As for education, the government believed that governesses should tutor girls at home and the boys taught at school. The working class children sometimes would receive basic education. Some of the middle class women had their eyes set on becoming a nurse or teacher. They wanted to enter the profession of law and medicine.
Despite these improvements were not equal mainly because they did not have the vote and they were many attempts to gain it by 1900-1914.
2. Short-term issues:
The suffragettes formed in 1903 with Emmeline Pankhurst as the head of the group, their aim was to use more violent forms of protest to get their point across. After two years with relatively no action from them, the WSPU hit the scene. Mrs Pankhursts’ daughter, Christabel, was arrested after heckling at a general election rally and another suffragette Annabelle Barnes as arrested for the same offence this brought the WSPU a lot of publicity and many people joined their cause.
The early campaigners were mostly middle class women; they believed that not all of the women should get the vote. They thought that if men had equal rights to qualify for there property then so should the women. In 1897 an organisation such as the Female Political Union (FPU) and the Manchester Women’s suffrage Committee joined together to form the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies. (NUWSS). The women who had joined this society began to point out that the franchise had been extended for men in 1832, 1867 and 1884. They women could point out that they made over half of the population the because of the remaining women most of them had to earn a living instead of having no choice to marry. In 1871 two thirds of women were single if they had there own property or earned money they would have to pay tax just like men. The suffragist campaign emphasised the responsibilities carried by most women. Very strong arguments came up about the fact that women DID NOT have the right to vote and nor should they ever. A handbill that was published by the NUWSS, this handbill held a very strong argument! “Let the women help, two heads are better than one!” The men thought that because the women did not go to war or did not fight for their country then they did not have the authority to ask for the vote, they believed that “The voter in giving a vote, pledges him-self to uphold the consequences of his vote at all costs and that women are physically incapable of making this pledge.” Queen Victoria also had a very strong opinion of the matter she said, “With the vote women would become the most bate-full, heartless and disgusting of human beings. Where would be the protection which man was intended to give the weaker sex?” So it wasn’t all the women that thought they should have the right to vote because there were many women out there against it. Another famous person who was against women getting the vote was Florence Nightingale she believed that there were more important issues to worry about. When John Stuart Mill suggested that there was suffrage he was faced with a range of hard beat arguments against the measure. Women were also said to be too emotional and impulsive to be trusted with the vote. Even though big improvements had been made like employment, education and marriage there was still limits and drawbacks to gaining the vote, as they had not yet succeeded to gain it.
Most suffragists by 1900 had most MPs on their side, even the backbench liberal MPs were supporters of women voters, but the liberal leaders were opposed to it. However this was only better-off, property owning women would get the vote, and they feared that these women would get the vote Conservative. On the other hand Conservatives were get interested in the fact that women could vote because the like the outlook of more conservative voters, BUT because the backbench liberals were opposed they held back so unfortunately the suffragists had another knock back and had got no where.
The leader of the liberal William Gladstone made a very strong-viewed statement against women voters. “I do not wish to trespass on the delicacy, the purity and the refinement of women’s nature by giving her the vote”
The suffragists were well organised and gained support from many sections of society, but ultimately, their methods was too moderate and not assertive, they didn’t force the issue enough. However they did achieve some success. There campaign was extremely effective in terms of bringing it to people’s attention. The leader of the movement was Millicent Fawcett she believed in the constitutional campaigning. For example she presented the case to the MPs, by presenting petitions, and organised meetings. Eva Gore-Booth gathered signatures of 67 000 textile workers in Northern England for a petition to parliament. Even though petitions were made, meetings were made and areas of employment, education, and marriage had improved, women still had not gained the right to vote. Some women thought it was time to bring out a more demanding way of gaining the vote, the suffragettes gained lots of publicity unfortunately the suffragettes acted much more differently than the suffragists they were violent and unacceptable and the question was asked did they do more harm than good? The relationship between the suffragettes and suffragists wasn’t good. If they stood by one another maybe they would have had a much stronger case. The suffragettes interrupted political meetings and harassed the ministers; they would abuse the MPs who opposed against women voters. The suffragists didn’t agree in the way that the suffragettes were acting and they believed that the suffragettes were close to destroying the campaigns.
