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Recommended: women suffrage
Voting is a Waste of Time and Effort
Intro
All of us here will have the chance to exercise their vote in the not
to distant future - 3 or 4 years. However will you choose to do that?
Will you bother to spend 2 minutes of your day to write a single x on
a form? Or perhaps you'll remain at home and just leave it to others.
History
We look at ourselves today and think we are a mature, cultured
democracy. We pride ourselves on equal rights, women having the
opportunity to do any job they fancy, great benefits - free education,
health care etc. However we look down our noses at any other race that
thinks otherwise.
This all being said it is only in the last century that both sexes
earnt the right to vote. Up until 1918 men could only vote if they
were landowners or wealthy. But with the Representation of the People
Act all men were entitled to vote at the age of 21 and women but only
from the age of 30.
Women, especially, have been through a very passionate campaign to
gain the right of suffrage. Mass demonstration, arson, jail sentences,
hunger strikes etc. for about twenty years finally getting a form of
vote after their support in the Great War.
Time has now moved on and progress has resulted in both sexes having
the right to vote at 18.
If they were around now they would be disgusted with the complacency
that contemporary voters find themselves with.
Last Elections
In the last elections voter turnout was the lowest ever. 55% of
possible voters turned out to spend those 2 minutes. Of those voters
about 40% voted for the labour party. This means that only 1 in 4 of
all voters actually voted for the government. More people voted in Big
Brother and pop Idol.
What are the implications of not voting?
If we were not to take the opportunity to vote we could lead ourselves
into a dictatorship; we all remember Hitler, Mussolini.
The Representation of the People Act of 1918 is often seen to be the start of female suffrage in Great Britain. This bill was passed by the House of Commons with 385 votes for the act, challenged against by a small majority of only 55. This surprised the Suffragettes as well as a number of other suffragist movements greatly as they did not expect this much support from any form of government. The 1918 Representation of the People Act finally gave women the vote, however the women would only receive it if they owned their own property and were over the age of 30. Although not any women could vote as a result of this, it was a huge stepping stone in working their way to achieve equality.
...n years later, the 19th Amendment (also known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment) allowed the right to vote to all United States women over the age of 21 (SBA House).
In the second part of the Reform Act, in 1884, many more men were able to vote. This simply fueled the campaign even more. As even more men could vote, still no women could.
All adult women finally got the vote with the Nineteenth Amendment, also known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, in 1920.
been able to vote at the legal age men were. At least they had drawn
women over the age of 30 were allowed to vote for the first time. This
...n’s effort to make themselves and those of their sex equals worked, Stanton, Anthony among others, continued to speak and write about what they believed was right and by the year 1919 The 19th amendment was added that granted all citizens the right to vote, despite sex. The amendment was ratified on August 18th, 1920.
the Nineteenth Amendment were signed into the Constitution, there granting women the rights to vote.
One thing The Affluent Society points out, this also gave rights to women. Even though the Act was passed, it took time to put the...
Women didn't gain the right to vote until the twentieth century but great strides were made starting in the 1840s to help women on their way to winning legal privileges and responsibilities. Below is rundown by year of the most important laws passed in England to try to help out the situation of all women, especially working and middle class. Just imagine what life would have been like before these laws were passed. We read all the time about women who complain about being helpless. How often is that claim believed? Women were practically helpless and almost completely dependent upon either family or husband in the eyes of the law. Unless a girl became a wealthy widow or stayed a pitied spinster she had no chance of being independent. But as you will soon see, the road to change is a rough and repetitive one.
“Voting is not only a right but also a civic responsibility” (Juneau). “When people do not vote, they do not help improve their government or their surroundings” (Juneau). Meaning that a citizen...
During colonial times, only men with property could vote. But when the new era of the 1700's came, women wanted change. One of the things they wanted was the right to vote. The nineteenth amendment of the United State’s Constitution states that “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.” This new amendment gave women the right to vote. The road to this victory, however, was not easy. Women had to fight to get political power and to do this they needed to come together and organize a movement.
... nation. Every person must understand how important his or her vote is. Don’t fall in to the third of non-voters; take the right to vote to heart, become informed about people and issues so you may contribute to the common good and to making the United States the best it can be.
Women fought for so long to achieve equality and perceive the right to vote throughout history. They have been denied their access to multiple sources labeling them as minorities and property. In this era women played the role of a house-wife that only stayed at home to obey their husbands and to take care of their children. Therefore, women were portrayed as weak and submissive beings who had a second-class role in the society. However, the restriction for them to vote led to them standing out for the rights they deserved. The women of the 1800s finally realized that something had to be done about this; as a result, the women’s fight to gain their right to vote started.