Women and Suffrage 1860 to 1930

Pre - Suffragette Movement
1. 1860s: 'Angel in the house' idea
2. Seperate spheres of society
3. Women should be at home while men are at work
4. Some women in domestic service or low level shop work
1918 - Women officially get the vote
1. Only women over 30
2. 8.4m gained the vote
3. Women became 40% of the electorate
4. Important contribution to the war effort
5. Representation of the People Act 1918
6. 1928 this was extended to all women over the age of 21
7. The bill was passed by an overwhelming majority in the House of Commons (385 for to 55 against)
The First World War
1. Massive social changes due to impact on society
2. Real opportunity to enter male doninated areas of work
3. Munition factories needed workforce due to men in armed forces
4. New technology = new jobs
5. Some leaders of the WSPU such as Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter, Christabel Pankhurst, played an important role as speakers at meetings to recruit young men into the army
6. Over 700,000 women worked in the highly dangerous munitions industry
Key Figures
1. Millicent Fawcett - President of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (the NUWSS) from 1897 until 1919
2. Lydia Becker - leader in the early British suffrage movement. Founded and wrote for the Women's Suffrage Journal between 1870 and 1890
3. Caroline Norton - intense campaigning led to the passing of the Custody of Infants Act 1839, the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857 and the Married Women's Property Act 1870.
4. Josephine Butler - Victorian era British feminist - the welfare of prostitutes - She led the long campaign for the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts both in Britain and internationally from 1869 to 1886
5. Clementina Black (1854 – 19 December 1922) was a writer, feminist and pioneering trades unionist
WSPU - Women's Social and Political Union
1. Formed in 1903 after getting tired of slowness of NUWSS.
2. Led By Emmeline Pankhurst and daughter Sylvia and Christabel
3. Used direct action at first used minor things like chaining themselves to railings, smashing windows
4. Turned to militant action in 1911 after drop of Concillation Bill
5. Disrupted political meetings, meetings of opposition, assaulted policemen, Mp's and King, bombed LG's house, Burned 3 Scottish castles, burnt golf courses, set fire to postboxes, general arson, hunger strikes
6. Their militant action put some people off the idea of female suffrage and reinforced the idea that women were irrational
7. Emily Davison - 1913 - Epsom Derby - King George V's Horse
8. Black Friday - 18 November 1910 - militant response to the failure to pass Conciliation Bill, which would extend the right of women to vote in Britain and Ireland to around 1,000,000 wealthy, property-owning women.
9. Cat and Mouse Act
Arguments against female suffrage
1. Giving women the vote would upset the natural order intended by God.
2. A women's place is in the home and it is wrong that they shoild be involved with public affairs
3. Women are too fragile and delicate, voting would damage their nature
4. Women were too emotional and irrational to make political choices
NUWSS- National Union Women Suffrage Society
1. Led by Millicent Fawcett, set up in 1897, which united all women suffrage groups together
2. Methods -Peaceful, Patient, Persuasive methods,
3. They held rallies, campaigns, one rally in Hyde Park with 250,000 people-500,000, letters to Gov and Parliament, had many supporters
4. Had to be patient in a male-dominated society who did not want to listen
5. By 1914- Had 100,000 memebers and 500 branches nationwide.

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Women and Suffrage 1860 to 1930

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