Some of the women from the suffragettes were so dedicated to their campaign they were willing to die for the campaign. There was one member of the suffragettes named Emily Davison who died in 1913 at Derby, it was unknown whether she indented to dead to show total dedication towards the campaign or whether she was trying to pin a suffragette banner to its bridle. Not only did some women die but also women were going to prison. The Pankhursts and Flora Drummond were sent to prison for inciting a crowd to rush the House of Commons. When they were sent to prison they decided to go on a hunger strike of part of their protest, this was a good way to get the sympathy vote due to the fact that the prison wardens came up with the idea to force feed the prisoners. They would put a tube down their throats and fill it with liquid. This was very degrading but they gained the sympathy vote. However, in 1913 the government out smarted them by enforcing a new act called the cat and mouse. If the prisoner went on a hunger strike they would simply let them out of prison to recover from he hunger strike and when they were well again they would bring them back to finish there sentence.
There is little disbelieving that the suffragettes’ increasing violence disturbed support for the women’s cause. By 1913 many suffragettes were in prison, and the Pankhursts were working on there campaign from Paris. The suffragettes had certainly raised the profile of the issues but they had also damaged their own cause. They had set out to gain the vote but all they did was lose the trust and goodwill of many of the supporters’ Mps and liberals. The people that mattered turned their backs the suffragettes were denied the right to vote yet again in 1914.
The suffragettes continued to use more pro-active forms of protest, they would chain themselves to railings outside Buckingham Palace and Downing Street, they had a window smashing campaign on Oxford Street where much damage was caused, they burnt down several churches although they did ensure nobody was in their first and probably the most famous action of a suffragette was Emily Davison throwing herself under the kings’ horse in the 1913 Epsom Derby, she died four days later. This event also brought the Suffragettes a lot of attention but it was not all good, lots of people particularly the more upper-class citizens of the country regarded it as sabotage and attempted murder of a horse and a jockey.
Although all these events achieved the suffragettes a lot of publicity, it can easily be argued that these tactics did not help their cause one bit. Many people began to wonder if that was how women acted maybe they did not deserve the vote. Many sections of the public who were not previously affiliated with either cause now had an opinion on the matter. I would say that in the short term the Suffragettes brought a lot of attention to their cause but did not really get people to support them, their actions were too violent for some people.
The government did not tolerate such actions of the suffragettes and put many of them into prison, once in prison many suffragettes went on hunger strike and a new law was introduced so that doctors were permitted to force feed them, this caused public outcry and the law was revoked. The government decided the best way to deal with them was to put them into prison and when they became unhealthy they would release them but the would then re-arrest them when she recovered her health, this was called the Cat and Mouse act (1913).
People also believed that there were far more pressing issues to be dealt with that the enfranchisement of women. For example the rebellion in Ireland was taking up much of the government’s time so it was important that that was seen to before the right for women to vote.
There is little disbelieving that the suffragettes’ increasing violence disturbed support for the women’s cause. By 1913 many suffragettes were in prison, and the Pankhursts were working on there campaign from Paris. The suffragettes had certainly raised the profile of the issues but they had also damaged their own cause. They had set out to gain the vote but all they did was lose the trust and goodwill of many of the supporters’ Mps and liberals. The people that mattered turned their backs the suffragettes were denied the right to vote yet again in 1914.
3. Speed of change.
After the end of World War One, the Liberal party was divided and support had dramatically decreased since the landslide election victory just little more than ten years previous. The party was destined to become a third party and has never formed its own government in Britain since to date. Sometime between the period of 1906 and the end of the war, something happened which lost the Liberal’s their support. In this essay, the opinion that the First World War killed the party shall be examined.
Liberal ideology is that which is very much against war. Traditionally Liberal Government would back away from military conflict in the favour of more peaceful methods to negotiate peace. Therefore, when in 1914 the Liberals under Prime Minister Asquith lead Britain into war on August 3rd 1914, Britain immediately responded with a degree of varied outrage as to the Liberal Party’s foreign policy.
While the general public seemed to respond with a large response of patriotism, many signing up for the army immediately, two Liberal MPs resigned in disgust. However, the reaction of support for the Liberal Party, in spite of these resignations, did not suggest early on in the war that they were destined to become a third party. The reduced support for the Liberal party as the war progressed, however, did begin to provide evidence for this opinion. As the war began to last longer than ever imagined, the people in England felt dashed rising expectations because they had been told it would end quickly. The introduction of conscription in 1916 further caused upset among the people and this cumulated into a feeling of resentment to the ‘Liberal’ government who had brought them into the war. Therefore, the reduced electoral support for the party after the war is perhaps a reflection of this resentment and the statement can be verified.
