female enfranchisement Flashcards
- 1884 – Third Reform Act
59% of adult men enfranchised
- 1894 - Local Government Act
married women became eligible for all the local government franchises already open to single women and widows, and the issue of coverture, at least in relation to the franchise laws, was effectively dead.
Unmarried women ratepayers received the right to vote in the Municipal Franchise Act 1869. This right was confirmed in the Local Government Act 1894 and extended to include some married women,[5][6][7] making over 729,000 women eligible to vote in local elections in England and Wales. By 1900, more than 1 million women were registered to vote in local government elections in England.
National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies - founding
- 1897- merging 17 existing societies
Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) founded and adopted militancy
- adopted militancy in 1905 following a liberal party meeting where 2 WSPU members were arrested for heckling
liberals rejected female suffrage bill
1905
First Conciliation Bill
- July 1910 –passes Second Reading, but the government blocks further progress.
Second Conciliation Bill
- May 1911 –passes Second Reading, but the government blocks further progress.
defeated at second reading in 1912 March
Franchise and Registration Bill
- July 1912 passed at Second Reading. Allowed for manhood suffrage and the possibility of amendment to enfranchise women.
- January 1913 – Franchise and Registration Bill withdrawn after the Speaker rules amendments inadmissible.
‘Cat and Mouse Act’
- April 1913 allowed for the temporary release of hunger-striking suffragettes who were so weakened that they were at risk of death
reduced impact of militancy
1918 representation of the people act
- Enfranchised women over the age of 30 as long as they already voted in local government elections or were married to men who did. (in total, about 40% of women).
- Enfranchised all men over the age of 21 (with the working-class now comprising about 70% of the electorate).
- Allowed women to stand for election to parliament.
1928 representation of the people act
enfranchises women on the same basis as men (though the voting age was still 21 at this point).
first women’s suffrage bill was drafted
1870 - drawn up by Richard Pankhurst - introduced by Radical-Liberals - loose grouping within the Liberal Party - drew especially on the ideas of John Stuart Mill
increasing role of women in civil society
- Paid taxes.
- Owned property.
- Were affected by national legislation (e.g. divorce laws).
- Were seen as capable of power (Queen Victoria was female, although she was actually opposed to female enfranchisement).
increasing role of women in politics
- Had roles in local government (e.g. members of school boards).
- The local government franchise, which since 1869 had included all women aged 21 or above who held property on which they were liable to pay local taxes (“rates”)—mainly unmarried or widowed women.
- Active in politics (e.g. anti-slavery movement).
Prior to 1900 - common beliefs in women and their vote
- The older arguments against women having the vote had been defeated (e.g. women not wanting the vote / women’s interests being the same as men’s).
- Some qualifications – what female enfranchisement was not about:
- It was not argued that men and women were the same–just that their differences made it valuable for both groups to be enfranchised (i.e. the argument was one of gender difference, not of equal rights).
- Almost nobody at this stage was calling for women to be MPs.
- Advocates of female enfranchisement were not concerned with the liberation of women more generally.
international recognition of female vote
Were seen as capable of voting–had the vote in some US states from 1860s,and in New Zealand from 1893
1884 refrom act against female enfranchisement
the male franchise had been enlarged in 1884, increasing “the educated woman’s resentment at her political subordination, whilst at the same time downgrading the priority of further electoral reform on the political agenda” (Harrison).
Liberal failure to bring vote pre 1900
- with the return of the Liberal Party to power in 1880 came the expectation of a further Reform Bill to extend the franchise to those men, mostly agricultural workers, as well and miners in colliery villages. These years also saw suffragists beginning to try to build a more popular following.
- More moderate counsels prevailed however and the women’s suffrage amendment to the Reform Act of 1884 was again a compromise formulated in terms of sexual equality - but the opposition of liberal Prime Minister, Gladstone, ensured its defeat
Conservative failure to introduce female vote
- Every Conservative leader from Disraeli onwards expressed some sympathy for women’s suffrage, but, as Pugh has noted, ‘the value of their support was somewhat diminished by their reluctance to take up the question while actually in office’
how feminism advancements harmed female vote pre 1900
- Anti-suffragists claimed that women had no need for the vote, since great advances in the feminist cause had already made significant advances, e.g. reforms to property / divorce / guardianship law. Harrison even argues “it is difficult to think of any feminist reform that was at all widely demanded which was not eventually conceded between 1866 and 1906”.
How political motivations of each party harmed female vote
- Not all men had the vote by this stage (only about 6/10) – there remained the question of whether women should be enfranchised only to the same extent as men (with restrictions such as property requirements), or whether universal suffrage should be introduced.
- Liberals were concerned about any new franchise being restricted by property qualifications, as those with property tended to be wealthier / more conservative. o Conservatives were concerned about universal suffrage – young, unmarried women tended to be more politically radical
Surpising dichotomy in Libera/ Conservative support for female vote
- The Conservatives ended up being the unexpected allies of female enfranchisement (e.g. Balfour supported it), and the Liberals ended up being the unexpected enemy – female enfranchisement was one issue which surprisingly was opposed by those with a New Liberal agenda (e.g. Asquith opposed it, and the Liberals rejected suffrage as a policy option in 1905).
continued desire for female economic dependency in period
Deirdre Beddoe has commented, ‘Public opinion was against married women working in hard times and there was much hostility to married women teachers and their husbands enjoying a double income.
