It was the militant suffragette campaign, more then any other factor that led to the achievement of female suffrage in 1918. How valid is this view?

Other historians would argue that the suffragettes’ wild methods showed the women to be irresponsible and that they did not deserve the right to vote. Winston Churchill famously said “Their cause marched backwards”. Many of these historians believe that it was the approach of the suffragists and their policy of peaceful persuasion that played the biggest part in winning the franchise. This part of the women’s suffrage movement originated from various suffrage societies who united in 1887 under the leadership of Millicent Fawcett. They became the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). The NUWSS always worked within the law. Fawcett believed that if women proved themselves to be responsible, they would be seen as able to participate in politics. The suffragists wrote petitions and pamphlets and held meetings and sent out trained speakers all with the aim of changing public opinion. Many people believe the suffragists helped to raise the issue in the public eye. They created the image of women being responsible and therefore helped to get the vote in local elections. However the suffragists were nowhere near close to getting women the vote in national elections. Some MPs had supported resolutions for women’s suffrage but there was not a substantial amount of support for an actual bill. Nevertheless it is understandable that the suffragist movement gained considerable support in many quarters for “the cause”.

            Nowadays most historians take the view point that the contribution made by women to the First World War was the main reason that women over thirty eventually gained the vote in 1918 and the right to vote was extended to all women over twenty one in 1928. AJP Taylor said, “War smoothed the way for democracy – it is one of the few things to be said in its favour.” For while World War One forced the issue of female suffrage off the political agenda for the duration of the hostilities as the whole nation’s efforts were concentrated on winning the war. Under these dire circumstances the suffragettes and suffragists finally agreed on one thing: the fight for the vote had to be put off, for now. For as all the men had to fight for their country, the women were needed to take over the men’s peacetime jobs. So the women worked on the land, worked in munitions factories, worked on trams and on busses, and even joined the armed services and worked as nurses.  The war helped women become recognised as they filled a vital gap in the labour market caused by the men having to go to war. They gained a new self-awareness and new and improved status I n society. The war helped women’s struggle for the vote because they proved that they deserved the vote. Their efforts in support of the war effort therefore succeeded where the suffrage movements had failed. The women were rewarded for their hard work with the vote. Consequently, in 1918 women over thirty got the vote, if they were householders or wives of householders or if they were women who had gone to university. Ten years later, the dream shared by the suffragettes and suffragists alike was realised and the equal franchise act was passed and all women over twenty-one were given the vote on equal terms to men, irrespective of their social status.

        To conclude, it is true to say that to a certain extent, the suffragette campaign helped to get women the vote. For it drew attention to the cause of votes for women, however, their militant methods also won them a significant amount of negative publicity and they did not succeed in getting the vote. The suffragists also helped “the cause” by drawing attention to the problems facing women and almost half of the MPs supported them but essentially they did not succeed in gaining the vote either. In my opinion, it was women’s contribution to World War One that finally got them the long awaited extension of the franchise. The women proved by filling in for the men, they deserved to participate in the country’s decisions. As historian John Ray said “Women proved by their work that they deserved the vote equally to men”.