Womens Suffrage

Question 1

Name 3 events which show the developments in girls education in the late 19th C

Answer 1

1870 - foresters education act providing young children including girls with an education
1870s - Cambridge and London universities admitted girls
1900 - compulsory schooling for boys and girls up to the age of 12

Question 2

What changing attitudes to family life contributed to the support of women’s suffrage in the late 19th C?

Answer 2

Women gained more independent due to increase of birth control
Middle and working class women choose to limit the size of their families

Question 3

What was the changes in working life for women towards the end of the 19th C?

Answer 3

Decline in traditional “women’s work”
5 million women earn a wage
Increase in number of women entering professions e.g doctors and nurses

Question 4

Who led the suffragettes?

Answer 4

Emmeline Pankhurst

Question 5

Who led the suffragists?

Answer 5

Millicent Fawcett

Question 6

What was the suffragists known as?

Answer 6

National union of women’s suffrage societies (NUWSS)

Question 7

What was the suffragettes known as?

Answer 7

Women’s social and political union (WSPU)

Question 8

When and why was the suffragettes formed?

Answer 8

1903
Because of the lack of success by the suffragists - thought their cause had to be made more public by being more radical and militant

Question 9

What was direct action and when was it?

Answer 9

1908
Suffragettes started their campaign and disrupted political meetings, harassed ministers and chained themselves to railings

Question 10

What is the argument that the suffragettes did help get women the vote?

Answer 10

A women getting arrested for her cause showed how important it was to her
Processions and petitions were easily ignored, direct action wasn’t
Raised the profile of their cause
Decades of suffragist campaigning achieved nothing but empty promises - in years up to 1900 Parliament received the women’s suffrage bill 15 times and 15 times it failed

Question 11

What did the suffragettes want to do?

Answer 11

Wanted to show the government women’s suffrage was a serious issue that couldn’t be ignored

Question 12

Describe the conciliation bill

Answer 12

Acceptable to all parties and gives women the vote
Drafted in June 1910
Abandoned on November 1910 when Asquith calls a general election
Reintroduced in May 1911 but dropped in March 1912 by Asquith (introduced men’s suffrage instead) despite it having a majority vote of 167

Question 13

What were the reactions to the suffragettes direct action?

Answer 13

Some sympathetic
Some worried
Some scornful
Government became more serious only after militancy began
Put off some MPs who would’ve otherwise supported
MPs couldn’t give into violence

Question 14

Why was the Cat and Mouse act introduced?

Answer 14

Suffragettes protested in prison by going on hunger strike, the government force fed them which was brutal and degrading and won a lot of public sympathy so the government passed the cat and mouse act

Question 15

What was the Cat and Mouse act?

Answer 15

Allowed hunger strikers to leave prison, recover, then return to finish their sentence

Question 16

When was the Cat and Mouse act introduced?

Answer 16

1913

Question 17

Which party was the only party committed to women’s suffrage?

Answer 17

Labour

Question 18

What happened to Emily Davison?

Answer 18

Publicity stunt went wrong

Tried to attach the suffragette banner to the Kings horse in the Derby but she was hit and killed

Question 19

What did Emily Davison become?

Answer 19

A martyr
Her funeral was attended by thousands of suffragettes and was a celebration of her ultimate sacrifice
Major publicity

Question 20

Describe Emily Davison

Answer 20

Experienced campaigner
Been in prison 9 times as part of the cause
Been on hunger strike
Set fire to post boxes and even a post office for her cause

Question 21

What happened to the campaign when war broke out?

Answer 21

The campaign for the vote was suspended and all effort thrown into the war effort

Question 22

What did the suffragists do during the war?

Answer 22

Worked hard to persuade the men to join the army

Question 23

What did the suffragettes do during the war?

Answer 23

Staged a huge demonstration demanding all women to be allowed to work in munitions factories

Question 24

What was the Order of the White Feather?

Answer 24

Encouraged women to give a white feather to men not in the armed forces
White feather was a symbol of a coward

Question 25

What did the women members of the active service league do?

Answer 25

Took an oath to promise to encourage young men to join up

Question 26

What happened to women’s jobs during the war?

Answer 26

Gained access to a whole range of jobs previously just done by men e.g. 
Bus conductors
Postal workers
Farm labourers
Coal deliverers
Road layers

Question 27

How many women served in the Women’s Land Army during the war?

Answer 27

260 000

Question 28

When was the WAAC founded and what was it?

Answer 28

1918

First women army unit

Question 29

What service did women do during the war?

Answer 29

Women’s volunteer police service

Question 30

How did women help in the Salvation Army?

Answer 30

Nurses, cooks and helpers went to the front to aid the soldiers and civilians in France

Question 31

What were the employers attitudes to the women’s war effort?

Answer 31

Reluctant to take on women to fill men’s jobs (manufacturing) - though they weren’t capable of learning the necessary skills and feared the unions
In offices women were quickly employed

Question 32

What were the unions attitudes to the women’s war effort?

Answer 32

Resisted the employment of women workers - feared women would be paid less threatening men’s wages
Did not accept female members

Question 33

What did the government do during the war?

Answer 33

Set an example to private industry by employing women exclusively in munition factories
By the end of the war 800 000 women has taken up engineering jobs

Question 34

What were the attitudes in parliament to women’s suffrage after WW1?

Answer 34

Passed the vote for women

Question 35

What were the attitudes in parliament to different groups of women after WW1?

Answer 35

Only older married women or women who owned property could vote in 1918
Young, single, working class women couldn’t because they feared their ideas maybe too radical
Women could now stand for parliament - 1919 Nancy Astor first women MP to take seat in Commons
Full voting rights granted in 1928

Question 36

Name 3 events which show the developing legal and political status of women in the late 19th C

Answer 36

1839 - wife on seperation from husband could legally claim custody of children under 7
1857 - divorce (difficult but possible)
1870 - women allowed to keep money and property after marriage