The Fight For Women's Suffrage

Question 1

Why were there arguments for women having the vote?

Answer 1

• Women pay taxes just like men
• Other countries like New Zealand allow women to vote
• Uneducated working men can vote
• Women could vote in local elections since 1888, why not national ones?

Question 2

Why were there arguements for women not having the vote?

Answer 2

• Women and men have ‘separate spheres’. Women inhabit the private world of the home and men the public world of work and politics. If women start operating in the ‘public sphere’ the home would be neglected.
• Women don’t fight for their country and so haven’t earned the right to vote
• Women’s views are already represented by their husbands
• Women are too emotional to be trusted with the vote
• A quote from Sarah Ellis (1845) who stated: ‘as a women, the first thing of importance is to be content to be below men – below them in mental power, in the same proportion that you are in bodily strength’.

Question 3

How were women able to get the vote in 1918?

Answer 3

The suffragettes had put away their militant action to help Britain in WW1.This is because there is a large statistical increase with 2.1m women working in the industry in 1914 though in 1918 there were 2.9m working in the industry showing that women are able to do things that men can already do.This changed people perspectives on the womens suffrage and they were given the right to vote in 1918 and around 75% of domestic violence decreased for women