- Little Mother’s Sad Childhood, issued in 1923, painted a lurid picture of the perils of families where mothers were bread-winners and fathers were unemployed. The message was that work must be found for father. Leaflets issued during 1931 and 1935 claimed that above all women wanted security at home. In short, women’s rights at work were not a priority in the inter war years.
- It was not until 1991 that separate taxation for husband and wife was implemented even though Women teachers managed to win for themselves about five-sixths of men’s pay during the inter-war years
effect of 1918 reform of the people’s act on suffrage movements
- Fawcett described how, immediately the extension of the franchise was decided, the council of NUWSS decided to extend its aims. The council retained the old single objective, “to obtain the parliamentary franchise for women on the same terms as it is or may be granted to men,” but added two more: “to obtain all other such reforms, economic, legislative and social, as are necessary to secure a real equality of liberties, status and opportunities between men and women,” and “to assist women to realize their responsibility as voters.”
continued limitation to female independence- economic/ educational - post war
- 1921 census said fewer women were ‘gainfully employed’ than in 1911 and in 1927 Oxford limited the number of students allowed to attend female colleges
female agitation post WW1
- Female agitation for the vote never regained its pre-WW1 status- “by the end of the 1920s, feminism as a distinct political and social movement no longer existed”.
war effect on nature of feminism- soldiers
- Pre-war feminism was attack on separate-spheres ideology, wanted ‘natural equality’. Post-war, wanted a separate, special sphere for women- relationship between the sexes as one of complementarity’. More akin to pre-war anti-suffragists
- Catherine Hartley said that the emphasis of sexual difference stemmed from the male aggression that resulted from WW1- “we women were brough back to the primitive conception of the relative position of the two sexes” she also said she was glad for this biological distinction as it differentiated them from men. She alongside Christabel Pankhurst believed that brutality of men at war taught us about ‘nature of masculinity’, however this led to the assertion of the ‘drive-discharge’- biological rather than societal drives to determine male behaviour.
- Emmeline Pethwick-Lawrence said that she heard from a soldier on leave that many soldiers believed “that many men at the front felt that women had left them to their fate- but he put it more strongly than that.” He said that these soldiers felt more hatred for those at home than they did for the enemy.
economically little changed for women post war
- Women who were employed were vilified by the press- they prevented men from working and Philip Gibbs said women were refusing to give up their jobs.
- In April 1919, the Leeds Mercury complained that female workers duty during the war is “seriously blemished by their habitual and aggressive incivility, and a callous disregard for the welfare of passengers” and warned it will make their work during the war associated with negative thoughts
- In March 1921, the Daily news said that ‘the attitude of the public towards women is more full of contempt and bitterness than has been the case since the suffragette outbreaks’
- Women largely accepted discrimination in pay and the practice of awarding higher increases to men during the war.
Pugh on success of women post war
- Pugh- A wider and more independent personal life often appeared to be the chief aim of the war years - middle class were apt to regard the emancipation of their sex as an accomplished fact by the inter-war period.
Pre- enfranchisement Tory party attitude to women
- Before suffrage, Conservatives saw women’s influence as largely irrelevant, telling canvassers in 1912: “Don’t be satisfied with seeing the wife. She may talk, but remember the husband is the voter. See him”.
Masculinity of Tory leaders
- Masculinity was very prominent in Conservative idealizations of leadership: Party literature of Baldwin as St George fighting the dragon of unemployment, and as a figure of rocklike strength combined with reassuring male authority versus Labour leaders, and particularly Ramsay MacDonald, as a female figure—unattractive, shameless and with a difficult brood of children.
Masculintiy of women in Tory party
- Conservative women were wary of feminist strategies and reluctant to be thought of as feminists. Typically, they sought the removal of barriers to their participation rather than guarantees that they would be included.
Tories on equal pay
- Conservative party kept shifting its stance on equal pay- a 1918 leaflet stated: ‘We must fit ourselves to live in a new world … Special attention should be paid by the Association to the interests of women in industry and home life, and to national health and work.’ This leaflet, Why Women should Join the Women’s Branch of the National Unionist Association, appeared in many editions in the inter-war period, but only in its first manifestation did it advocate equal pay.
Tory party and canvassing to women
- 1929, Conservatives only viewed women as mothers with a section in their manifesto- ‘welfare of mothers and children’, didn’t make an appeal to young and childless women
difficulty in being a female MP
- To be a female MP: women had to name an MP and a constituency association chair, and to be credible to them as a potential national politician. For a young woman to be in this position she must have broken out of her gender stereotype early enough to gain several years of political experience
Conservative’s direct role in extending the franchise
- Baldwin passed the Equal franchise Act in May 1928 – “Women will have, with us, the fullest rights. The grounds for the old agitation is gone, and gone forever.”. Women became 53% of the electorate.
female trade union membership
women employees were less likely than men to be unionized. The membership rate among female ‘wage-earners’ hardly is likely to have increased from the 20 per cent it attained in 1920, when it was only two-fifths the rate for males. Thus young; single, working-class women did not have the same institutional reinforcement not to swerve from loyalty to Labour that their male counterparts did.
- 1.2 million women had joined trade unions by 1918 compared to 5.3 million men.
Labour as pro suffrage
- The only universally pro-suffrage party.
- In 1912, decides no suffrage bill will be acceptable to Labour unless it includes women.
