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... ... middle of paper ... ... a strong 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.
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.
In the 1840’s, most of American women were beginning to become agitated by the morals and values that were expected of womanhood. “Historians have named this the ’Cult of True Womanhood’: that is, the idea that the only ‘true’ woman was a pious, submissive wife and mother concerned exclusively with home and family” (History.com). Voting was only the right of men, but women were on the brink to let their voices be heard. Women pioneers such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott wrote eleven resolutions in The Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments; this historical document demanded abolishment of any laws that authorized unequal treatment of women and to allow for passage of a suffrage amendment.
So, women were already allowed to vote in: council elections, school board elections, health board elections, county council elections and others. Why were they not able to votes in such things as General elections?
Women, like black slaves, were treated unequally from the male before the nineteenth century. The role of the women played the part of their description, physically and emotionally weak, which during this time period all women did was took care of their household and husband, and followed their orders. Women were classified as the “weaker sex” or below the standards of men in the early part of the century. Soon after the decades unfolded, women gradually surfaced to breathe the air of freedom and self determination, when they were given specific freedoms such as the opportunity for an education, their voting rights, ownership of property, and being employed.
women over the age of 30 were allowed to vote for the first time. This
Why Women Did Not Gain the Vote in 1914 In 1914 women could work as highly respected members of society. They could be teachers, moulding the minds of future generations, doctors or nurses caring for the sick and injured and of course mothers possibly the most important role in society. Yet, they had no say in how the world around them was run. This essay will explain why women were blocked from the right to vote, why their say was disregarded, and why they were seen as inferior, in early 20th centaury society. Firstly, this male dominated society viewed women as weak, overly emotional and under educated.
During the late 19th century, women were in a society where man was dominant. Women did not have natural born rights, such as the right to vote, to speak in public, access to equal education, and so forth, did not stop them to fight for their rights. Women's lives soon changed when Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony played a prominent role to help bring about change.
during the First World War, but now they had seen a new way to go
vote or have any say in the way their country was run, or whom it was
"Leeds Express: 4 March 1868 I wonder, Mr Editor, Why I can't have the vote; And I will not be contented Till I've found the reason out I am a working woman, My voting half is dead, I hold a house, and want to know Why I can't vote instead I pay my rates in person, Under protest tho, it's true; But I pay them, and I'm qualified To vote as well as you. " Sarah Ann Jackson The purpose of this investigation is to analyse the issues surrounding the eventual enfranchisement of women in 1918, to draw conclusions about the effectiveness of the militant Suffragette campaign in the early years of the twentieth century and to decide whether the outbreak of war was instrumental in achieving enfranchisement, or merely a fortunate coincidence. The poem written by Sarah Ann Jackson underlines the fact that many middle class women had, throughout the reign of Queen Victoria, taken issue with men's dominance over their lives and had worked hard throughout these years to draw attention to women's right to equality. For these women, enfranchisement was not their sole aim.
During the reconstruction of the South many people had opposing views on black rights. The south predominantly thought blacks were inferior, but the North was more accepting of black rights. After years of fighting between confederates and abolitionists black rights were finally put into place. Black rights caused disunity between the people just as Women's Suffrage in the 20’s did. Just as black rights were sanctioned with time, Women's suffrage should also have been acknowledged. Throughout the 20’s many woman tried to obtain popularity in women's suffrage by holding meetings. The Seneca Falls Convention, organized by Elizabeth Staton, was a convention held by women's rights activists. These meetings addressed many issues that affected women's rights. These meeting were held to start giving notoriety to the issues pertaining to woman. Women's rights in the 20th century was an extremely controversial topic. Although women had been seen as inferior for many years, looking at the documents it’s unequivocal that woman should have been given the same domestic, political and social rights as men.
WWI and Women's Right to Vote in 1918 The Campaign for women’s right to vote started in the 1860’s with mainly middle class women and some men. At first the campaigning was peaceful and respectable and the lobbying was conducted discretely, without causing hindrance to anyone. It commenced in large cities such as London and Manchester however soon more people joined and the campaign spread across England. The women were known as suffragists (NUWSS) and were an amalgamation of many suffragists’ societies but after four decades of campaigning some women felt they had made no progress and decided to take violent action. These were known as suffragettes (WSPU) and started in 1903.
Women used many different methods to earn the right to vote in the Women’s Suffrage Movement. The first method they used to try and gain their suffrage was a parade held throughout the town. Many women wanted to march in the parade to prove their point. It drew a large crowd which was mostly full of men. Some of the men beforehand were drinking. When the parade started there were lots of floats and balloons and some women were riding horses with flags. Halfway through the parade lots of men got angry. It quickly erupted into violence and everyone was fighting. There were at least 100 people wounded from the parade. The second method used to try and gain suffrage was picketing the White House. Women stood in front of the White House from dawn
Factors Leading to Women's Suffrage I personally think that it was not only the war that got women the vote, but it was a large factor. An argument against this is that other issues post war and suffragette activity that gained women the vote. When war broke out it had a huge impact on Britain economically and politically. Industry Trade Unions became extremely powerful and a woman voting was at the bottom of the government’s list of priorities. During the war, women played a huge part and showed great patriotic support.
Act all men were entitled to vote at the age of 21 and women but only