WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE IN GREAT BRITAIN.   Term Paper ID:26580 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Examines role of suffragettes in fight for the vote which was won in 1918. Political & social background, class issues, WWI, controversial tactics, fasts, leadership.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Examines role of suffragettes in fight for the vote which was won in 1918. Political & social background, class issues, WWI, controversial tactics, fasts, leadership. Paper Introduction: SUFFRAGETTES AND THE WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT IN BRITAIN This research paper discusses the role of the suffragettes in the movement to enfranchise women in Great Britain. The suffragettes were members of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) which was founded in 1903 and which during the decade preceding the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 engaged in more militant tactics which distinguished them from most other women suffragists. Many of the activities of the suffragettes evoked public controversy and produced some of the most colorful events on the Edwardian scene in Britain. Even today, passions have not entirely cooled which is evident in the exaggerated claims and assertions made by partisans on both sides. The thesis of this essay is that the ultimate granting of Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Neal, British History 188 -1965: Democracy and Responsibility(New York: Humanities Press, 197 ), 136. In the meantime, there had been a substantialincrease during the last quarter of the 19th century in the number of womenin the labor force. Kraus Reprint Co., 1969.Reynolds, E.F. London: Routledge Kegan Paul, 1967.----------------------- [1]Constance Rover, Women's Suffrage and Party Politics in Britain 1866-1914 (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1967), 14. New York: Oxford, n.d.Neal, T. New York: Holmes & Meier, 1978.Lewis, Jane. Separate Sphere: The Opposition to Women's Suffrage in Britain. They needed tobecause, as Roper puts it, "the propaganda and tactics [of theconstitutional movement] had become stale by the end of the nineteenthcentury."[7] The best proof of that is that except for an occasionalpositive editorial the movement was essentially not covered by the press.The suffragettes put it back on the front page. Harrisoncautions that it is unwise to overpersonalize these issues and to seek tocast personal blame on the leadership of either side, Mrs. Pankhurst or Mr.Asquith for the failure of women's suffrage to occur before the War:"history advances . The suffragettes weremembers of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) which was foundedin 19 3 and which during the decade preceding the outbreak of the FirstWorld War in 1914 engaged in more militant tactics which distinguished themfrom most other women suffragists. [5]Fulford, 75. Insupport of the view that the more violent later tactics of the suffragettescost them public support, Romero quotes Mrs. Pankhurst's youngest daughterAdela who said: "I knew all too well after 191 we were rapidly losingground."[15] Undoubtedly, there were other issues in the years before 1914 whichranked much higher on the political agenda of Britain's leaders such asIrish Home Rule, the German naval threat and industrial strikes. The suffragists organized peaceful demonstrations and marches andsent a deputation to meet the new Prime Minister Sir Henry Campbell-Bannermann. As Fulfordsays, "the case of woman's suffrage was to be illumined throughout the landby the harsh glare of martyrdom."[13] Forcible feeding was a gruesomeordeal, but the willingness of the movement's partisans and leaders such asSylvia to undergo it had a strong and favorable impact on public opinion,prompting even the King (George VI) to inquire of the government whether itwas necessary. On the other hand, Mrs. Pankhurst and her daughter Christabeldid become increasingly dictatorial in the years after 19 6 and drove outof WSPU more moderate voices such as Madame Despard, who used the non-payment of taxes as a mode of protest through her Women's Freedom League,the Pethick-Lawrences and even Sylvia. [3]Roger Fulford, Votes for Women: The Story of a Struggle (London:Faber and Faber, 1957), 69. Arnstein, Britain Yesterday and Today 183 To The Present(boston: Heath, 1966), 251. A. Mrs. Pankhurst's decision to move the HQ of the WSPU to London and tolink forces with Mr. and Mrs. Pethick-Lawrence was decisive. [15]Romero, 67. Votes for Women. From the very first proposals for women's suffrage advancedby the Quakers in the 184 s through the formal proposal presented on theirbehalf by John Stuart Mill in Parliament in 1867 and thereafter, womensuffragists asked only that they be granted the same rights as men withrespect to the vote. Benjamin Disraeli and Lord Salisbury, the Conservativeleaders of the late 19th century, paid lip service to women's suffrage butworked behind the scenes to defeat it. [6]Rover, 17. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987.Rover, Constance. The government forcibly fed them with tubes whichearned it a good deal of public criticism. Women in England 187 -1913: Sexual Divisions and Social Change. The movement succeeded in winning the franchise for womento vote in municipal elections and to serve in various local capacities, aselected school board and later borough officials and mayors as well as inappointed posts such as Poor Law Guardians and in the civil service. SUFFRAGETTES AND THE WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT IN BRITAIN This research paper discusses the role of the suffragettes in themovement to enfranchise women in Great Britain. Romero, E. [9]Pankhurst, 66. [18]E.F. Mary Wollstonescraft withher Vindication of the Rights of Women in 1792 and William Thompson,believed to be a pseudonym for an Irish widow named Mrs. Wheeler, with hisAppeal in 1825 had called for the emancipation of women but they were wellbefore their time. Theycould not, however, vote or run for Parliament. [4]Lewis, 97. Werner Laurie, 1935, rptd.Kraus Reprint Co., 1969), 58. Reynolds and N. (Ed.). By theirpersistence and courage, the suffragettes earned the right to be treated asFirst Division prisoners. Werner Laurie, 1935, rptd. The failure of the suffragists to press earlier foruniversal suffrage may have limited their appeal to Liberal and laterLabour Party leaders who saw their demands as likely to increase theinfluence of the Conservatives. By 19 1, Rover says 5.3 million women or more than 25percent of all adult women (as compared with 12.9 million men) weregainfully employed outside of domestic service.