The changing role and state of women in Britain since 1900.

The women between 1900 and 1914 had a tough battle. They had many methods however most of them were not very successful. A huge factor was their failure to unite under a common cause. Up until 1896 there had been no national organisation and there had been many regional divisions. The two biggest divisions being London (conventional) and Manchester (extremist). They had many disputes over stance on general feminist issues. These included…

Concentrate on franchise alone
Change all aspects of social and political issues.

Many women were appalled at the introduction of the CDA’s (contagious diseases acts) These allowed police to drag women in off the streets and check to see if they were carrying sexually transmitted diseases that could be passed on to sailors in the Royal Navy. In 1910 radical feminists declared a ‘sex war’ against all men. These extremists believed (wrongly) that all men were against women’s rights and should be harassed at all opportunities.

There was a dispute over weather the sufferage groups should affiliate with specific parties and if so which? There was a huge dispute over tactics in the NUWSS, which resulted in a split and the formation of the WSPU. The WSPU's motto was Deeds not Words. All this made it easy for politicians to ‘Divide and conquer’.

The legal and constitutional methods did not work in the short term. However it was vital for long-term work as it laid the foundations for later reform (it would have been impossible for change in 1918 without it.). However these methods weren’t forceful enough to get change before 1914. The women in the NUWSS were heavily reliant on Private Members Bills to get their argument heard in parliament. They were used repeatedly used from 1832 onwards and relied on having passionate individual supporters e.g. Liberal Backbenchers. These tactics however relied on having the support of the Prime minister as well. However many Prime ministers completely blocked those bills calling it treachery against the party and questioned the faith of the member who brought it up. The Liberal government kept promising to address women’s sufferage. However the NUWSS kept stopping all campaigns while talks were going on giving the government breathing space. They also had a lack of other options and forced the NUWSS against the wall. They did huge propaganda work producing

Newspapers e.g. ‘The Common Cause’
Pamphlets
Speeches
Discussion groups
Meetings
Petitions

All these were necessary and gradually turned peoples minds but were terrible for short-term action. This forced the NUWSS into gradually changing tactics. This resulted in new tings like the Mud March.

There was also a failure with militant methods. The main militant group was the WSPU. It was founded in 1903 after a split between the conceptualists and the militarists. Emmeline Pankhurst led it along with her two daughters Sylvia and Christobel Pankhurst. The WSPU were seen as terrorists by the government and the government ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

Newspapers e.g. ‘The Common Cause’
Pamphlets
Speeches
Discussion groups
Meetings
Petitions

Civil disobedience. This included not paying taxes giving false information or downright refusing to help census collectors.
Threats to public order. This included breaking of windows removing door handles and cutting power lines.
Militancy. This included the use of arson on private property, Chaining to railways and suicidal attempts to disrupt major public events.

All this was hindered further by centuries of expectation and stereotypes. The philosophy of different spheres for men and women. This basically suggested that men and women were supposed to work in different sectors. Women would work in domestic and secretarial. The mans sphere covered Political, outdoors and military. The fact that women could not be part of the military meant that they could not become active citizens. This was a major argument against women getting the vote. To become an active citizen you have to be able to die for your country. To do this you had to be allowed in the military which women were not allowed to do. It wasn’t until the First World War when auxiliary military forces were created. This allowed women to do things like logistics and medical work in the field without directly putting them in the line of fire.

The financial sector was traditionally run by men however even this was starting to change and women were gradually being allowed to work for it. Women were also starting to go into universities. They however weren’t allowed to get degrees to show for their hard work.

The WSPU were drawing a lot of attention to the campaign. With their illegal tactics. Some attention they attracted was good attention however most of it was bad. The Tax evasion and Census resistance gained a lot of media coverage, especially the upper class women. They printed stories on the front page about famous men and women in England who were being thrown out of their houses because they refused to cooperate. They often chanted ‘no-vote, no-census’. Other things that attracted publicity included cutting telegraph wires, burning messages into golf courses using acid (‘no-vote, no-golf’) and one particular woman known as slasher Mary walked into the National gallery and started cutting up paintings in protest to the forced feedings going on in the prisons. She stated ‘ You can get another picture, but you cannot get a life, as they are killing Mrs. Pankhurst. When imprisoned for other illegal activities many women went on hunger strike to protest against unfair detention. It was soon adopted as an official WSPU tactic. This drew attention to the difference in treatment between the different classes of women in prison and it made the government look very bad indeed. They gained very bad publicity from acts like window smashing. Arson was used very unwisely. The WSPU set fire to Loyd Georges house in the country. They stated ‘We have tried blowing him up to wake his conscience. This was incredibly foolish as Loyd George was one of the biggest supporters of votes for women. That act of destruction could easily have knocked Loyd George off their small supporter list. Some very bad publicity came from harassing authority. They threw bricks at church and parliamentary leaders and often blocked the paths of the oncoming leaders. This not only drew attention from the media but also drove away the support they should have been trying to get.

2: Before 1914 the women’s sufferage campaign wasn’t going anywhere fast. However in February 1918 8 million women got the right to vote. The role of World War 1 was crucial in getting this change. Firstly it changed the attitude of what women were capable of. It also provided an excuse for the MP’s to change their minds. The First World War was clearly an important event in women’s sufferage, however it wasn’t the only reason. We mustn’t forget almost a centuries campaigning. All this gave women greater access into jobs.

Traditionally Historians accepted the governments claim that women’s right to vote was given as a thank you for working as a part of the war effort. The reality was that the women who got the vote didn’t actually have an active role in the war effort. Working class women were doing all the work but middle and upper class women were the ones rewarded. In 1915 Britain was facing an ammunition crisis. Loyd George openly declared that women needed to be drafted in to do ammunition work. Loyd George worked with the WSPU and the NUWSS to get women to work for their country. Propaganda campaigns were changed to support the government. This went a huge way to heal the wound between the government and the sufferage campaign. They did secretarial work for the army, drove trucks, and maintained the equipment. All these supporting roles done by the women’s auxiliary army corps. The Women’s Royal Naval Service was set up in 1918 and the Women’s Royal Air Force in 1917. The Women’s Land Army played a huge role in agriculture and maintaining Britain’s food supplies. All these names sounded really god in propaganda. But the most crucial was the munitions work. From 1915 onwards women came to work in the ammunitions factories doing incredibly dangerous work often working with explosives. There were often high profile explosions in factories killing many women in the process. Many women suffered of poisoning like the ‘Canary Girls’ who worked with TNT and their skin turned a violent shade of yellow. All this destroyed the largest argument that women could not die for their country. They could and they did. This also increased support due to the fact that women could actually work and gave the government an excuse to give women the vote without looking too soft.

Other Reasons why WW1 was Important

World War 1 removed almost all obstacles that were blocking the right for women to vote. It brought an end to militancy by the WSPU. When war broke out the WSPU called off all their militant campaigns. They became major supporters of the government and ironically focused all their efforts into helping the government rather than hindering them. Even though all suffragist groups did this most women took a pacifist stance. They started the infamous white feather campaign where they gave white feathers to all men not in military uniforms (to symbolise cowardice) they however never bothered to find out weather the men were actually in the military or not.

The war created a general need for franchise reform. They had to make sure that all the men over 18 that had not been living in the country for more than 12 months due to the war needed to get the vote. This created a general need for a change and while they were at it they included the 8 million women that ‘deserved’ the vote.