The Defence of the Realm act, more affectionately known as DORA, was brought about to help the government in the war efforts. In previous wars, the civilians had been left largely unaffected apart from deaths of loved ones, but the First World War saw the major introduction of wars that directly affected civilian lifestyle. The British citizens at the time could never have anticipated the restrictions that they would have to live through under DORA. The act increased taxes and rent and introduced rations. It also ordered a black out, and could nationalise any small company it wanted in the name of the war effort. These are just a few examples of the vast array of restrictions that the people had to live by and it made them very resentful towards the Liberals, for example someone who has a small business taken over would lose his sense of achievement and his livelihood. This resentment was further fuelled by the attacks on civilians carried out by German Aircraft, which for the first time created a civilian life threat by war. DORA can therefore be seen as an example of why the first world war killed the Liberal party, because the people were dissatisfied and shocked at the government for entering Britain into a war that affected them like they had never known possible. The reaction of several Liberal MPs was also of disgust, as the deprivation of individuality and human rights imposed by DORA offended the liberal ideological standpoint. DORA also introduced censorship that the Liberal MPs despised because it curbed individual freedom.
Therefore, DORA not only caused citizen unrest with the party, but also helped to create party tension from within which would help to catalyse its split later on in the war. The DORA act was more of a problem in destroying the Liberal party than the original entry to the war, because entry to the war would have caused resentment towards any party eventually because of soldier’s death, but DORA specifically went against liberal ideology and helped to cause tensions both inside and outside the party.
The issues of Irish Home Rule and Disestablishment of the church of Wales were declared as delayed until after the war. Irish Home Rule was on target to be passed when outbreak of war was declared, and consequently, the citizens became extremely angry at the delay, especially after the cold treatment they received from Britain in the Easter Rising of 1916. The citizens’ experiences dashed rising expectations, and therefore, they condemned the Liberals and this issue can thus be seen as a problem, which helped to cause decline in the party. Due to the fact the crisis was brought about due to war, this evidence supports the statement. However, although the Irish Home Rule crisis was a small factor in liberal decline, it was not nearly as important as the introduction of DORA. DORA seriously reduced the support of the electorate in Britain because of the war inflicting restrictions upon citizens whereas the Home Rule crisis was a minor issue because it did not greatly impose difficulties to the majority of lives.
The inefficiency of the Army in dealing with the war was another issue that dramatically reduced Liberal support. Lord Kitchener was appointed Secretary of State for war, and he was inefficient in communicating with the government and was not used to dealing with politics or politicians. There was a great deal of animosity between MPs and himself and there was beginning to be a faction created within the party in terms of differences of opinions on the war and its handling. Asquith and his supporters were opposed to war and some MPs campaigned for peace. Asquith himself stayed very much out of war work and provided a weak leadership, which was strongly criticised by the militant Conservatives, and members of the Liberal party who were beginning to unite under Lloyd-George♣. These differences in opinions over the inefficiency of the war effort organisation helped to destroy the Liberal party by splitting them from within. A party needs to have concordant ideas and MPs in a party must have a united front together or the party is weak because they need the strength together to defend their viewpoints or the party is inefficient. Therefore, the difference in opinion began to make the party inefficient and also therefore weak. This weakness was highlighted to the general public in May 1915 when The Times published an article blaming the government for the shortage of shells on the Western Front. Asquith’s inability to run a war smoothly was therefore questioned not only by MPs but also by the public (electorate), and many devout Liberals became disappointed and anxious about the competence of their leader. The lack of confidence in Asquith because of certain faults that revealed themselves during the war times perhaps helped to kill the Liberal Party and therefore, there is evidence that supports the statement that the First World War killed the Liberals.
The incompetence of Asquith to run a war smoothly was a very important aspect that helped to kill the Liberals, even more so than DORA because DORA did not create two separate groups within the party with strong opposing views just caused mere tension. If Asquith had been more competent in war, the public may have given the government more support because the war may have been more successful. Having considered this however, Asquith did manage to reverse his lack of public support by forming a coalition with the Conservatives and Labour. This proved a competence on Asquith’s behalf, and perhaps suggests that the First World War was not the only aspect that killed the Liberal Party, because they showed themselves to be able to handle some aspects of the war in very clever political manoeuvres, such as coalition. Therefore, other aspects that may have caused Liberal decline must be examined.
