Outline and assess the contributions made by the NUWSS and the WSPU to the achievement of votes for women in 1918.
Outline and assess the contributions made by the NUWSS and the WSPU to the achievement of votes for women in 1918.
Prior to 1860 campaigners for votes for women were few and there were no women's suffrage societies. According to Bartley (1998) the vote was seen as 'more of an obligation than a human right'. In 1832 Mary Smith presented the first women's suffrage petition to Parliament, this is seen by some Historians as one of the key moments in the beginning of the women's suffrage movement. By the middle of the 19th Century the campaign began picking up supporters and the absence of the vote began to be seen by some women as symbolic of their second-class status. By 1914 there were fifty-six women's suffrage societies with some three hundred thousand members. The vote was finally given to women age thirty and over in February 1918 and the age qualification was abolished in 1928. This essay aims to outline the actions of the two main women's suffrage societies, the WSPU and the NUWSS, and assess the value of the contributions made by each in gaining the vote in 1918.
The year 1866 was a significant landmark as some of the most influential feminists of the time, including Barbara Bodichon and Emily Davies, drafted a petition signed by fifteen hundred women, demanding enfranchisement of all householders regardless of sex. J S Mill and Henry Fawcett, sympathisers to the cause, presented it to parliament. Also in 1866 the Manchester National Society for Women's Suffrage was formed, led by Lydia Becker, followed by similar organisations around Britain. In 1868 they all joined to form the National Society for Women's Suffrage, this according to historians, was the beginning of organised national action. After numerous splits the two remaining societies, the National Central Society for Women's Suffrage and the Central Committee of the National Society for Women's Suffrage joined, and in 1897 formed the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, or the NUWSS. Lydia Becker was elected president and after her death three years later Millicent Fawcett became the new leader.
The NUWSS concentrated its efforts on public meetings, publishing newspapers, organising petitions and writing letters to politicians. They also lent their support to other causes including, Josephine Butlers campaign against white slave traffic, and Clementina Black's against low wages for women. The leaders of the NUWSS were a closely-knit circle and, although the NUWSS claimed to be non-party political, the majority of the leaders had access to Liberal politicians either through family or friendship circles. Tensions developed between the older middle-class members and the newer working-class recruits from the Northern cities. In 1903 a number of these working-class women formed the Lancashire and Cheshire Women Textile and other Workers Representation Committee (LCWT) gaining support for the suffrage movement from the textile towns in the North.
Women wanted the vote for a number of reasons, these were published in an NUWSS leaflet in 1907 (appendix 1), but reasons against woman's suffrage were also numerous, and are shown in a leaflet published by Grace Saxton Mills at the beginning of the 20th century (appendix 2). One of most surprising members of the opposition was the most powerful women in the world at the time, Queen Victoria. Her view is recorded by Marlow (2001), from a letter written in 1870. " The Queen is most anxious to enlist everyone who can speak or write to join ...
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Women wanted the vote for a number of reasons, these were published in an NUWSS leaflet in 1907 (appendix 1), but reasons against woman's suffrage were also numerous, and are shown in a leaflet published by Grace Saxton Mills at the beginning of the 20th century (appendix 2). One of most surprising members of the opposition was the most powerful women in the world at the time, Queen Victoria. Her view is recorded by Marlow (2001), from a letter written in 1870. " The Queen is most anxious to enlist everyone who can speak or write to join in checking this mad wicked folly of 'Woman's Rights' with all its attendant horrors, on which her poor sex is bent...." (Pg 17). In spite of the opposition, by the end of the 19th Century the NUWSS seemed strong, that was until 1903, and the formation of the Women's Social and Political Union.
