Votes For Women Flashcards
What was the women’s Poverty Act of 1882?
-It allowed married women to own their own house
What is free and compulsory education of 1891?
-Free and Compulsory education for all working class children up to the age of 12
What is the Factory Act of 1986?
- Bans employment of children under 11 in factories
- Women cannot be employed for 4 weeks after having a child
What are the arguments FOR votes for women?
- Many single/widowed women have the same responsibility as men
- Women pay taxes like men
- Women should be able to influence MPs decisions
- Un-educated men can vote but well-educated women can’t
- Parliaments decisions affect work as well as men
What is suffrage?
-The right to vote in General Elections
what are the arguments AGAINST votes for women?
- Women are too pure and should be kept from the grubby work of politics
- Women are too emotional
- That would mean that they have to give it to all the men
- Women do not fight in wars, so should not be able to decide if the country goes to war
Who were the suffragists?
- They were non-violent
- Set up in 1897
- They were called the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Society (NUWSS)
- Mrs Millicent Fawcett was the leader
- She believed in constitutional campaigning
- They had 500 local branches
- They were supported by back-bench liberals - not the leaders
- They gained votes by issuing leaflets, presenting petitions and organising meeting
Who were the suffragettes?
- They were violent
- Set up in 1903
- They were called the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU)
- Set up by Emmeline Pankhurst
- She thought they had to be more radical and militant in order to succeed
- The Liberal Prime Minister, Asquith, was firmly against women’s suffrage
- They disrupted political meetings and harassed MPs and the PM
What was Direct Action after 1908?
- The latest bill ran out in 1908
- Edith New began making speeches in Downing Street; she was arrested after chaining herself to a fence, so she couldn’t be moved
- Stones were thrown at the windows of 10 Downing Street
- In October, Pankhurst, her daughter and ‘General’ Flora Drummond were arrested for getting a crowd to ‘rush’ the house of commons
- They wanted to make it a big issue
- Being arrested showed the love for their cause
- They were violent, so that they would be seen
Describe reactions to direct action.
- Public reactions were mixed
- Some people were sympathetic, some were worried
- The relations between the Suffragists and Suffragettes were becoming increasingly tense
- Pankhurst wanted to join forces, but Fawcett didn’t
What was a set back in parliament in 1911?
- In 1911 the government promised a conciliation bill which won supports from all parties
- Suffragettes suspended action
- The Suffragists held 4,000 meetings (30 per day) to support the bill
- It got 167 votes
- Then Asquith dropped the bill, and said that he planned to give votes to all men and women could be added if MPs wished
- Suffragists and Suffragettes were furious
What was the Suffragist response?
- They tried to persuade the Prime Minister to change his mind
- Decided to support Labour at the next election
- Organised a peaceful pilgrimage from Carlisle to London with thousands of other Suffragists
What was the Suffragette response?
- Escalated their campaign of violence
- Smashed windows, set fire to postboxes, bombed churches and damaged cricket pitches and tennis courts
Describe hunger strikes.
- Started in 1909 by the suffragettes in prison
- Won them sympathy
- The authorities started to force feed them
- This made the public mad and won the Suffragettes support
- This lead to the Cat and Mouse Act
Describe pressure on parliament.
- Petitions were drawn up and sent to parliament
- The petitions in 1910 in support of the Conciliation Bill got over 250,000 signatures
- Women met MPs to try and get support for their cause
