Votes for Women

Question 1

When did Emily Davidson kill herself at the derby?

Answer 1

June 1913

Question 2

What jobs could women not have?

Answer 2

Lawyers, Bankers or Stockbrokers/ men paid more

Question 3

By how much did the number of women working in an office from 1861 to 1911 increase by?

Answer 3

400%

Question 4

Up to what date did most women not go school?

Answer 4

1870

Question 5

In 1911 how much of married women were in employment?

Answer 5

10%

Question 6

What was it like being married before 1890’s?

Answer 6

• Impossible to get divorce
• properties to their husbands
• Wife battering and martial rape was legal

Question 7

How did marriage change in the 1890’s?

Answer 7

• women could file divorce on grounds of cruelty
• women allowed to keep their own property
• Women no longer had to stay in her husband’s home against her own will

Question 8

What were the violent methods women used to gain vote?

Answer 8

• 1908/Edith New chained herself to Downing Street railings in response to parliament stalling on female suffrage bills.
• Refused to pay tax’s
• Emily Davidson bombed Lloyd George’s home in 1913
• Women went on hunger strikes
• Attacked people/ axe thrown at Prime Minister.

Question 9

What were the Non-Violent ways women used to gain the vote?

Answer 9

• Held meetings and demonstrations held in places such as Trafalgar Square, not uncommon for 20,000 to show up
• Put pressure on parliament - in 1910 a petition contained 250,000 signatures
• Helped in elections
• Propaganda - had a newspaper called ‘votes for women’ which 40,000 people read

Question 10

What happened on Black Friday?

Answer 10

• 300 WSPU women tried to run passed police
• Many reported being assaulted and manhandled by police
• Asquith’s car was vandalised in response to this
• 2 women died and 200 were arrested

Question 11

Aftermath of Black Friday?

Answer 11

• Action of police was criticised
• a big part of the society still was not too keen on women’s rights
• Asquith stated if Liberals won he include a suffrage bill which would amend women the right to vote

Question 12

Reason on why people thought women should be allowed to vote?

Answer 12

• Women started to prove themselves in political world
• All men who owned property were allowed to vote however women who had more property than men were not
• Countries like New Zeland already allowed women to vote and so did some states in America

Question 13

Reasons on why women should not be allowed to vote?

Answer 13

• Britain became worlds most powerful nation without women voting(if it ain’t broke don’t fix it)
• Women were already represented by their husbands so no need to vote
• Women more suited to domestic chores of being housewives

Question 14

Who was Mary Humphray and what did she do?

Answer 14

Was against women voting and collected 320,000 signature from people voting for women NOT to vote.

Question 15

How did the Liberal Government react to the WSPU?

Answer 15

• found reasons to delay the subject of Womens Votes

- Women were banned from Liberal Meetings

Question 16

Why did prisons have to force feed?

Answer 16

• authorities tried to humiliate women and treat them as normal criminals
• were only allowed to bath once a week
• Hunger strike was a reaction to the conditions and women also did this to try to get sympathy from the public

Question 17

What was the Cat and Mouse act?

Answer 17

• Women were released from prison for health and then re-arrested when they were fine again
• Emmeline Pankhurst was in prison 13 times

Question 18

Which newspaper was against women voting and why?

Answer 18

The Times

• saw women as lunatics and their behaviour being hysterical
• Told public about violent methods used by women

Question 19

When did Emily Davidson try to kill herself(not the derby)?

Answer 19

Threw herself off a gallery floor to make authorities look bad and gain sympathy.

Question 20

How did Emily Davidson killing herself at the derby help the cause?

Answer 20

• international publicity/was a huge event

- Funeral was very public and emotional which gained alot of sympathy

Question 21

How did Emily Davidson killing herself at the Derby affect the cause?

Answer 21

• The violence upset the public
• Attack on kings horse was unpopular
• she was highly educated what would less intelligent women do?

Question 22

How effective were NUWSS and WSPU campaigns?

Answer 22

NUWSS:
-Good at working with Liberals
-Had over 100,000 members and 500 branches
-Had marches with over 20,000 marchers each time
-had amazing propaganda - ‘votes for women’ had a circulation of 40,000
WSPU:
-Brutal force feeding and Cat and Mouse Act gained sympathy
-The 1913 derby gained public’s attention
-Bravery and commitment of women gave admiration to people

Question 23

How were the NUWSS and WSPU not effective during campaigns?

Answer 23

NUWSS:
-persistent campaigning was not the driving force for the reform
-NUWSS was often foreshadowed for the WSPU
-opposing attitudes of the two groups worked against each other and proved to the government women should not be taken seriously
WSPU:
-Violence turned people against their campaign
-opposing attitudes of the two groups worked against each other and proved to the government women should not be taken seriously

Question 24

Opposing attitudes of WSPU and NUWSS during the war?

Answer 24

WSPU:
-worked amazingly well with the government to encourage women to work
-Britain was short of 15 million workers/without workers Britain would grind to a halt
-Suffragette leaders became more patriotic than men
-1915 they organised a ‘right to serve’ march
NUWSS:
-set up the employment register to recruit women to work and replace the men who had gone to the front
-trained women to the new work
-organised hospital units for the front lines with all female unit of doctors nurses and ambulance drivers

Question 25

How did the war improve attitudes towards women?(war and jobs)

Answer 25

• FANY was set up- women drove ambulances and set up soup kitchens
• 126,000 VAD’s took an active part in the war/assisting in hospitals
• Munitionettes/women employed in munition factories
• munitionettes produced 80% of the weapons and shells used in the british army
• around 400 women died to exposure of TNT
• 200 women died from explosion in silvertown
• Only 16,000 women joined the land army/most were needed to take over the mens jobs
• by 1918 800,000 women were in industry
• half a million women replaced men jobs in offices

Question 26

What did the bill in Feb 1918 do?

Answer 26

• women over 30 could vote

- 8 million out of 21 million voters were women

Question 27

Why did women gain the vote?(war work)

Answer 27

• work in war destroyed arguments about how women did not help society
• one argument was that women did not help in the defence of the country which was wrong
• government were worries suffragettes would start campaigning after the war, what would it look like if they locked up the people who helped them win the war

Question 28

Why did women gain the vote?(campaigns before war)

Answer 28

• women’s campaigning before the war created an issue which could no longer be ignored
• newspapers always talked about womens rights which could no longer be ignored

Question 29

Why did women gain the vote?(other reasons)

Answer 29

• Lloyd George replaced Asquith as PM. He was more sympathetic.
• Liberal and labour were happy that all classes and genders could vote because now they would not all vote conservatives

Question 30

what were some problems with the 1918 vote?

Answer 30

• Some women did not support towards the war effort(Sylvia Pankhurst). Did the government want to award these people?
• Many women who did really crucial jobs were under the age of 30 so were not able to vote n 1918.