thought the whole country should stand together. If the Suffragettes carried on with their militant tactics they would have, almost certainly, lost supporters. Their decision to stop their violent campaigns for the vote and concentrate on encouraging women to help the war effort showed the country that the Suffragettes were patriotic and proved that these women who had sometimes been branded ‘unbalanced’ and ‘insane’ by the newspapers were sensible and could make rational decisions. After the war, support for the Suffragettes would probably have been stronger than ever and, had the government not given the vote to women, the pressure on them to do so would have probably been very high. It can also be argued that the war stopped the vote being given to women sooner. Before the war, women suffrage was one of the most highly talked about issues. When the war started, it took its place as the major issue for politicians and the war dominated the headlines. The Suffragettes stopped their violent campaigns and all of this meant the pressure on the government to give women the right to vote was greatly reduced.
In some ways I agree with the statement that women would not have gained the right to vote without the First World War. I agree that the war and the work women did during the war played an important part in achieving the right to vote for women. It proved that women were just as valuable and able as men and this meant politicians were running out of reasons not to give women the vote. It also provided them with an excuse to change their minds about women’s suffrage without looking stupid. Even Prime Minister Herbert Asquith changed his view on women suffrage. Source J is an extract from a speech made by Asquith in the House of Commons in 1917. It is a primary source. Before the war, Asquith had been against giving women the vote. In this speech, made towards the end of the war, Asquith gives reasons as to why he thinks women should be able to have “the right of making their voices heard”. He has totally changed his view, suggesting that women should have the right to vote and the main reason he gives is because of the work women did during the war.
It was not just the work that women did during the war which put them in favour of getting the vote though, there were many other factors which worked in favour of women’s suffrage. These included the fact that reform was needed within the country as many men had been killed in the war or had been away so long that they had lost the right to vote. Also, most of the men who organised anti-suffrage groups were away in the war. This meant there was little they could do to influence what was happening back in their own country, so opposition against giving the right to vote to women was lessened.
However, the was not the only reason women gained the right to vote in 1918. Another reason was that David Lloyd George replaced Asquith as Prime Minister after world war one. Lloyd George was more sympathetic towards women’s suffrage then Asquith and some other politicians at the time. The election meant the Labour party, which had always supported women voting had more seats in parliament.
Even with the war, there was still much opposition to women’s suffrage. MPs were worried about how women would vote and were wary about losing votes for their party. The Librels were in power at the time and they feared giving the vote to women over 30 would mean a lot more votes for the Conservative Party. Similarly, giving the vote to women under 30 would have probably meant more votes for the Labour Party. It wasn’t just MPs who were worried about the effects of giving women the vote. Some men, especially those in trade unions, were worried that women would now take their jobs, because they would work for lower wages. There were also disagreements over which women should get the vote. Women, like Silvia Pankhurst, who campaigned against the war and didn’t help with the war effort, were not considered, by some, deserving enough to get the vote.
All women did not see women over 30 gaining the vote in 1918 as a victory. It was mostly women under the age of 30 who had done all the dangerous jobs during the war and yet it was not these women who got the vote in 1918. The Suffragettes continued to campaign to get the vote for all women until they were successful in 1928.
I agree that without the war, women would have not gained the right to vote in 1918. However, I believe eventually women would have got the vote because of pressure from the Suffragettes. I also believe that without the work the Suffragettes did before and during the war, women would not have gained the right to vote in 1918, it would have been much later. I think the Suffragettes made people aware of the cause and the war and the work women did during the war raised even more support for the cause.
