The Acquisition of Women's Suffrage

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The Acquisition of Women's Suffrage

In this essay I will Asses the validity of the two views on why women

over 30 gained the vote in 1918. Some people believe that women got

the vote because of the struggle to gain the vote, for example the

activities of the Suffragists and Suffragettes. Other people however,

would argue that women got the vote due to their contribution to the

war effort.

Those people who believe that it was the activities or the campaign of

the Suffragists and Suffragettes that earned women the vote in 1918

would argue that their activities made the public realise that women

could be doing other things apart from looking after the children.

They made a lot of effort to try and convince other women that men

were not better than them by producing their own newspapers, holding

public meetings, presenting petitions to the government and forming

peaceful marches.

However those people that don’t agree with this could argue that the

illegal, violent and militant activities of the Suffragettes hardened

the opposition to their demands. The government decided that they

didn’t want to give women the vote if they were lawless and destroyed

other people’s properties as well as risking other people’s lives. The

activities of the Suffragettes made the government very angry and

disappointed.

Women helped the government during the war. They worked in the armed

forces as nurses, in the Voluntary Aid Detachments as drivers and

secretaries and in the motorcar industry as mechanics. The government

would not have survived during the war without the help of the women

so they decided to give women the vote as a reward for their hard

work.

Based on the evidence presented above, I can conclude that both

arguments are very valid. We cannot lose the site that women struggled

to get the vote. They put their lives in risk just to achieve their

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