Emmiline Pankhurst formed the WSPU on October 10th 1903, she wrote in her book 'In my own words' " we resolved to limit our membership exclusively to women, to keep ourselves absolutely free from party affiliation, and to be satisfied with nothing but action in our question. 'Deeds not Words' was to be our permanent motto." (www.spartacus.co.uk). The WSPU were seen by many as undemocratic, the central committee who were not elected by the members, decided all of their policies, and were helped by the sub-committee consisting mainly of family and friends. Many Historians have criticised the structure, Bartley (1998) writes of two in particular. George Dangerfield believes that the WSPU was a dictatorial organisation, under the dual tyranny of Emmiline Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel, whilst Ray Strachey said that the WSPU entrusted all decisions to the leaders whilst the members happily obeyed orders. The WSPU saw many splits, due mainly to the Pankhurst's dismissing those who sought to disagree with their control.
The WSPU did not start as a militant organisation, their methods were at first peaceful. In 1905 Emmiline and Christabel Pankhurst went with Annie Kenney to hear Sir Edward Grey of the Liberal Party, who were expected to win the upcoming election, speak in Manchester. They wanted to ask him if the Liberal Party supported votes for women. Annie Kenney shouted the question from her seat during the speech, and the resulting brawl between the women and the rest of the crowd led to them being dragged out of the building, the younger two were arrested. They were given a choice in court of a fine or a jail sentence, both chose the jail sentence and the term 'votes for women' made headline news. In 1906 the Daily Mail coined the term 'suffragette' and the name stuck. The militant campaigning of the WSPU continued from that day and gradually became more violent and dangerous for the women who were involved.
Bartley (1998) gives an account of the first occurrence of window smashing. It took place at 10 Downing Street in 1908, as a protest against the Prime Minister, who refused to receive a deputation of suffragettes, the suffragettes were also treated brutally. Further window smashing bouts continued which were not authorised by the WSPU, but were an angry response to police brutality and the narrow-minded government. Arson attacks began in 1911 and became WSPU policy, they escalated and reached their peak in 1914 when Emmiline Pankhurst was arrested at least four times. The suffragettes used hunger striking once they were arrested and imprisoned as a way of gaining public support or attention, this also became official WSPU policy as the hunger strikers were released from prison if they became unwell from the strike. It was not long however, before the introduction of force-feeding. Atkinson (1988) gives an account from Lady Constance Lytton's publication 'prisons and prisoners'; "the doctor put down my throat a tube...I choked the moment it touched my throat...it made me sick a few seconds after it was down"(Pg 27). Women who tried to stop this force-feeding by barricading themselves into their cells had a freezing cold hosepipe turned on them in the night.
By now the Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith, was very hostile to the demands of the suffragettes and the NUWSS also felt that the militant actions of the WSPU were damaging to the cause.
The outbreak of the war saw a massive slump in the suffrage movement. Two days after the government declared war on Germany, the leader of the NUWSS, Millicent Fawcett, stated that they were suspending all political activity until the war was over. The leaders of the WSPU also suspended actions for the votes for women campaign and concentrated their efforts in recruiting young men for the armed forces.
It seems that both organisations played a major part in getting the vote in 1918, it would be hard to decide if one had more influence than the other. The WSPU with their militant actions gained massive amounts of news coverage. It is, however, hard to tell if the coverage they received was to their benefit or not. We can see a number of these newspaper stories in Marlow (1998) but have very little evidence to show what the general public were thinking at the time, did they support the suffragettes or where they outraged by their actions. The NUWSS seemed to be more favourable in the eyes of the general public, this is reflected in their membership numbers which totalled one hundred thousand, the WSPU even at its peak had only two thousand members.
It is very difficult to assess the contributions of these two organisations as separate entities as they had a common goal, votes for women, which they both fought equally hard for in their own ways. I feel that the actions of the two organisations combined, (along with a number of other organisations such as the East London Federation of Suffragettes, who fought for women's rights throughout the war), were instrumental in getting the vote for women. There have bee written many different versions of the truth. There are for instance a number of different accounts of the death of Emily Davison under the hooves of the Kings' horse in 1913. Bartley (1998) argues that Emily Davison died accidentally, whilst Raeburn (1976) writes that Emily Davison had 'believed that one martyr could save the cause', and that she had tried to take her own life in 'dramatic circumstances numerous times before when suffragette affairs were critical'. She also writes that Miss Davison had 'achieved her aim when she met her death on the Epsom Racecourse' (Pg 63).