Historian George Daingerfield labelled the period of 1910-14 “The strange death of Liberal England”. He argued this because the Liberal party had apparently run out of momentum and was devoid of fresh ideas. He also suggested that the reforms the Liberals implemented were not satisfactory and people were unhappy with them and demanded more reforms. These ideas all suggest that the public were beginning to turn away from the Liberal Party who “was too rooted in the nineteenth century to survive these challenges”. This alone suggests the First World War did not kill the Liberal Party but in fact the period before it did. Indeed problems such as the suffragette movement, Irish Home Rule and Industrial unrest also rose at this time. The evidence to support Dangerfield’s theory however is not strong. Despite these worries, the Liberals were ‘certainly not on the high road to political oblivion’. The Liberals managed to tackle all problems with a good degree of success, such as reforming parliament to pass Home Rule, negotiate terms with the strikers, and cast public opinion against the violent suffragettes. It is regarded by many that Dangerfield also underestimated the profound positive effects of the reforms and therefore, this period cannot be considered the death of Liberal England because it had a great deal of positive outcomes despite the bad ones. This means that something took place after this period was instead, and this something was the First World War. Thus, Dangerfield’s arguments being evaluated as weak, there is more evidence that the First World War killed the Liberal Party because nothing before it was seen to dramatically weaken the Liberals.
The other issue that arose other than the First World War, was the rise of the
Labour Party. The Labour Party took over from the Liberals as second party in Britain after the war, and therefore, it has to be considered that perhaps the Liberals did not decline, but the Labour party became more successful. However, the Labour Party only really became successful after the First World War and their popularity before it was very limited. The Liberal reforming programme stile much of Labours momentum and people had no need to vote Labour as Liberals had carried out most of their policies to appease the working class. However, although Electoral support was not great (1914 they only had 37 MPs) Labour had 550,000 members and increased their seats every year in local government elections between 1910-13. Despite this, Labour was not a huge threat to the Liberal Party and it was only after the war that they had success, and even then the conservatives overshadowed Labour. Therefore, it can be seen that the Labour Party were not a huge part in the decline of the Liberal party. Thus the First World War killed the Liberal party because between 1914-1918, the party declined and because this was a war period, evidence would suggest the war was to blame.
Perhaps the key issue to the decline of the Liberal Party was their split in 1918. Many Liberal Backbenchers had been shocked at Asquith ending their government and entering a coalition without consulting them and this increased the resentment between PM and some MPs. The ministers might have been happier if the coalition helped the war effort, but it did not, and therefore the anger within the party was not eased and this anger caused damage to the party due to the First World War and this supports the statement that the decline of the party was from the First World War. Lloyd-George began talking to with Bonar Law and eventually forced Asquith to resign with the support of the general public who could read of his incompetence in The Times. Lloyd-George went on to become Prime Minister but with the conservatives serving under him and all the Liberals left the government with Asquith and refused to serve under Lloyd-George. This was a huge split and threw the Liberals out of power and into the public eye in contempt. To make matters worse, Asquith could not criticise the Lloyd-George government because it was wartime and illegal. Therefore, the Liberals were seen to be failures and the public lost support in them. This later would affect voting behaviour as the public lost faith and lack of support means a government cannot be in power and thus they decline. Therefore, it
Is seen that actions during the First World War killed the Liberal Party. This was the biggest issue during the First World War because it actually resulted in the Liberals being ousted from power, having being in power for the last time ever. Asquith’s failure to let compromise with Lloyd-George and Bonar Law resulted in him being removed from power, and this is the reason for the decline of the Liberals because once out of power, Asquith was susceptible to great criticism and he was unable to defend himself.
How important was the war in helping women gain the vote?
In the years before 1914 there were many problems for women with their oppression, lack of respect and general miss- treatment by males. There were three different classes, working, middle and upper classes. Working classes were the lowest and they would work in factories, mines and farms, the middle class were much richer, they would be the owners of the factories and the large farms out in the rural areas whereas the upper class were the gentry, often friends or even related to the royal family. Women had trouble getting recognition in all the three classes.
The working class women were the most poorly treated. Often they would be made to go to work along with their husband to earn enough money for the large family to survive. They would have to be strong women so they could carry out the work in the factories and mines, the work at home and also to be able to give birth to many children as their survival rate was so appallingly low. At home their duties were to look after the many children and to clean the house. There were no labour saving devices or servants to help so the chores all had to be done by hand making them very tedious. They didn’t have many prospects to look forward to either; they weren’t educated as many were brought up in a large, poor family who could not afford to educate their children. Even if there was enough money, the males would have been educated and not the females. This meant she couldn’t leave her job and find a higher paid career. This money would have been needed for the family, as her husband would have only earned, on average, £75 per year much of which was often spent on alcohol. The living and working conditions were so poor; the life expectancy of a working class woman was only 22(on average). This was less than half as long as the middle class lady.
