Why Women Gained the Vote in 1918

Why Women Gained the Vote in 1918

In 1918, women had finally gained the right to vote, after 68 long and

hard years of campaigning and rebelling they finally got the vote they

wanted. The women had tried everything like campaigning, getting them

selves arrested, using the media and many more things were done.

However, there were a couple of things that they did which really

helped them get the right to vote and they were the fact that they

helped the men in World War I, like loading the bombs shells with

explosives and tidying the bomb shelters. Also I thought that the

Suffragists played a vital role in getting the rights for women to

vote because they proved to the men that they could protest and

campaign without using violence or breaking the law, unlike the

Suffragettes, who resorted to violence when they wanted their way or

when they wanted to be heard.

Before World War 1 there, were two groups of women that campaigned for

votes for women and they were known as the Suffragists and the

suffragettes. They called themselves the Suffragists because they were

trying to mock the word Suffrage which means the right to vote. Then

there were the Suffragists they were so different from the Suffragists

yet they were so similar. Both groups of women were campaigning and

fighting for the same thing, but the way they achieved the vote was

very different. First of all the Suffragists only protested and

campaigned without violence and they were law abiding. They thought

that they should prove to the men that they were responsible and could

act in a civilised manner. The Suffragists held meetings all over the

country, they held over 1,300 me...

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supporter of giving women the vote, people started to realise that

quite powerful political leaders were on the women's side. There were

anti-suffrage groups about before the war, but because they were

fighting in the war, they were not there to influence people not to

give the women the vote. The press supported the vote for women

because they could see actually how much strenuous work they were

doing during the war.

After 68 years, women finally gained the right to vote in 1918. 6

million women aged over 30 were allowed to vote in the general

election. People had finally noticed all the hard and strenuous labour

the women were doing during the war. I think that women should have

been able to vote at the legal age men were. At least they had drawn

closer to next stage in gaining the vote for all women.