From the evidence and written accounts I have come across, I come to the conclusion that the suffrage campaign fought by the WSPU and the NUWSS played a large part in winning the vote, but the massive effort of women as a whole during the war was what ultimately won them the vote. I also believe that the vote would have been given to women without the suffrage campaign, or the war effort, later perhaps than it was given, due to changes in attitudes and the evolution of the human race.
Bibliography
Atkinson D, (1988), Women in History - Votes for Women,
Cambridge University Press
Aylett A (ed), (1989), The Past in Question - The Suffragettes and After,
Hodder & Stoughton
Bartley p, (1998), Access to History - Votes for Women 1860 - 1928,
Hodder & Stoughton
Black J, (2000), Modern British History since 1900,
Macmillan Press ltd
Marlow J (ed), (2001), Votes for Women - The Virago Book of Suffragettes,
Virago Press
Raeburn A, (1976), The Suffragette View,
David & Charles (Holdings) Limited
Other sources
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Wnuwss.htm - retrieved 19/01/2002
Votes for Women handouts - Dave Stark
Appendix 1
Why women want the vote
Because no race or class or sex can have its interests properly safeguarded in the legislature of a country unless it is represented by direct suffrage.
Because while men who are voters can get their economic grievances listed to, non-voters are disregarded.
Because politics and economics go hand in hand. And so long as woman has no political status she will be the 'bottom dog' as a wage-earner.
Because the legislature in the past has not made laws which are equal between men and women; and these laws will not be altered till women get the vote.
Because all the more important and lucrative positions are barred to them, and opportunities of public service are denied.
Because wherever women have become voters, reform has proceeded more rapidly than before, and even at home our municipal government, in which the women have a certain share, is in advance and not behind our Parliamentary attitude on many important questions.
Because women will be better comrades to their husbands, better mothers to their children, and better housekeepers of the home.
Taken from Bartley (1998) pg 19
Appendix 2
Against woman suffrage by Grace Saxton Mills
Because women already have the municipal vote, and are eligible for membership of most local authorities. These bodies deal with questions of housing, education, care of children, workhouses and so forth, all of which are peculiarly within a woman's sphere. Parliament, however, has to deal mainly with the administration of a vast Empire, the maintenance of the Army and Navy, and with questions of peace and war, which lie outside the legitimate sphere of woman's influence.
Because all government rests ultimately on force, to which women, owing to physical, moral and social reasons, are not capable of contributing.
Because women are not capable of full citizenship, for the simple reason that they are not available for purposes of national and Imperial defence. All government rests ultimately on force, to which women, owing to physical, moral and social reasons, are not capable of contributing.
Because there is little doubt that the vast majority of women have no desire for the vote.
Because the acquirement of the Parliamentary vote would logically involve admission to Parliament itself, and to all Government offices. It is scarcely possible to imagine a woman being Minister for War, and yet the principles of the Suffragettes involve that and many similar absurdities.
Because the United Kingdom is not an isolated state, but the administrative and governing centre of a system of colonies and also dependencies. The effect of introducing a large female element into the Imperial electorate would undoubtedly be to weaken the centre of power in the eyes of these dependent millions.
Because past legislation in Parliament shows that the interests of women are perfectly safe in the hands of men.
Because Woman Suffrage is based on the idea of the equality of the sexes, and tends to establish those competitive relations which will destroy chivalrous consideration.
Because women have at present a vast indirect influence through their men folk on the politics of this country.
Because the physical nature of women unfits them for direct competition with men.
Taken from Bartley (1998) Pg 24