The middle class lady was worlds apart from this hard life. She would wake up mid-morning, have her maid dress and wash her, cook her food leaving her to have time to perhaps, visit friends or do some needlework. Middle class gentleman would look for beauty in a wife and not much else, it would be a bonus if she had money, and as for him she was nothing more than a fashion item. They would have servants to do all their housework and a governess would look after the female children. The male children would go to school so they could go out into the world with their skills to get a highly paid job. The girls on the other hand would stay at home with the governess to be taught how to play the piano and maybe another language, this would not be so they could get a job, but so they would more desirable for a husband, who would often be chosen by the father. The lady of the house would not be able to go to work even if she wanted, as her husband would not allow her, this was because it would give the impression that he could not afford to look after her. But, despite this he would encourage her to do charity work such as visiting the sick and needy, as this would build respect for him and the family. The difference between the middle class and upper class lady was very little as their husbands and fathers often had the same views. They could be financially supported so they should stay at home and look pretty.
There were some things that all men and gentlemen looked for in a wife. They all expected total devotion, they could commit adultery against their wives but if she were to against him then she would often be divorced immediately and as she had no rights would be left with nothing, not even the rights to the children. They would also look for total obedience, their wives should never answer back in public, they might be able to at home but never in public as this could embarrass him in front of his peers. Generally women were treated as second-class citizens.
This was more than the women could take. They decided to join together into a group and lobby the MP’s together. They called themselves the Suffragists and they prided themselves on their non-violent lobbying. To start with, in the mid 19th century they organised marches, sent letters and often, as they were middle class women, had MP’s round for tea to try to persuade them to give them the vote. This was more of a hobby for the women and even though they tried they were no match for a government and no direct progress was made but there was an up-side. They had begun to gain respect and to get the idea talked about in the Houses of Parliament; it was put to the vote but each time it was dismissed.
Due to the failure to make any headway using this method a break away group was started. Emily Pankhurst and her fellow WSPU’s (Women’s Social and Political Union) or as the media called them, the Suffragettes. They had a different approach, they used more violent tactics. They began in 1905 by disrupting a political meeting in Manchester, this got them the publicity they needed. In 1908 they begun to chain themselves to MP’s railings and organise newspapers to be there for when the police arrived, this gained enormous amounts of column inches. From 1909 things started to get a bit more serious, they were smashing windows and burning down MP’s properties, this got them sent to court and imprisoned but to top it off they went on hunger strike for the extra publicity. To prevent the women dying from starvation in the police cells the government brought out the ‘Cat and Mouse Act’, this meant as soon as the women got ill they would be released to recover then immediately arrested again, this would often go on for the whole sentence. Until in late 1913 Emily Davison threw her self underneath the Kings horse at the Derby, being trampled to death. She was trying to stick a rosette on the horse in the colours of the Suffragettes, purple, white and green. She died a martyr and her funeral attracted much attention for their cause and was in the papers for weeks. The violence continued and the police began to get more and more violent back towards them. There was a stalemate between the two sides. Then, on the 4th August 1914 England declared war on Germany and the suffragettes called a truce.
The change in the suffragettes’ attitudes was almost instant. As soon a the Prime Minister read the declaration they stopped lobbying and attacking the MP’s and got behind the government and showed full support for them. Emily Pankhurst, the leader of their group became friends with an MP who was later to become the prime minister, this stood them in good stead at that time as they now had a contact in the houses of parliament and in the future when he became prime minister he would be friends of the leader of this movement, they worked together on many things. The suffragettes began to organise rallies to gain interest into the war, they collected luxury items to send out to the soldiers, such as chocolate, whisky, cigarettes but often-unwanted gifts were sent, like Bibles and storybooks. They also boycotted the men, they wouldn’t go out with any of the men who weren’t out at war, and if they saw a man out of uniform in the street they would give them a white feather of cowardice. This showed public support for the government and was another part of the propaganda, there were posters everywhere, perhaps the most famous was Kitcheners ‘I want YOU!’ poster. The country became besotted with the war effort; it was and still is the most popular war there has ever been.
Lord Kitchener, a retired general who was now minister for war, asked for 100,00 men to sign up but due to the wars popularity, by 1916 he had 2,600,000 new recruits. The bulk of these were in the first few months of the war, the recruitment offices were swamped, people cued for hours and lads as young as 14 wanted to sign up and often lied to get in. Even more of an incentive was that the army had set up ‘Pals regiments’, which were made up of streets, football teams and in some cases whole school years. The regular army were sent off to war first, they were mobbed by hoards of women trying to get attention and when they arrived in France they were mobbed even more. They often wrote back to there younger brothers and told them what they were missing; this led to a sudden influx of lads trying to get a piece of action. The popularity of the war was sky high and building as the media and the expectancy of it being over by Christmas hyped it up.
