The Changing Roles and Status of Women
In 1903 the suffragette movement was born with the formation of the
Women's Social and Political Union (WPSU) by Emmeline Pankhurst and
her two daughters Christabel and Sylvia.
At first the newly formed suffragettes relied on spreading propaganda
to gain support. However, on the 18th October 1905 they gained
considerable unplanned publicity when Christabel Pankhurst and Annie
Kenney stood up at a public meeting and asked if a Liberal government
would introduce women's suffrage. Receiving no reply they stood on
their seats waving a banner which said, "votes for women". They were
thrown out of the meeting and arrested for causing an obstruction
outside. Instead of paying the fine they went to prison as protest,
causing a great stir and getting the story of the suffragettes into
the newspapers.
The suffragettes gained maximum publicity for their cause by
interrupting and heckling politicians, putting up posters, and
chaining themselves to railings (such as those outside Buckingham
Palace). This left no one in any doubt as to their determination to
get the vote.
By 1909, the suffragette's protests had become much more violent. In
October 1912, Emmeline Pankhurst told the suffragettes, "There is
something that governments care far more for than for human life, and
that is the security of property and so it is through property that we
shall strike the enemy." Windows were smashed, telephone lines were
cut and buildings were set on fire.
The suffragette movement definitely contributed to women being given
the vote. This is because their tireless protesting raised the profile
of ...
... middle of paper ...
...ckling politicians,
chaining themselves to railings, breaking shop windows, cutting
telephone lines and setting buildings on fire.
However, their violent protests caused them to lose support from many
of their original supporters and also lost them any sympathy that the
government had for them.
In my opinion the First World War was the most important factor in
women being given the vote. It gave women the opportunity to show
every one that they were just as capable as men were. Their work
during the war gained them much support for their cause, including
that of many politicians.
"The vote was won, not by burning churches, mutilating pictures, or
damaging pillar boxes, but by women's work on the war. It was not a
concession to violence, but an acknowledgement of patriotic service."
Charles L Graves, 1922.
Women were trying to get the vote for many years before 1900, however this was not a serious concern and they were not doing much to achieve this. However in 1900 this all changed. The NUWSS (Suffragists) and the WSPU (Suffragettes) were set up in the early years of 1900; their goal was to allow women to get the vote. Their reason was that women were already allowed to work on city councils and become doctors, some notable ones too such as Florence Nightingale. The NUWSS believed that if women were house owners and had respectable jobs they should be allowed to vote. This is because men who were allowed to vote could be white slave owners and lunatics so why could these men vote and women could not? Notably however Queen Elizabeth herself proclaimed that women should not get muddled up with the world of politics.
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.
In the years after 1870 there were many reasons for the development of the women’s suffrage movement. The main reasons were changes in the law. Some affecting directly affecting women, and some not, but they all added to the momentum of Women’s campaign for the vote.
By 1913, the suffragette movement had exceeded a decade. The growing desperation of the suffragettes is clear in their calls for the aid of working men, echoing Emmeline Pankhurst’s “Freedom or Death” speech in November 1913. This appears as a change of heart in the operation of the WSPU, which had decreed to exclude men from their organisation and broken with the Labour Party in the previous year.
The lack of success of the movements for women’s suffrage in achieving their aims by 1918 cannot be held accountable to solely one reason due to the abundance of causes for this. Voting, however, was not the only area where women were subjected to inequitable treatment: in1850 women were regarded as second class citizens. It was common belief that their brain was smaller than their male peers and they were therefore provided with very little or no form of education which, consequentially, meant that jobs for women were unskilled and low paid. Many professions would not employ a female as it was considered that a woman’s place was in the home. Politics was an additional area where women were uninvolved. Political parties (except Labour) argued mainly against women’s suffrage. Certain individuals claimed that involving women in the world of politics would be wrong due to biological reasons. Movement groups who included women’s suffrage as part of their aims included National Union of Woman’s Suffrage Society (NUWSS) and the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). Each of these movements employed very different tactics from each other in the hope that their message would be conveyed effectively and action would be taken by the public and the government. Tactics utilised by these movements – the WSPU in particular – have been cited as a reason for the lack of success in winning the vote for women due to the government and public attitudes caused by their methods. Other factors, however, influenced the lack of success too, for example the arrival of World War I and other subjects that were occupying the government’s attention at that time like the miners and dockers strike and the naval race with Germany as World War I lo...
