The changinf role of women in society

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The changing role and status of women in Britain since 1900

  1. How useful is source A as evidence about attitudes to suffragettes in 1908?

I believe that source A is not very useful in giving evidence about people’s attitudes towards the suffragettes. The source has some strength’s and also many weaknesses. The picture shows Emmeline Pankhurst addressing a large crowd; this shows us that suffragettes did have support from large amounts of people, meaning a number of people had a very positive attitude towards the suffragettes and their cause. Although you cannot tell whether or not the crowd are supporters or opponents of the suffragettes it does show that many people were willing to listen to their ideas, may mean that many people were undecided on the suffragettes and their ideas. The other strength of the source is the fact it is primary evidence, meaning that nothing about this picture could have been changed down the years, however the fact that it is a picture limits the usefulness of the photo greatly. However there are also many weaknesses you can find from looking at source A. No exact date is given in the caption above the source, a lot happened to the suffragette campaign during 1908 so it is impossible to give any idea on what the speech may have been about. So the people in the crowd could either be supporters or opponents of the suffragettes, the source is unclear in telling us which one. Also source A is only a photograph, and different people can portray photos in very different ways so it gives us no clear indication of what attitudes to the suffragettes were like in 1908. Although there is a large crowd which appear to be listening to Emmeline Pankhurst they could instead be opponents who are giving her a hard time about her polices and the suffragettes in general. A photograph is incredibly hard to read correctly, as you cannot tell what is being said at the time, and also it only gives you a brief perception of what is going on at the time, although everything appears calm in this picture. A minute later Emmeline Pankhurst’s speech could have led to huge riots, it is impossible to tell. The source fails to show the fact that in 1908 women still did not have the vote, meaning that overall there was probably still quite a negative attitude towards them. That is why source A is not very useful as evidence about attitudes to suffragettes as it doesn’t give clear enough evidence.

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  1. Sources D and E are both from 1910, yet they give very different views about the campaign to gain women the vote. Which is the more reliable source for investigating people’s attitudes in 1910 towards this campaign?

Both source D and E both there good and bad points. However I believe source E is more reliable for investigating people’s attitudes in 1910 towards the campaign. By 1910 many people in Britain were beginning to change their minds on the changing role of women.

Source E is reliable in some ways in telling us how many people felt towards ...

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