Women over 30 gained the vote in 1918 mainly because of women's contribution to the war effort

Those people who believe that it was the activities or the campaign of the Suffragists and Suffragettes that earned women the vote in 1918 would argue that their activities made the public realise that women could be doing other things apart from looking after the children. They made a lot of effort to try and convince other women that men were not better than them by producing their own newspapers, holding public meetings, presenting petitions to the government and forming peaceful marches.

However those people that don’t agree with this could argue that the illegal, violent and militant activities of the Suffragettes hardened the opposition to their demands. The government decided that they didn’t want to give women the vote if they were lawless and destroyed other people’s properties as well as risking other people’s lives. The activities of the Suffragettes made the government very angry and disappointed.

Women helped the government during the war. They worked in the armed forces as nurses, in the Voluntary Aid Detachments as drivers and secretaries and in the motorcar industry as mechanics. The government would not have survived during the war without the help of the women so they decided to give women the vote as a reward for their hard work.

Based on the evidence presented above, I can conclude that both arguments are very valid. We cannot lose the site that women struggled to get the vote. They put their lives in risk just to achieve their goal, which was to gain the right to vote. It was the first step they took in getting the vote. If the women were not given the vote after the war they would have gone back to violent actions and would have probably worsened because they were determined to get the vote. Although women were rewarded the vote for their help in the war, they were also rewarded for supporting the government during its most difficult time.