The key factors in these long term reasons are:
The un-united campaign of the suffragists
The failure of political parties to back their big words. Also the masculine cause for suffrage would come first due to their long term beliefs of superiority.
Some short term factors were the overwhelming opposition to suffrage by Herbert Asquith who strongly opposed the campaign with a lot of reasons that were derived from his view of masculine superiority for example he argued that the enfranchisement of woman would upset the natural balance of things .He is seen as the main deterrent in blocking the Liberals from supporting suffrage.
The general mood towards suffrage by parties such as Labour was that giving women the vote would mean only middle class and above would gain the vote and since most constitutional laws based suffrage on having property and certain incomes etc therefore this meant to them (Labour) that giving women the vote would be simply kicking themselves in the backside as most of the middle and upper classes tended to vote for other parties besides Labour (relatively new at the time).
Mabasa Chakawhata - -
Also with reference to politics the government at the time were simply too tied up with other issues of great importance such as the threat of war and Irish rebellion all of which were of great consequence to the British empire if not dealt with.
Another very important aspect of the short term causes were that the trade unions could simply not agree on whether or not to support the suffrage campaign. This antagonism towards the issue hadn’t changed much since an earlier meeting was held on the issue, but the same division was evident.
If the trade unions had made a decision in favour of suffrage the backing would be an immense builder of support since the trade unions represented the working class,the backbone of the country since they were the majority.
Again a major long term has rolled into the short term criteria (political parties took no decisive action) unity was lacking and the issue had rolled over into the twentieth century, although they (suffragists and suffragettes) did intertwine in a very discrete way.
Another roll-over from long term causes are the unfulfilled words by supposed allies, this support was needed for a concrete foundation for female suffrage to achieve attention and not discretion.
The ‘stiflers’ of the cause here are very significant.
Roll-overs in particular especially the lack of unity, but the real here was the lack of solid support due to antagonism and disagreements/worries over other issues and also of significance Herbert Asquith’s views. Short term of the Irish rebellion and the threat of war were occurring at the wrong time.
Linkage in some of these long and short term factors are evident, in the roll-overs section unity was still lacking amongst female suffrage campaigners.
Antagonism/disagreement still evident in some allies e.g the trade unions could not make concrete decisions; parties such as Conservatives feared that supporting the cause would threaten party unity.
Parliament and government under PM Asquith linked in the sense that Asquith would obviously influence issues to do with suffrage in a negative way as he voiced his views his influence and parliamentarians views on the issues showed e.g. MPs deliberately argued for long periods of time over an issue in order not to give a suffrage bill a reading. Asquith ‘s feelings were evident through the way the suffragettes were handled under his leadership with such methods as the dubbed “cat and mouse act” , where they would release already drained suffragettes, but as they recovered they were taken back to the force feeding etc. which severed old wounds.
Lack of action also hindered the suffrage and added extra baggage to the heavy loads of little support and unsuccessfulness. Parties such as the Conservatives with PMs such as Disraeli, Salisbury and Balfour, who supported the cause, but no acton was taken on their part (one of a host of other examples).
Other factors that tipped the scale the wrong side of good for the cause were the general non-backing of the majority of religious sects although there were some other sects it just wasn’t a majority.
The Press gave the issue much needed attention, since suffragette methods gained them much of the headline news i.e. putting chemicals on golf courses, heckling MPs and so on, but the press provided condemnation and not support.
Mabasa Chakawhata - 3 -
While the suffragists opted for more peacefulness their methods never bared fruit. Also a lot of the opposite sex was either hostile to female suffrage or was simply not interested, some even formed anti-suffrage movements.
From all these factors I can conclude that the bad outweigh the good, a majority goes on the wrong side of the issue, which didn’t help matters.
In particular a PM (Asquith) who was determined to go out of his way in order hinder the enfranchisement.
The antagonistic views of the trade unions the majority of the population ,the backbone of Britain simply nailed down the coffin seal already laden with weight.
These are in my view the main reason women did not gain the vote between 1900-1914.
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