[6] Tactics of the Suffragettes 19 5-1914 A group of women in Manchester and later the East End of London,known as the radical suffragists, which included Sylvia Pankhurst, thedaughter of Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst, the widow of an earlier malesuffragist Richard Pankhurst, sought to expand the mass base of themovement among working women by holding open air meetings at factories. Therefore, it does not appear that thetactics used by the suffragettes had any effect whatsoever on the fate ofthose bills. Votes for Women. But the entry of women into thework force had been well underway since the 189 s and their contributionsdate all the way back to Florence Nightingale and before. London: Faber and Faber, 1957.Harrison, Brian. [It] had shown more clearly than ever before thattheir usefulness to the community was not confined to their duties in thehome."[18] The first comment is inaccurate, the second is insulting towomen. . [14]Brian Harrison, Separate Spheres: The Opposition to Women'sSuffrage in Britain (New York: Holmes & Meier, 1978), 18 . That particular incident did not winany votes, but in general, the suffragettes during the period 19 6-19 9employed fairly ingenious public relations techniques. Mrs. Pankhurst and the other WSPU leaders made a shrewdpolitical judgment that the British government of that time was notsufficiently ruthless to let the prisoners starve. Even today, passionshave not entirely cooled which is evident in the exaggerated claims andassertions made by partisans on both sides. Theother property of the married couple remained, however, under the controlof the husband. BibliographyAtkinson, Diane. London: T. Traditionally, politicalprisoners had been allowed mail and visitors, were not subjected tohumiliating strip searches and baths and were otherwise treated as FirstDivision rather than Second or Third Division prisoners. New York: Humanities Press, 197 .Pankhurst, E. Women's Suffrage and Party Politics in Britain 1866-1914. Fawcett herself disagreed with that assessment: "far from havinginjured the movement, they [the suffragettes] have done more during thelast twelve months to bring it within the region of practical politics thanwe have been able to accomplish in the same number of years."[12] More successful was the resistance of suffragette prisoners toefforts by the authorities to ignore their political rights and to forcefeed them when they went on starvation fasts. The fact is thatthe passage of women's suffrage was relatively easy in 1918 because acoalition government was in power and a pro-suffrage Prime Minister hadreplaced the suffragette's nemesis, Asquith, in 1916. Sylvia. In 1897, all the suffragist organizations were brought together underthe banner of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Society (NUWSS) whichoperated all over the country under the leadership of Mrs. MillicentFawcett, its President. The conservative view isexpressed by Arnstein when he says that "the aim which the prewarsuffragettes had been unable to achieve by agitation was granted to womenen masse as a reward for their patriotic efforts" during the War.[17] Nealand Breshnel say that "the war accelerated the movement toward theemancipation of women. Eventually, under the Cat andMouse Law of 1913, prisoners prematurely released because of the danger totheir health due to forcefeeding could be rearrested later. However, Parnell did not succeed with such tactics during hislifetime. [17]Walter L. Women's Suffrage as a Middle Class Liberal Cause 1867-19 3 Rover said the mid-19th century women's suffrage movement "wasessentially a political movement run by middle-class women."[1] A greatliberal cause of the day was the extension of the franchise to malessubject to fewer and fewer property qualifications under the Great ReformAct of 1832 and the Second Reform Act of 1867. The Life of Emmeline Pankhurst: The Suffragette Struggle for Women's Citizenship. Another questionable decision ofMrs. by twists and turns, with many a failed crusade,mistaken tactic, fatuous argument and broken career lying by thewayside."[16] Influence of the War In two steps, in 1918 when all women over 3 except for some minorproperty qualifications, and in 1928 when all women over 21 wereenfranchised, the suffrage was granted to women. Women filledmany occupations which hitherto had been exclusively or dominantly male,such as chauffeurs and even dockworkers. [13]Fulford, 144. They heckled and hissed all Liberalcandidates at by elections, including the Prime Minister and CabinetMinisters such as Lloyd George who were sympathetic to their cause. [12]Diane Atkinson, Votes for Women (Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress, 1988), 19. Britain Yesterday and Today 183 To The Present. Very little new was saidthereafter. The basic argument for the enfranchisement of women was simplejustice, that it was wrong that they be treated as chattel, what Milldescribed as "the personal body-servant of a despot."