Women showed that they where committed to England because, they did this by asking for the right to serve, the suffragettes went from smashing almost every window in Piccadilly circus, Regent street and Oxford street in March 1912 to in 1914 demanding the right to serve to help their country during the war women that wanted jobs got jobs and they stayed in their jobs this shows even more commitment to the UK. We can tell from this that women over 30 got the vote because they help in the war and were very consistent and didn’t give up working until they had to when the war had ended this shows us the commitment they had.
Women played a fundamental role in the war because they responded to the appeals and the propaganda from the government it went from July 1914 170,000 women working in the metal industries to a massive increase to 594,000 women in July 1918 it had increased by 424,000 women in 4 years. Also July 1914 2,000 women worked in government offices to a big raise to 225,000 women in July 1918. This shows us that so many women joined to help in the war effort because of the appeals that the government put forward made many more women sign up to help in the war, this is why the government gave them the vote.
The war effort gave normal women more confidence and “the spirit of independence,” written in 1917 by a factory owner in Birmingham. So they could put forward a good case to the politicians so they could get the vote. The war gave women a chance to work and show men they are as just as good as them. The war gave a chance for women to learn new skills, and when you learn a new skill it makes you feel better and good about yourself and this normally gives you more confidence. This meant that having more confidence made women able to put forward a more pressing case for the vote instead of resorting to violence which was what the suffragettes did before the war.
I disagree with the statement because there are other reasons which were more important than women’s help in the war that got women over 30 the vote in 1918. If the war had never happened women would have still got the vote because there were different men in power because women got the vote 4 years later. The liberal party was in power, this party was the only party that were thinking of giving the vote to women and not all of the party had the same idea, and furthermore the prime minister was David Lloyd George he was one of the people n the party thinking of giving the vote to women. Now he was in power it was a perfect opportunity to give women the vote.
The suffragette’s campaign kept votes for women on people’s minds but all the damage and harm they had cause was forgotten but only the idea of votes for women stayed on peoples minds this was like this because 4 years had passed when they were not violent, the suffragettes provided an organisational basis for working and the right to serve, because women were working they still wanted the vote but they did use violence because they were busy this made people forget about the bad thing that they had done before like throwing stones at 10 downing street and nearly burnt down the royal Dublin theatre. None of this had happened for 4 years. This shows us that it was no the war it was just the time that had passed and all it took was time until women got the vote.
Women proved their responsibility because they stopped their violence when they started to work this shows the government that they are responsible enough to have the vote because they were acting more like responsible adults. This showed the government that they should give them the vote because they would use it wisely and not waste it as they would before they stopped being violent. Also more men were getting the right to vote and so it was easier to give women the vote at the same time and it could all go through the court case at once.
Many women were helping in the community like being teachers, doctors, nurses and even mayors this surely meant that women got the vote in 1918. Whilst lots of women were being helpful, there were some men doing bad and wrong things like, being a proprietor of white slaves and a drunkard. There were also men who were out of their minds like lunatics and all these men still had the right to vote and women did not. This shows us that the government needed to give the vote to women in 1918, and if not surely take it away from the men who do not deserve the vote.
Even though there were lots of other reasons why women got the vote in 1918 because the right people had come into power, I think that it was mainly down to the First World War why women got the vote in 1918 most women worked in the war and gained them the right to vote.
