The author indicates that politicians partially agreed with men when the author comments on the view that ‘politicians themselves agreed with the idea that the women who brought children up successfully had performed a service for the government.’ This political view backs up the working mens view because the politicians are simply saying that women’s work was making babies and that was enough.
The author of the book believed that women did not acquire the vote due to their contribution throughout the war. Instead the author believed this, as it was only women aged 30 and above that were awarded the vote. This was because they were seen to be sensible and likely to vote in the same way as their husbands. Also it was only women that were married or owned a property that were allowed to vote. This was important because it meant that men would still have their power and would still control society. This was because the vote was only awarded to a few women.
From the use of my own knowledge I know that many politicians were still not convinced by women’s war effort. For example Sir George Barnes MP argued that women should be rewarded by losing their jobs. ‘There are still a good many young women who are now at work only for “pin-money.” They should be replaced by the ex-soldier in all cases where he could do the work.’
From the use of my own knowledge I also know that in 1921 there was actually less women workers than in 1911. This suggests that when men came back from the war they took back their old jobs and in many cases women’s war efforts were rewarded with redundancy.
Source I.
Source I is a secondary source, taken from a section of a book called ‘Women at War, 1914-1918’ written in 1980.
This source partly agrees with the statement that women acquired the vote due to their contribution during the war. The author stated, ‘‘ to say that the war brought votes for women is to make a very rough generalisation.’’
However the author believes that the main reason that women were awarded the vote was because of the great political and social changes that were happening.
These changes created a change in public opinion, one that was sympathetic to awarding women the vote.
The author disagrees that women acquired the vote due to their contribution during the war. It was other changes that wartime had created that led to limited female suffrage.
From the use of my own knowledge I know that if it wasn’t for women’s war effort then Britain may not have won the First World War. For example when Germany blockaded food supplies the British women were the one that prevented Britain from starvation. By supporting the governments call for women to join the ‘Land girls.’
Source J.
Source J is a primary source taken from a speech made by former Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, an influential man. The speech was made in the House of Commons in 1917.
Herbert Asquith had been Prime Minister from 1908-1916, during this period he was against any form of female suffrage.
This was because his usual view of the suffragettes was one of great hatred because of their ‘horrible campaign of violence.’
However in his speech Asquith changes his view of the suffragettes from one of hatred to one of admiration because ‘they have contributed to every service during the war except that of fighting.’ Asquith was beginning to sympathise with the women and was deliberating upon whether to grant women the right to vote.
Herbert Asquith agrees with the statement that women acquired the vote due to their contribution during the war. The reason Herbert Asquith gives for why women acquired the vote is that instead of there ‘horrible campaign of violence’, they supported Britains war effort.
Source J, indicates that the reason why women acquired the vote was because of the exceptional contribution that they made during the war. This source asserts that another reason women were awarded the vote was because Herbert Asquith changed his and a lot of others views of women to that of admiration.
From the use of my own knowledge I know that women’s war efforts had convinced many MP’s such a Herbert Asquith, but on the other hand those who weren’t convinced were won over by giving women a limited franchise.
Conclusion.
This essay has studied sources H, I, J and the use of my own knowledge to deliberate upon historian’s views on the central reasons why women acquired the vote in 1918.
The first reason women were awarded the right to vote was because as the author of source H says, women were awarded the vote due to their contribution throughout the war. The author believed that it was only women aged 30 and above that women were awarded the vote as they were seen to be sensible and likely to vote in the same way as their husbands. It was only women that were married or owned a property that were allowed to vote. This was important because it meant that men would still maintain power and would still control society.
The second reason women were awarded the right to vote was because of political, social and economical changes.
The third reason women were awarded the franchise as source J indicates due to the exceptional contribution that they made during the war and. Herbert Asquith changed his and others views of women not being responsible enough to vote, they were considered sensible enough to vote. This applied only to women aged 30 and above.
There are similarities between sources H and I as both sources state that, a minor reason why women were awarded the vote was due to the war. In contrast to this view point source J states that the only reason why women awarded the vote was due to their contribution during the war.
From my own knowledge I can see that source H is the most useful source as it indicates that by granting women over the age of 30 the vote was a way to divide the women. It was not all the women that were 30 and over, it was all the women that were married and had a house. So this meant that it was only the first class and some second-class women that got the vote. I believe that Herbert Asquith granted women the vote as a way of keeping them happy for sometime. I also believe that this may also have been an attempt to get his party more votes in the general elections so that he could be Prime Minister for another 5 years. Finally I have concluded that all this meant that although women did all the work, men still had all the power and authority in Britain.
Lastly, it was not the work that women did during the war that led to limited female suffrage. It was instead a manipulative and cynical plot to divide the women’s movement, thereby weakening it whilst maintaining male domination of society.
