Chapter 10- Women's Rights Flashcards
What three groups were created to campaign for the right to the women to vote?
-National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS)
-The Women’s Freedom League
-Women’s Social and Political Reform (WSPU)
What were the objectives of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies?
-Millicent Fawcett created the NUWSS in 1897, known as the Suffragists.
-Believed in peaceful methods (meetings, speeches, letters, posters).
-Wanted to be seen as kind and gentle to persuade men to give them the vote.
What were the objectives of the Women’s Freedom League?
-Created 1907 by WSPU members who did not believe in violent tactics.
-Mostly pacifists.
-Also campaigned for equal pay for women.
What were the objectives of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU)?
-Emmeline Pankhurst was the member of the Manchester NUWSS; she decided it was time for more direct action.
-Formed WSPU in 1903 with her daughters Christabel and Sylvia - known as suffragettes.
-Believed in ‘deeds not words.’
-Some militant tactics used were:
-Heckling MPs during speeches.
-Demonstrations outside the House of Commons.
-Chaining themselves to railings.
-1912 stone-throwing campaign: over 200 suffragettes arrested arson attacks and blowing up buildings.
What was the Cat and Mouse Act?
-In prison, the arrested Suffragettes extended their protest by going on hunger strike.
-The government could not let the women die as they were from middle-class families with influential husbands or fathers.
-The women were initially force-fed but this was seen as too dangerous as it could lead to disabilities to death.
-The government passed the Prisoners Act in 1913 saying that the women should be released when they become too weak due to starvation and once they were well enough they should be rearrested and returned to prison.
What were the responses to the militant methods from the WSPU?
-Their violence made them look very irrational and unbalanced.
-A woman’s place was in the home.
-Politics was a man’s world and women were unsuited to it.
How did the war help women get the vote?
-Women showed that they could do the same jobs as the men by working in farms and factories, they became known as the ‘angel of the factory.’
-Women proved they could do war work and still look after their children and homes.
-Women also eventually ran family businesses and worked in the stressful war environment, this showed that they could make clear-headed decisions.
-The government felt that the women deserved the vote, as did the working-class men who fought.
-February 1918, 1918 Representation of the People Act gave the vote to all men over 21 and to women over 30 but with property qualifications.
-After the war, women had to leave the workplace and make way for the men returning from war.
-Women continued the campaign for all women to be able to vote. In 1928, women were given the vote on equal terms with men.
How did this movement impact society in the later 20th century?
-In 1960s the Women’s Movement was born. This demanded equal pay with men, more women in higher education, 24 hour child care, and free contraception and abortion on demand.
-1969, Divorce Reform Act, allowed women to divorce their husbands and claim any property owned in the divorce settlement.
-1970, Equal Pay Act, gave women the right to be paid the same as men for the same work.
-1975, Sex Discrimination Act, gave women rights and protection in the workplace.
