In 1905 suffragettes were sent to jail for disturbing political meetings. But in 1906 the liberal government was in power, this raised hopes for the women because many liberal MP’s supported them. However not much was done because the ministers were divided on the issue. This caused the suffragettes to get angrier and in 1908 they chained themselves to railings in Downing Street. In 1909 women were sent to jail for these actions. But they still went on hunger strikes in jail hoping to get more publicity. They went to terrible pain and suffering when they were force fed with tubes up their noses. This hit the press and cause lots of public sympathy. The government then set up the “cat and mouse act”. They would free the women, wait until they ate a lot in their freedom, and then imprison them again. This went in a cycle. Source A shows the suffragettes issued a postcard saying how good women may be and how bad man may be but still women would not get the vote.
In 1910 the suffragettes called of their campaign because the prime minister promised he would change the voting laws. Failing to do so in 1912 the suffragettes were back in business but this time stronger than ever. They went on mass hunger strikes; they cut telephone wires, smashed shop windows, set fire to post boxes. Source C shows that even while doing this many people were sexist and thought women were crazy. They thought the government would give into this violence and then give them the vote. In 1913 Emily Davidson killed during a derby horse race because she ran in front of the king’s horse.
This is before the war broke out. Many people think that the governments were going to give in to the suffragette’s demands and give them the vote; other people think that the governments were never going to give the vote to women because of all the havoc they cause. This is why I am divided on the issue.
When war came suffragettes stopped campaigning, and went to get jobs so they could help the war effort. The government also released over 1,000 suffragettes from prison. The suffragettes also gave funds to the government, although they had conflicting views about the war itself. Getting a new job also changed lives of many women.
Many of the women did jobs that men used to do, these required skill, effort, determination and hard work. Many put their lives on the line in the munitions factory, as source D shows saying women are risking their lives just like the men in the battlefield. They succeeded in doing work with weights, heavy machinery, forge and foundry, and explosives. This shows light work is not the most suitable for women. Also women encourage their sons and husbands to go to war. Other jobs they did were: coal delivers, mechanics, nurses, farm workers, and munitions factory workers, ship building, bus drivers, clerks, timer cutting, welders, engineers and many more. They showed they were not the weaker sex.
Many more women got jibs when the government introduced conscription. Many of them worked as VADS (voluntary aid detachments), this is where they nursed injured soldiers. Some even worked in the trenches non stop, helping casualties. They also took men’s jobs in WAAC, WRNS and WRAF. This shows they were no different than men in any field of work. With these jobs many women lives changed. They got more money so they spent it on cloths and they had a better social life. But still as Source E shows attitudes to women workers were still divided by men.
However the issue of votes for women did not disappear as a result of this truce. There was a new problem; the general election had to take place when the war ended, but because the country was at war the method of drawing up a list of voters was useless. Men could only vote if they lived in the same address for at least a year. Several million men were away fighting the war; one man in five would not be able to vote.
So in 1916 the government therefore began making plans for a new kind of list of registered voters. The suffragettes demanded that any new system of voting should include the women as well as the men. At this time more than a million women were doing work, either as jobs normally done by men, or nurses in the armed forces. This changed public opinion, many men who opposed votes for women now felt they had earned the right to vote.
Now parliament could not refuse the vote for women after the war, because if they did the same things would have happened as before the war. But the governments were in debt so they could not waste any money. So in 1918 parliament finally changed the voting laws. A representation of the peoples act gave the vote to all men over 21 and to all women over 30 who were householders or married to householders.
Ten years later in 1928 an equal franchise act reduced the voting age for women to 21 and scrapped the rule that women must be householders of wives of householders. So women for the first time had the same political rights as men.
By Pritesh Sodha
