Womens Suffrage Flashcards
Intro background facts
In Victoriana and Edwardian Britain, women were seen as second-class and had no influence. After education had improved, women created the women’s suffrage movement as they realised they needed to be able to vote to address the problems they faced. By 1918, women over 30 gained the right to vote.
Intro factors and LOA
This essay will discuss the suffragettes, the suffragists, and the impact of the Great War as the reasons for women gaining the vote by 1918. This essay will argue that the impact of the Great War was the most important reason for women gaining the right to vote by 1918
Suffragists knowledge 1
The suffragists used peaceful protest methods such as petitions, marches, pamphlets, and speeches. One of their biggest campaign was to convince MPs that women deserved the right to vote. In 1907, the Suffragists compaigned by marching with over 3,000 women.
Suffragists analysis 1
These campaign methods helped lead to women gaining the vote as it created more publicity and strengthened their arguments with peaceful and successful campaigns.
Suffragists knowledge 2
The suffragists realised that they would need the support from MPs to be successful, and so up to 1912, they campaigned for individuals who supported the suffragists. Leading up to ww1, the labour party allied with the suffragists and helped to introduce private member bills to give women the right to vote.
Suffragists analysis 2
This helped lead to women gaining the vote as the MPs helped support and develop the womens suffrage movement by proposing laws and voting in support of womens suffrage.
Suffragists counter argument
However, there were some problems as the Suffragists were taking a while to make progress. By the mid 1800’s women were becoming frustrated with the lack of progress, encouraging them to leave the suffragists for more extremist groups hoping to make more progress.
Suffragists counter argument analysis
This weakened the suffragists’ movement as they had fewer people and support, making it more difficult for the suffragists to gain the right to vote by their protest methods.
Suffragettes knowledge 1
The suffragettes used very violent protest methods such as window smashing and arson attacks. These protest methods and others like placing bombs in mailboxes and slashing important paintings meant that many suffragettes had to serve sentences in prison for criminal damages.
Suffragettes analysis 1
This helped lead to women gaining the vote as it generated publicity, which made people more aware of their cause and intensified their protest methods, making it more obvious that something had to be done.
Suffragettes knowledge 2
Suffragettes continued to protest in prison by going on hunger strike. Some of these women became seriously ill, and to avoid the death of Suffragettes, the government introduced force feeding. The public was appalled by this, which led to he cat and mouse act where Suffragettes on hunger strike would be released and then re-arrested when they were healthy.
Suffragettes analysis 2
This helped lead to women gaining the vote as it made out that the suffragettes were heroes for becoming seriously ill while fighting for the right to vote and made the government seem evil for force feeding the suffragettes and stupid fir letting them go and re-arrestinh them.
Suffragettes counter argument
However, the suffragettes campaign showed exactly why women should not be given the right to vote. The conservative party and many in the Liberal punty vere against women because of the suffragettes violent protect methods.
Suffragettes counter argument analysis
This limited the importance of the suffragettes as a reason for women gaining the vote as it prevented people from seeing that women were deserving of the vote and would vote for the right things because of their violence.
Impact of the Great War knowledge 1
When men had to go fight in the war, women had to fill the job vacancies left by men. Jobs that women took up included tram drivers, cotton mills, office workers, and even jobs like firefighters and police officers.
Impact of the Great War analysis 1
This helped lead to women gaining the vote as women had economic power, which meant that they could refuse to work, which would destroy Britain’s economy. It also showed that women were equal to men as they were trusted to do the same jobs.
Impact of the Great War knowledge 2
Women also made weapib and shells for the British army and became known as munitionettes. These women risked their lives working with poisonous substances, and this exposure caused their hair and skin to turn yellow, earning them the nickname of the ‘canaries’. Many other women became nurses to nurse soldiers on the western front or on their return to the UK.
Impact of the Great War analysis 2
This led to women gaining the vote as it meant that the country was dependent on women to keep the war effort going as the women were providing the army with their weapons. This meant that men were dependent on them as well, showing that if women were responsible enough to vote.
Impact of the Great War counter argument
Because of the war, women became more independent and gained more respect for themselves. However, young women who had contributed to the war got no recognition as only women over 30 gained the vote. When the war was over, many women were forced to give up their jobs to men returning from the army.
Impact of the Great War counter argument analysis
This limits the importance ce of the impact of the Great War on achieving women the vote as it meant that the change was only temporary because after the war ended women lost their jobs and independence reducing the progress made during the war.
Conclusion judgement and justification
The most important factor in women gaining the right to vote by 1918 was the impact of the Great War. This was because during the war, women took over the men’s jobs to keep the British economy going, which shows that women were equal to men as they were trusted to do the same jobs. Another reason why the impact of the Great War was the most important factor in women gaining the vote was because women helped supply the army by making weapons which meant the men and the army were dependent on women. Thsi showed that women were responsible enought o take their role in society and vote for the right things.
Conclusion rejection
The suffragists were not the most important factor in women gaining the vote because they were making little progress which encouraged supporters to leave for more extremist groups which weakened the siffragists as they had less people supporting them and their protest methods. The suffragettes were not the most important factor in women gaining the vote because their violent protest methods showed exactly why women could not be trusted to vote and reinforced the thoughts that women would vote for the wrong things and were irresponsible.