Women had an arduous time trying to demand the rights they deserved to have. Women suffragist made associations and paraded down the street to endeavor rights. Two associations were made up, the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Women Suffrage Association. The National Women Suffrage Association is also known as NWSA was developed by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. This association work for suffrage at the federal level. They tried press for more extensive institutional changes, such as married women being granted right to own land. The American Women Suffrage Association is also known as AWSA was developed by Lucy Stone and Julia Ward Howe. This association aimed to secure the ballot through state legislation. The ladies at NWSA refused to endorse the amendment because it did not give women the ballot. However the ladies at AWSA argued that once the black man was enfranchised, women would achieve their goal.(Buechler) With making associations, suffragist would march together in a parade down streets. All women who believed in the women’s suffrage movement came together, not caring what class each other are in since the demands were the same for all who marched. The intent of the parades were to dazzle and impress observers and gain recruiters, as well grab the attention of legislators who ignore the suffragist petitions and dispel unfav...
Women were getting tired of not having the same rights as men, so they wanted to make a move to change this. Women got so tired of staying at home while the men worked. Women wanted to get an education. So they fought for their freedom. Abigail Adams said to her husband, “in the new code of laws, remember the ladies and do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands.” John’s reply was, “I cannot but laugh. Depend upon it, we know better than to repeal our masculine systems.” These were said in 1776. The women’s suffrage actually began in 1848, which was the first women’s rights convention which was held in Seneca Falls, New York. Prominent leaders began campaigning for the right to vote at State and federal levels. Susan B. Anthony was the leader for getting women their rights in the United States. Susan B. Anthony voted in Rochester, NY for the presidential election. This occurred in 1872. She was, “arrested, tried, convicted, and fined $100.” She refused to pay the fine. Supporters of The Equal Rights Amendment would march, rally, petition, and go on hunger strikes.
The constitutional societies felt obliged to reject "militants" their membership and even issued strongly-advocated protests against the use of violence for political publicity. This difference caused a great split in the suffrage movement. The UNSSW considered that the WSPU were wrong and that "direct action," as referred to the violent approaches, had always reacted unfavorably on those who employed it. When the constitutional societies began to express freely their views on these points, the suffragettes naturally responded by attempting to break up their gatherings, shouting down their speakers and inciting chaos. As opposition to the militant campaign increased, the WSPU’s emphasis on the oppression of all women as a sex increased. It led to increasing distrust of all men, countering the attitudes of the rest of the suffrage movement from the NUWSS, who could also criticise male domination over women but felt that class had to come into consideration as well. In 1913, a publication of Christabel Pankhurst disclosed the real reason for the opposition of votes for women – the fear that women’s suffrage would result in a rigid code of sexual morals. With the widespread use of the motto ‘Votes for Women and Chastity for Men’, women’s suffrage became a conservative moral
But how did this all start to happen? It didn’t happen overnight, and it wasn’t a one-person battle. Women wanted the same rights as men already had. But they didn’t just stop there, women played a major role in the rise of the child labor laws, stood up for minorities, and they wanted prostitution to end. Most people who opposed woman suffrage believed that women were less intelligent and less able to make political decisions than men were. Opponents argued th...
During the beginning of the 20th century, the increase activity of the National Union Of Women attractive additional support of the suffrage movement. “However, it was possible to criticize the policy and tactics of the constitutional suffragist on several grounds. It was argued that the suffragists should have revolted in 1884, when the amendment to the reform bill of that year failed through the opposition of the liberal leadership, but the suffragists were too well mannered to do more protesting and concentrate all of their efforts on one private members bill.” The women suffrage’s organization could not force the political parties to adopt the cause of women’s suffrage and need a major party to pick up their campaign or there was no hope of a government bill. Women’s suffrages leaders saw that they need more of a drastic tactics to gain public awareness. Women started protesting by undergoing violence methods and tactics however, the National Union Of Women believed that any aggression or violence acts of protesting would only weaken the movement. These actions would persuade male’s voters that women are too emotional and thus could not be trusted with the responsible of voting. These gentle ways of protesting was unconvincing, as many political believed would give up or lose interests. The lack of actions cause many women to take strongest methods of protesting their rights and formed a more violent group called Suffragettes.
Pankhurst her interest in politics developed. Dr Pankhurst was a member of the Liberal Party believed in equal voting rights for women and often campaigned for other social reforms such as allowing Irish Home rule and abolishing the monarchy. Richard Pankhurst was involved in drafting a number of amendments in relation to women’s suffrage such as the Married Women’s Property Act of 1882 and also helped his wife to form the Women’s Franchise League in 1889. Mrs. Pankhurst also joined a number of suffrage movements to develop her interest in the movement after her marriage such as the executive committee of the Women 's Suffrage Society, and also was also on the executive board of the committee which was working to secure the Married Women 's Property Act. In 1893 Richard and Emmeline formed a branch of the Independent Labour Party in Manchester. After death of her husband in 1898, Emmeline Pankhurst worked as both a register and amongst a factory where she was exposed to the inequality experienced by working women on a social, economic and legal level within her society. Further Pankhurst was growing increasingly frustrated at the lack of progress made in changing legislation for women’s suffrage by the pacifist approaches of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). Thus in 1903 Pankhurst formed the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) which went onto become a much more aggressive branch of
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