Reasons Given by the Suffragettes for Demanding the Vote for Women in the United Kingdom

Source A shows an example of a suffragette poster protesting for votes for women. The poster illustrates the possibilities of jobs that a women can achieve, yet still not be respected enough to be given the vote. Most of the jobs listed on the poster are jobs that require a successful education such as a “doctor or teacher”; or they require a strong and trustworthy individual like a “mayor”. The reasons that the suffragettes are demanding the vote is because they believe that women are capable of many things that require importance, so they are very deserving of the vote.

Another reason for wanting the vote for women, would relate to how certain men could behave and still have the honour to vote. The poster mentions how a man could be a “drunkard” and still be allowed to vote. The message being voiced here is that men can be a lot less successful than some women and seen to still have the right mind to vote, whereas women can achieve most things but still be perceived to not have the right mind which is very unfair.

This poster could be seen as very biased, because the examples shown are very opposite, and the fact that men can be successful was not mentioned. Overall I think that the main reason the suffragettes demanded the vote was because they felt that women were very capable of most things that created a good mind, and this point was clearly expressed in Source A.

Source B is evidence of one woman who was against female suffrage. Her argument is that “women were and are destined to make voters rather than be voters themselves”, by this she means that the role of women is to produce children, and then influence them on who to vote for. She also states that she thinks that the suffrage campaign is a “shrill cry” of “disco...

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...ng the suffragettes after their a lot more pacifistic approach to the war. This maybe suggesting that if the war hadn’t taken place then Asquith would not have changed his view on the situation, otherwise the suffragettes would have continued acting violently.

There were also many other reasons why women had achieved the vote in 1918. The fact that the Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, was in favour of the female suffrage would have swayed many people’s mind. If the Prime Minister was supporting women, then they had a very important name persuading others to follow in his direction.

In conclusion I would have to disagree with the statement in the question, because women have obviously tried in a variety of ways to make sure they could get the vote. The war was definitely a stepping stone towards the final goal of female suffrage, but it was not the only reason.