This sudden departure of all the working men was a problem, immediately there were hundreds of thousands of job vacancies thrown into the open. Often they were filled with the newly retired and school leavers. Women were still not given the jobs. The only women who immediately got jobs were when their husbands owned a business and could only trust their wives with the work, such as a milk round or a coal round, others went into the health service as ambulance drivers, the middle class women who could drive, and the women who couldn’t drive became nurses. The working class women couldn’t afford to do anything else, as they needed to carry on working to keep their families alive. Some men did stay but only if they worked in essential industries such as the coalmines or agriculture, industries thought too precious to deplete during the war.
Immediately, there was no real urgency for women to work, the employers chose lads who had just left school and newly retired men but these soon ran out. Many didn’t make it to retiring age due to poor health so something else was needed. Attitudes held back the entrance for women to enter the working environment as they were still thought to not be able to do a mans job and they were left at the bottom of the pile for jobs. Some got jobs through family ties straightaway, e.g. milk rounds, chimney sweeps etc. They were given these jobs so that there husbands had the job to come back to but for many it was a chance to prove themselves and many loved the work. They could only do unskilled jobs though.
Also during the war there was an increasing demand for typists, telephone operators and secretaries, even though these jobs had been around but the were now expanding rapidly and needed more staff and the women were the perfect option.
Another area that women could move into was the munitions factories, these were not pleasant jobs so women were more likely to be forced into working in these environments. One of the reasons that they were so dangerous was due to the Germans advances into attacking by air. There huge Zeppelin air ships were bombers. They would attack the munitions factories; the most famous was the Woolwich Royal Arsenal factory. It was the largest and most productive factory providing the men at the frontline with bullets and shells for the artillery. They were also prone to explosions and little mistakes in the manufacturing process could cause catastrophic destruction.
Around 1 million women worked in the munitions factories around the country. The factories were a terrible environment to work in, they were dangerous, they stank and the chemicals used were awful. The acid they used would get all over them as there was no protective clothing for them to wear. There were people employed to keep order in the factories that showed the environment was hostile in more ways than one. In a large munitions factory there would often be between 16 and 18 casualties per night, either from an injury or just the women falling ill.
The lack of knowledge about the chemicals used in the making of the munitions caused terrible suffering to the women at the time and in the future. Many women became sick from TNT poisoning, the first signs was a common cold but they would quickly deteriorate and die a painful death and few survived. You would not go un-noticed in the streets either; the chemicals would turn the skin on the face yellow and the hair ginger. This is why they acquired the nickname ‘The Canaries’. All of the women working there would become too sick to have children or not be able to have children due to the chemicals.
There was a plus side to the job, it was well paid and gave the women more independence and when travelling to work on the train many men would say that they were doing their bit.
Another main area that the women could move into was to train to be a nurse and go out to the hospitals near the frontline to tend to the soldiers, there was a great demand for this and the army turned to the women, as often all of their male family members had signed up and this was enough of an incentive for them to as well. The main influx of women was from the middle classes rather than the working class because of their attitudes. The middle class women were brought up with the motto “For king and country”; where as the lower working class had not and were more sceptical in joining the forces. There were 2 main groups of nurses the VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachments) and the FANY (First Aid Nursing Auxiliary), both of these groups were poorly paid and had been part time nurses before the war so had the basic training to deal with some of the injuries. They were not treated any differently to the men that were doing the same job.
Extract from Elizabeth, Baroness de T’Serclaes autobiography. “We slept in our clothes and cut our hair short so that it would tuck into our caps. Dressing meant simply putting on our boots in the morning……… There were times when we had to scrape lice off our clothes with the blunt edge of a knife and our underclothes stuck to us.”
This shows that they were treated the same and with that had to suffer the same hardships that the men had too. The wards they worked in were noisy from the screams of men and gramophones. Definitely not the way the fairy tales portrayed them. One negative point for the women who had signed up was that they didn’t actually know what was going on at the front and it gave them a lot of time to think.
In 1917 many soldiers were lost in the big battles. The generals were getting worried that they would run out of men. To make sure they didn’t they needed to recruit the men that were doing all the ‘soft jobs’ to the front line, but they needed people to replace them. For this they set up the WAAC, Women’s’ Army Auxiliary Corps. The plan was for these women to do all the menial but necessary jobs, such as, cooking, cleaning, waitressing, secretarial work and also to instruct the public how to put on a gas mask. They were given ranks to keep the structure an uniforms were also issued, a tight khaki cap, khaki jackets and skirts which had to be no more than 12 inches from the ground. Despite this the women in the WAAC were not given full military status. The women enrolled rather than being enlisted therefore were not to be punished by a military court but a civil one. Between 1917 and the end of the war over 55000 women had served in the WAAC. Even though they were not in combat duties they had to endure shelling attacks and bombing raids and when nine were killed the newspapers were outraged and publicised it as another atrocious act of the Germans, but they were there to replace soldiers so they had every right to attack them.
