Because of the invention of the ‘Penny Post’, communication between towns, villages, and cities became much easier. With this, it became easier for female campaigners to arrange meetings to discuss ideas and policies. It led to regional female groups becoming major national groups. This better form of communication also led to the individual playing a bigger role in the movement.
The improvements made in communication were an important short-term factor, however not as important as education, which was examined prior to this. None the less, it was a key short-term factor that contributed to the campaign for women’s right’s occurring in the 1860’s.
Prior to the 1860’s, women were considered to be in a ‘separate sphere’ to males. This meant that it was widely believed that women were by nature designed to do different jobs. Women were best suited to the private, domestic sphere, which meant they could give moral support to their husbands and raise their children. However, due to the increase in wealth that urbanisation had created, many women had more leisure time and time to become educated members of society. This led to many women no longer feeling the need to stick to their ‘separate sphere,’ rather they were to take on a more important role in the workings of the country.
The social changes were a significant long-term factor, which influenced the women’s right’s campaign beginning in the 1860’s.
Within society they were some sympathetic members of parliament that supported women’s suffrage. For example john Stuart Mill put forward the idea that women should be given the same right’s as men. The amendment on the Parliament Reform Bill would have given women the vote. Mill also published ‘The Subjection of Women’ in 1869, in which it said that women could rely on their husbands to represent their own interests, as the absence of female voices in politics has led to the neglect of the interests of women.
Jacob Bright, a liberal MP, was also a supporter of women having the vote. As women could not take on the role of an MP, the only way to sort out the issue of the vote was through sympathetic MP’s such as himself and John Stuart Mill.
Although not a hugely important short-term factor, the role of males allowed some progress and was to be made in the campaign for women’s rights.
Male middle class property owners were given the vote in the First Reform Act of 1832. It was thought of as a ‘final and irrevocable settlement’ of the franchise question. The bipartisan line of resistance to further the voting franchise had been maintained during the years of Chartist upheaval. However by the mid-1860’s the situation of politics was changing. Gladstone had introduced his bill to extend the vote to a small number of working class men in 1866. Although his bill failed, it gave a chance for women to put forward their demands for the right to vote, as Parliament had once again considered an extension to the franchise. The women thought that if the male householders could vote, then why not female householders.
The extension of the voting franchise to working class males played a major role in the campaign of women’s suffrage.
After examining the factors that led to the women’s rights movement, it seems that the campaign was begun in the 1860’s for various reasons including: social change, urbanisation, education, improvements to communication, and the extension of the voting franchise to working middle class males. It seems that the most important factor was augmentation of educational opportunities to middle class women as it played key role in allowing women to form groups and learning how to campaign. If the women of the pre-1860’s had not been educated they would not have had such an impact.
