Women's Suffrage

Question 1

Arguments for women’s suffrage

Answer 1

• Other countries like New Zealand have allowed it
• Women also pay taxes
• Women could vote in local elections

Question 2

Arguments against women’s suffrage

Answer 2

• Women’s views shared with their husband
• Women don’t fight for this country
• Women should only be involved in the private world of the home

Question 3

By 1900, how many women were suffagists?

Answer 3

50,000

Question 4

What did suffragists do?

Answer 4

• Collected petitions
• Wrote to Parliament
• Went on marches to protest

Question 5

Why were the suffragettes formed?

Answer 5

By 1905, suffragists had gotten nowhere and some of them decided to change tactics

Question 6

What did suffragettes do?

Answer 6

• Disrupted political meetings
• Chained themselves to railings in Downing Street
• Smashed Parliament’s windows with stones

Question 7

How did the suffragettes strike?

Answer 7

When they were sent to prison, they refused food forcing the Goverment to free them

Question 8

What did the MPs do in reaction to the suffragttes’ actions and what did it result in?

Answer 8

They opposed the suffragettes’ demands, which resulted in a defeat of their Bill by 47 votes, which the Government had previously promised to support

Question 9

What did Emmeline Pankhurst say about the suffragettes’ violent campaigning?

Answer 9

It still made women’s suffrage a matter of news and that “now the newspapers are full of us”

Question 10

What did Parliament do in 1918?

Answer 10

They changed the voting laws to allow women over the age of 30 to vote

Question 11

What had happened by 1928?

Answer 11

All women over the age of 21 had the right to vote

Question 12

Who was Emily Davison?

Answer 12

A very militant suffragette who believed in ‘deeds not words’

Question 13

What was strange about Davison’s death?

Answer 13

• She would have sent a fairwell message to her mother but sewed suffragette flags in her coat
• She was ‘never brighter than on that day’, but claimed that something would be in the evening paper
• She had a return railway ticket

Question 14

What quote was used by the government to promote female munition workers?

Answer 14

“On her their lives depend”

Question 15

What was the difference in women working in metal industries between July 1914 and July 1918?

Answer 15

170,000 to 594,000

Question 16

Why do some sources suggest little change about the view of female workers by the end of WW1?

Answer 16

Women were resented when working in farms, hospitals and factories but celebrated if they became nurses, provided refreshments and brought up future soldiers

Question 17

Why was the age limit of female voters originally 30?

Answer 17

Many politicans agreed that these women were more likely to vote the same as their husbands and were more sensible

Question 18

What did some politicians think was a sufficient service for women’s suffrage?

Answer 18

Women who had brought children up succesfully

Question 19

What did Herman Asquith think about women’s suffrage after the war?

Answer 19

Some measure of women’s suffrage should be given because they have contributed to every service during WW1 except actually fighting

Question 20

What happened in 1903?

Answer 20

Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters formed the Women’s Social and Political Union

Question 21

What was the WSPU’s aim?

Answer 21

To put pressure on the government by using militant protests

Question 22

What happened in 1905?

Answer 22

The Pankhursts started their campaign by shouting out slogans while a government minister was making a speech