Women's Suffrage Flashcards
What was life for Women in Britain?
The first action to gain female suffrage is generally thought to be in 1832, when a woman asked the campaigners for a wider male vote to include women. From that point on, the cause of women’s suffrage
was always present in British politics. In 1867 the vote was extended to more of the male population. In the same year a radical young lawyer called Richard Pankhurst tried unsuccessfully to get British courts to accept votes for women. In 1884 the vote was extended to more men. This
started a slow-moving movement of groups and individuals who felt that excluding women from the vote was wrong. Many of those in favour of women’s suffrage supported the newly formed Independent
Labour Party. Labour generally supported female suffrage and also felt that women voters would support the kind of economic and social reforms that Labour wanted to see. Other campaigners, like the Crewe textile worker Ada Nield and the Lancashire
mill workers’ leader Selina Cooper, also campaigned by collecting signatures on giant petitions.
What was life for Women in Russia?
Two of the earliest women’s suffrage victories were achieved in the Russian Empire, in Finland and Russia, as a result of wars and revolutions. Their significance has been largely ignored, yet study of these achievements challenges the standard paradigms about the conditions (struggle within a democracy, geographic location on the ‘periphery’), which favoured early suffrage breakthroughs. This article analyses the particular circumstances in Finland and Russia, which, in a relatively short amount of time, broke down resistance to giving women the vote. An examination of the events surrounding the February 1917 Russian Revolution, which toppled the Tsar, demonstrates the significant role of women in initiating and furthering the revolutionary momentum as well as fighting for their own rights. Both the Finns and the Russians pioneered in extending the legacies of the French and American Revolutions to include women.
What was life for Women in Scandinavia?
Finnish women who don’t work are rare today. By 1980, of those who were married, 70 percent worked outside the home. Women hold full time employment and don’t generally leave jobs to have children. Nationally mandated maternity and daycare benefits enable women to have job security and contribute as equal partners in society. In Finland, everyone is entitled to nine months paid parental leave which may be shared as maternity and paternity leave. Working parents can also take advantage of municipal daycare for their pre-school children. While creating the social and political conditions for combining motherhood and employment hasn’t completely eliminated discrimination from working life, it has made support for women’s rights and family values tangible realities in contemporary Finland.
