Women's Suffrage and World War I

603 Words2 Pages

Women's Suffrage and World War I

In my opinion British women would not have gained the right to vote in

1918 without the First World War.

In my research to substantiate my view, I obtained my information from

my history book and the Internet I will state the source of my

information and explain how the information links to the causes and

effects that enabled women to get the vote.

During the war, women were given responsibility and knowledge to carry

out skilled work. They became more confident in their ability to

influence people and to have their say. They learnt to juggle home and

family, and manage financially. They wanted change and knew this had

to come from the government. They wanted to choose a government with

the policies they approved of. Realising that they were a valuable

workforce and could become as skilled as men made them want to be

valued and to have a say in the country's affairs.

One argument in favour of women shows pictures of what men could be: A

convict, lunatic, owner of white slaves, unfit for service and a

drunkard. This portrayed men as being responsible, but they still

could vote. Then it shows what women could achieve: Mayor, nurse,

mother doctor or teacher or a factory hand, which showed them as

responsible but they still couldn't the vote.1 Men's attitude towards

women during the First World War was still negative. The ability of

women to take on the roles of men meant that increasing numbers of men

were vulnerable to conscription.2

The women were told that they couldn't vote because they weren't

fighting for their country. They couldn't fight because they weren't

allowed to. Women helped in the ammunition factories, where dangerous

sulphur made their skin turn yellow.3 The government's opinion changed

from thinking that women were incapable of responsible positions. The

government tried to ignore the fact that they worked in the ammunition

factories, and said that they weren't serving their country, but they

finally accepted that through this and other types of work, women were

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