Background + NUWSS

Question 1

Give examples of the case FOR votes for women.

Answer 1

• Britain couldn’t call itself a true democracy when the majority of the population was disenfranchised.
• women already participated in local elections and improved the life of paupers in workhouses.
• a number of countries like New Zealand, Norway and America had already enfranchised women. This challenged the idea of Britain as the the “mother of democracy”.
• abbesses had owned land in the middle ages and been able to vote. 16th century woman freeholders could vote. Having the vote would just be restoring an old right.
• women property owners should be able to vote and have the same rights as male property owners.
• if women entered parliament they could push floors to improve women’s economic position and social status.
• votes for women would clean up public life and ensure that men and women adhered to the same moral principles (no sex outside marriage).

Question 2

Give examples of the case AGAINST votes for women.

Answer 2

• giving women the vote would damage Britain because it would destabilise the existing structure.
• women not capable of full citizenship because they did not fight for their country (however munitions workers did).
• women were intellectually inferior because their brains weighed less.
• woman were guided by their wombs which made them unstable at puberty and menstruation.
• politics was the sphere of men. Women occupied the domestic sphere.
• women were indirectly represented by the men in their family. Parliament represented communities rather than individuals (similar to household votes)
• giving women the vote would lead them to neglect their family duties.
• some women already voted in local elections and were doing good work in local government which was a woman’s sphere as it involved education, health and housing.

Question 3

What legislation had women gained to ensure greater rights prior to 1903?

Answer 3

• 1839 Custody of Infants Act - awarded some women access to their children in the event of divorce
• 1870 and 1882 Married Woman’s Property Act - allowed women to keep their income and property after they married. Gave them control over the money they bought into a marriage and acquired afterwards.
• 1884 Matrimonial Causes Act - denied husbands the right to lock up their wives because they refused to have sex with them.

Question 4

What areas did women’s suffrage campaigners disagree on in the 19th century?

Answer 4

• whether to keep the campaign involved in party politics or to stay independent, how far to collaborate with political parties
• constitutional vs militant tactics
• what types of women should be getting the vote e.g all women/single women/middle-class women

Question 5

Why was The Women’s Franchise League (WfrL) established?

Answer 5

In order to campaign for the rights of married women to vote. Attracted top Liberal Party support.

Question 6

When and why did the NUWSS form?

Answer 6

1897 - to unite all suffrage organisations in the fight for gaining the votes for women.

Question 7

Who led the NUWSS?

Answer 7

Millicent Fawcett

Question 8

How many separate suffrage groups was the NUWSS made up of?

Answer 8

16 - which had their own identity whilst cooperating on the central objective of campaigning for the right to vote.