However women were slowly getting more rights, some middle class women got work as school teachers and clerical workers and a few had won the right to train to be a doctor, but if the women was to get married they would be expected to give up their jobs.
Slowly during the nineteenth century more and more men gained the right to vote, women thought that if uneducated working class men could vote why couldn’t a well-educated woman? Parliaments decisions had effect over both men and women and both sexes have to pay taxes so why shouldn’t women have a say in who makes up parliament. The campaigns up to 1903 had been peaceful; they used methods like lectures, petitions, pamphlets and holding marches. In 1903 when the campaign led by Milicent Fawcett split into two some of the tactics the Suffragettes used, a group led by Emmeline Pankhurst became more violent, they argued that peaceful tactics had been used for over 50 years and still women didn’t have the vote. The Suffragettes still continued to use the peaceful tactics but they thought they needed to get headlines, violent tactics were the only way to achieve this. The violent tactics got progressively worse up to the First World War, in 1904 they used tactics like heckling at public meeting but by 1913 this had evolved into arson attacks and sabotage campaigns, Emily Davidson died throwing herself under the Kings horse at the derby. Suffragettes got arrested and sent to jail, where they continued to protest in the form of hunger strikes, this got the government worried, they didn’t want woman being martyrs as it would grab the attention and sympathy of the public.
The suffragists were opposed to these violent tactics; they thought that all there effort in the form of peaceful campaigns was being wasted because of the Suffragettes irresponsible violent tactics. The government used the violent tactics as an excuse not to give the vote to women, how could these irresponsible women be trusted with something as important as the vote? However the Suffragists did feel sympathy for the Suffragettes, Milicent Fawcett said, “The violence suffered by the suffragettes has been formidable…what those who endured who underwent the hunger strike and the anguish of force feeding can hardly be overestimated. Their courage made a deep impression on the public.”
The militant tactics were used because of the frustration of the Suffragettes; in 1906 women were beginning to be excluded from public meetings by the liberal government which made it difficult for women to lodge a legitimate protest, Emmeline Pankhurst the leader of the Suffragettes said the no people had been awarded the vote with out some use of force, the government couldn’t ignore women for ever if they were constantly in the newspapers. The Prime Minister Asquith argued that giving in to the women would only encourage other groups to use violent methods of protest, the government kept the right to vote for women at the bottom of their agenda, although they did also have other important issues to discuss like the problems with the trade unions this angered the woman campaigning for the women’s right to vote.
However in 1911 things looked like they could start to get better, the government gave the first reading to the Conciliation Bill, if this got passed women would be given the right to vote, the suffragists held meetings in support of the bill and the suffragettes stopped their militant activity. The government supported this bill, it was passed by a majority of 167 and it was supported by all the political parties, it looked like the vote would be given to women, however it was decided that the parliament would proceed with the bill next year, but in November the government replace this the franchise bill, this didn’t even mention women. Women reacted to this by waves of violence across the country which included women setting fire to buildings and post-boxes.
Because of this set back violence had increased, women were getting sent to jail and going on hunger strikes, this worried the government as they didn’t want women becoming martyrs and grabbing the sympathy of the public. To prevent this from happening the government introduced the cat and mouse act, this enabled women to be freed when they reached a critical condition from hunger strikes allowing them to recover, they would then be taken back to jail where they would start the hunger strikes again. However this act was highly criticised by both the main campaigns for women suffrage and they managed to win the sympathy of the public.
Perhaps one of the most crucial factors in women gaining the right to vote came in 1914 when Britain declared war on Germany. The Suffragists and the Suffragettes both halted the campaigns for women’s suffrage; Milicent Fawcett commented, “Now is the time for effort and self sacrifice by everyone of use to help our country. Let us show ourselves worthy of citizenship, whether our claim be recognised or not.” Although the campaigns had stopped their campaign for women suffrage many activities still continued although to a lesser extent compared to before the war. In 1915 the right for women to work became the main concern but this switched back to the right to vote in 1916. The campaigns didn’t want to interrupt the war effort or it would look bad on them, they wanted to support the war effort and look responsible, worthy of the vote.
The war needed men, the people who occupied the majority of the jobs as the war progressed women gradually began to be able to take over their husband’s jobs, however at the start many of the working class women with jobs in industries like clothe making lost their jobs because the industries suffered in a depression of trade.
The war progressed longer than people first thought, they thought it would be over by Christmas, however as the war went on more men were needed and munitions needed to be manufactured, the government asked the women of Britain to work in industries like munitions that were supporting the war effort. Women from a variety of backgrounds took on war work like nursing, working in munitions factories and shipyards, high and middle class women were in jobs that would have been deemed unsuitable before the war had started.
The women who had taken up jobs were essential to the war effort; they were needed to make munitions to keep up with the demand. The Woolwich Arsenal had previously employed 125 women but in 1917 that had increased to 25,000. Work in the munitions factories may have seemed great but in reality it was dangerous and dirty, explosions weren’t all that rare and in the first two years of the war TNT poisoning had produced over 100 deaths.
There was however some opposition to women’s work, employers feared that women wouldn’t do the work properly, the trade unions also feared that the untrained and unskilled women would work for lower wages than men, this would force men out of work.
At the end of the war women were expected just to give their jobs back to the men that had left them to go and fight for their country. However many men had died during the war leaving their wives as widows, they had to support their family themselves and earn money, people still assumed that women would have husbands to support them, the press portrayed the women and steeling the men’s jobs whilst a few months earlier they had said they were indispensable to the war effort.
In 1918 and act called the Representation of the people was passed, this allowed women over the age 30 to vote. It is debateable to what extent the campaigns for women’s suffrage led to this but they must have had some effect, they got the government thinking about giving the vote to women maybe it was just that the war was the deciding factor in women gaining the right to vote or that it was solely responsible for women gaining the right to vote, but this is unlikely as the government was already giving in to women before the war started, women could vote in local elections and the government had voted on bills to give women the vote, the vote might have come to women even if the war hadn’t started. It is possible that the war may have even delayed women getting the vote as it was taken off the political agenda during the war to make way for more important things. I believe that the campaigns were the main reason that women got the vote; if they hadn’t shown that they wanted the vote so badly it is unlikely that the government would have considered giving it to them.