At the start of the Great War thousands of farmers signed up even before conscriptions were introduced and still after two years of war the farmers had not been replaced and there was a huge shortage of food. In 1916 when conscriptions were introduced making it illegal not to sign up the farmers and miners were exempt from this law due to the shortage of food and fuel. There was even more of a need for food because of the German U-boats, which were sinking every food ship insight and leaving little reaching our shores with their vital cargo. At this time half of the country’s’ food was imported and now there was none so the land army was set up. Thousands of women from the cities went to work the and just to keep enough food for the citizens of the country to survive. They had to produce enough food to eliminate the need for all the wheat imports from Canada and the meat from Australia but they succeeded.
This immense change in the role of women had a dramatic affect on the attitude towards women. In the war work the WAAC suffered the same hardships as the men. But not in all cases, they suffered them in the cushy jobs, such as, the nurses and cooks but nowhere near as much as the men at the front line did. In 1917 the army were getting desperate with 12,000 trained men behind the lines they needed to release them to fight. Their only choice was to allow the women to come in and take over the more menial jobs. But under no circumstances were they allowed to fight in the frontline.
The trade unions were also very wary of the women as they thought that in the long run they would work for lower wages than the men and take over their jobs for good. But, in 1915 the government and the trade unions came to an agreement specifying that women were to be paid as much as the men for the duration of the war ant for as long as needed until sufficient male labour came available.
The attitudes towards women had changed but not to the extent that they could have wished for. For example, in the war areas, “the women had no special privileges and suffered the same hardships as the men they replaced.” This was true to a certain extent, they did suffer the hardships but this was only of the men which they replaced who where the men doing the menial jobs behind the lines, nowhere near the amount of suffering faced by the men at the frontline. In 1917 there were 12,000 women working behind the lines freeing the men up for fighting. The attitudes of the army personnel were that they were thankful to the women for freeing up the men who were needed to fight. This was all due to the WAAC.
The trade unions had not changed their attitudes much. They were still very suspicious towards the women. They believed that the women who were given jobs in the munitions factories would not leave after the war, as they would undercut the wages of the men coming back from the front. However, in 1915 the government and the trade unions came to an agreement. This was that the women were paid the same as the men but when the men came back the women would have to leave after the duration of the war.
Before the war the media had been giving negative propaganda against the women and suffragettes but during the war the medias attitudes changed immensely. The Observer, J L GAVIN 1916 “ Time was when I thought that men alone maintained the state. Now I know that men alone never could have maintained it.” This was a paper, which before the war was very negative towards women and you can see by this quote that their attitudes had changed. It was a major change for the women, from being dumbed down to being relied upon to run the state while all the men were fighting for it.
The governments attitudes was also changing. Here is a speech by Lloyd George during his role as prime minister, 1918. “It would have been utterly impossible for us to have won the war had it not been for the skill, enthusiasm and industry which the women of this country have thrown into the war.” Lloyd George was the minister for munitions during the war and had set up a good relationship with Emily Pankhurst and they had been setting up good ties throughout the government and when he became prime minister the attitudes he had towards the women wanting the vote was favourable. Before the war the party (lib dems) were split on the suffragettes but now Lloyd George was PM he brought them together behind the women. In 1917 6 of the 11 million adult women were given the vote through the law that middle class women should be able to vote. It was passed with only 23 votes against, a landslide result, which just showed how much the attitudes had changed.
During the war the women’s attitudes changed rapidly. Before the war the men in the country oppressed them immensely, but because of their experiences during the war they had to change. There work as nurses in the war gave them a chance to go abroad alone which gave them more independence and the things they saw were atrocious. They would have to treat and look after soldiers and civilians with limbs blown off, deep flesh wounds and often, horrendous burns. They showed that they could cope with this work well and begun to earn the respect of the men. Again as a result of the war women were put under stress and fear of receiving a telegram from the forces saying that their loved one, husband, son or brother, had been killed in battle. With the start of huge battles, such as the battle of the Somme, where 20,000 were killed and 60,000 injured in the first day, some mothers lost all their sons in one attack, this caused great suffering for the women back in this country. To pay respect to these men, women wore black dresses and the men wore a black armband.
