Queen Victoria’s view on the women’s rights never changed, she agreed with most men, she believed that women should be in the home looking after the children she also quoted ‘god created men and women different-then let them remain each in their own position.’
Victorian Britain was ruled by men as parliament was male members only and men had all the key jobs. Most Victorian women of the middle and upper classes would work but only in respectable jobs like teaching and nursing. Married women did not work and working class girls usually worked in factories shops or became maids.
Women with jobs would usually only receive half the pay a man would receive with the same job. Girls went to school, it would be in a school where they learned domestic services, and could then go to university if they wished.
There was a major change as women could vote in local elections and could become councillors however, women could not become M.P.’S or vote in national elections.
In 1908 suffragettes started direct action, this was because the women’s suffrage bills had ran out of time this intensified the suffragette campaign and became more vocal. One suffragette, Edith New chained herself to the railings of Downing Street as she made a speech and was arrested for it. Other suffragettes threw stones at 10 Downing Street. There was logic behind the actions of the suffragettes. They believed that the women’s suffrage was not an important issue to the government, this is why the suffragettes were getting arrested and sent to prison as it hit the headlines this made it hard for the government to ignore them. Millicent Fawcett leader of the NUWSS didn’t believe in the violence and rejected the suffragette militancy. She blamed the politicians for the militancy being brought in.
A conciliation bill supported by all-parties was promised by the government in 1911, the militant action was suspended it looked to be successful but the prime minister dropped it and gave all the men the right to vote instead. This made suffragists and suffragettes angry. The suffragists tried to persuade the prime minister to change his mind they also decided to support the labour party however the suffragettes became more violent they bombed churches, set fire to post boxes, placed bombs in warehouses, damaged cricket pitches and many more things. Suffragettes in prison protested by hunger strikes the response by the government was to force feed the suffragettes it failed to work as the public started to feel sorry for the suffragettes and in 1913 an act was passed to allow hunger strikes to leave prison, eat properly again and then finish off their sentence. This was passed as the cat and mouse act.
On the 5th June 1913 was derby day at Epsom race course, the crowds were massive including the royal family, politicians and many more. One suffragette called Emily Davison who had been in prison and was fighting for the suffragette cause tried a big publicity stunt that went horribly wrong, as the horses were running up to where she was standing she jumped out in front of the kings horse and tried to place a suffragette banner on the horse, sadly she was hit by the horse’s hoof and died instantly. Many spectators thought she had committed suicide. Her funeral was attended by thousands of suffragettes that believed she sacrificed her life for their cause.
Suffragettes tried to raise their profile by increasing the violence but they damaged their own cause by giving the government a reason to reject women’s suffrage. M.P.’S believed if they gave in to the violence then they would stand no chance with the protest of the Irish home rule or the doctors and mineworkers rioting for higher wages.
As war broke out in 1914 suffragists and suffragettes gave up their campaign and concentrated on the war cause as they had the men’s jobs to think about.
From the information I have read women were not taken seriously and men were in complete control. I believe if direct action was not used and the suffragist did it their way then they would not have gotten anywhere with the campaign of women’s suffrage. The war also helped the women to show how capable they actually were by doing the male jobs, this helped them gain some respect for themselves, this would also help there campaign later on.