Their fashions changed as well. Women started to wear trousers as they were more practical for their everyday work and general mobility was easier dressed like this. The men didn’t like this as traditionally the men wore the trousers and they were getting worried as they though that the women would begin turn into men and do as men do, such as: drinking, smoking and swearing. Despite this some women had already started smoking in public and going to coffee houses with their friends, this would have been quite shocking for that time.
Now that women were working in the factories and less restricting jobs they had greater financial freedom, this meant that they could afford to do all the pleasant things they wanted to do, such as, going to coffee houses etc. Before the war the largest employer was the domestic service, a very undesirable area of work, now there were munitions factories opening all over the country calling out for women to work in them. Although they weren’t getting as much as the men in the munitions factories they were getting much more money and freedom than if they were still in the domestic service. Generally, a more appealing job.
This new surge into the munitions factories meant that there were 18-19 year old women earning more than their fathers, this increased the resentment that their fathers already had towards them having a job at all. Plus they weren’t married so had no one to make decisions for them so they, again, had more freedom.
Women’s attitude to sex had also changed. It was no longer a taboo subject but an everyday occurrence. Before the war you would not have even seen a women and man kissing in the street but now things had turned upside down. There was a new attitude to life with many soldiers being killed abroad they began to live for the moment and had sex much more often, sometimes in public. Due to this the number of illegitimate children shot through the roof.
As a result of the war things had changed in some ways, for some women. For many women, especially working class enjoyed their war work. This meant that they could escape their homes and to support them financially, it did wonders for their confidence and their hectic social lives introduced them to the real world. When surveyed over 2500 out of 3000 women wanted to keep their jobs after the war.
Of course the numbers working in the munitions factories decreased because the weapons and munitions were no longer needed now that the war was over but other opportunities were closing for the women. Men expected the women to go back to the domestic service “where they belonged”. They assumed that they could go back to living on a working mans wage and the women who stayed in their jobs were doing it out of selfishness.
But, despite this, it was not the case for the women who lost their husbands in the war. They needed to carry on working to carry out the mans responsibility of bringing in the money. With three women to every two men, one in three women had to support their family alone. The war had made many women poorer. The cost of living had gone up but the wages had either stayed the same or stopped altogether. Women who had lived off small allowances or fixed incomes could do so for no longer.
Women who kept their jobs to support their families, who were once praised as heroines, were now being called “Blacklegs” for keeping the men out of their jobs. Employers tried to turn them out. Also trade unions took big steps out of their way to criticise the women, many were turned out, some willingly but most had no choice, especially when men’s unemployment hit an all time high after the war. There were now fewer working women than before the war!
The evidence so far suggests that the war itself did not bring any major changes to the role and status of women. Some women did stay on unchallenged. These were the secretaries, telephonists and clerks. The war was to see the last of the male clerks. The women only kept these jobs, as many men didn’t want them.
There was a steady decline in the domestic service, but some women did go back to working in this sector as there was nothing else for them, for most it was reluctant but it was a last resort. Younger women just didn’t want the job anymore.
A government enquiry into the shortage of domestic servants found that they were 400,000 short. They had to make changes and that they did. The bill created changes to entice the women back in, it included, fixed meal times, days off, paid holidays, a changed uniform, better food and the introduction of new labour saving appliances. The bill didn’t work. In 1931 there was no longer a domestic service but a new sector in the personal service. If there hadn’t been a war the change would not have been so rapid.
The years after the war there were several changes lining up for the women:
- 1918-The representation of people act was brought in which offered the chance for females to become MP’s in the parliament to represent the women.
- 1919-This was the year of the first female MP to sit in on a parliament session. Lady Nancy Astor. The first was Countess Markowicz, but she did not sit in on the parliament. Also this was the year that the sex disqualification act was brought in so the women could not be sacked from their jobs for being pregnant for example.
- 1923-Equal rights in the divorce proceedings. This gave the women more of a chance if they ever were to get divorced, where before the war everything went to the husband.
- 1925-Another opportunity opened for the women, the civil service started to accept women.
- 1928-In 1918 some middle-class women were given the vote but now there were full voting rights for everyone over 21. This is what they had campaigned for, for so long.
- 1930-It was the first time that contraception advice was given to women.
This shows that things were changing in the favour of women in Britain.
Overall I think that the war had a major affect on the role and status of women. It may not have been instant but it set the grounding for everything to come. It showed to all the men in the country that they were just as good as them and should be given the same opportunities and respect from them.
♣ Lloyd-George and a group of Liberal MPs believed they had no choice but to concentrate all efforts on winning the war, even if it meant acting ‘illiberally’. They soon lost confidence in Asquith’s leadership because of his inefficiency.