[3] The opposition waslargely emotional, "a set of attitudes which dictated that women's naturalsphere was the home, that their full development came only with motherhoodand that 'a womanly woman' would not be interested in or want the vote."[4]Queen Victoria spoke for many in July 1868 when she let it be known that"The Queen is most anxious to enlist everyone who can speak or write orjoin in checking this mad, wicked folly of 'Woman's Rights' with all itsattendant horrors."[5] The cause of women's suffrage was in the Parliamentary doldrumsthroughout the 188 s and 189 s regardless whether the Conservative or theLiberals were in charge. Conclusion The struggle for women's suffrage passed through various phases, anearly overly optimistic period of expectation and enthusiasm, a long periodof waiting in which hope was kept alive by the organization of thesuffragists, revival under the militant drumbeat of the suffragettes underthe resolute leadership of the Pankhursts and their allies, disappointingParliamentary struggles ending in the war and finally the extension of thefranchise after its end. Boston: D.C. The thesis of this essay is that the ultimate granting of the vote tomost adult women, which occurred in 1918, was not the product of World WarI but rather the result of a long chain of events, beginning with largelyfutile middle class liberal and radical efforts to change the role of womenin Victorian society, the slow success of constitutional middle class andburgeoning working class suffragists to win support in Parliament toenfranchisement of women on the same terms as men during the 189 s andearly 19 s, the sympathy and publicity gained for the cause by theflamboyant and defiant tactics of the suffragettes prior to 1912, thefrustrating politics of the pre-war suffrage struggle and the effects ofthe war itself. [7] Roper, 69. By the 189 s, most of the arguments, pro and con, on the merits ofwomen's suffrage had been repeated ad nauseam. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1966.Romero, Patricia A. and Breshnel, N.H. Those tactics included smashing windows ofLondon shops and the Prime Minister's residence, dropping acid inmailboxes, bombing the residences of leading figures and defacing works ofart. [8]E. Perhaps the most important change of all was the entry ofwomen into many occupations, a process which was accelerated by the war butwhich was well underway by 1914. Many of the activities of thesuffragettes evoked public controversy and produced some of the mostcolorful events on the Edwardian scene in Britain. H. [16]Harrison, 2 . From the time she and a number of other middle class women and menformed the Manchester Society for Women's Suffrage in 1866 and until herdeath in 189 , Miss Lydia Becker led the movement. Not all of the tactics of the Suffragettes, even in the early years,19 5-19 9, met with general approval. [2]Jane Lewis, Women in England 187 -195 Sexual Divisions and SocialChange (Brighton: Wheatsheaf Books, 1984), 78. British History 188 -1965: Democracy and Responsibility. . Despite his many promises to the contrary, Prime Minister Asquithappeared to have what can only be described as a visceral (andintellectual) distaste for the whole notion of female participation in thepolitics of the nation. Controversy continues as to whether the suffragettes impaired theirchances of having a favorable bill passed by their use of even moremilitant tactics in 1912-1914. By 19 4 a majority of 114 in Parliament was infavor of women's suffrage. Her tactics wereintellectual and peaceful, journal articles, petitions to Parliament, andpublic meetings. [11]T.A. Mrs. Pankhurst lost the support of some leaders who might haveworked on her behalf, Lloyd George in particular, who had given up onpushing through a women's suffrage bill even before his home was bombed in1914 by one of their more fanatic youths. Inattacking friend and foe alike, Mrs. Pankhurst said that she was wearingdown all opposition in the style of the Irish Nationalist leader CharlesParnell. Sylvia Pankhurst: Portrait of a Radical. In19 3 they founded a separate organization which later was named the Women'sSocial and Political Union (WSPU) and came to be dominated by the Pankhurstfamily (Emmeline and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia). The latterprovided the needed funds and, according to Sylvia Pankhurst, "thespectacular side of the propaganda, advertising the cause by kites, boats,poster, umbrella and horseback parades."[8] WSPU organized Women'sParliaments at Caxton Hall which then marched to Parliament Square at theopening of Parliament each February from 19 6 onwards resulting inconfrontations with the police and many arrests. By the 186 s and 187 s, economic and social changes hadtaken place in the position of middle class Victorian women which Lewisdescribed as follows: As land gradually ceased to be a major source of middle class wealth, and as salaries became more important, so marriage ceased to be an essentially dynastic settlement between two kin groups and it became possible to grant women more freedom, both emotional (to marry whom they wished) and legal, within marriage[2] Under the Married Women's Property Acts of 187 and 1882 women gainedlegal control over their earnings and separate property, respectively. According to SylviaPankhurst, "literally thousands of policemen on horse and foot were, timeand again, turned out to repel a few thousand women."[9] The pageantry ofthe demonstration in Hyde Park in June 19 8 which was attended by more than5 , was striking and undoubtedly helped publicize the cause. The suffragist movement had been successful indrumming up support among Liberal backbenchers, Irish Nationalists, and afew Conservative Radicals, but received precious little encouragement fromLiberal Prime Minister William Gladstone, who seemed to harbor a preferencefor keeping the little woman at home, or his successors Lord Rosebery andHerbert Asquith. Breshnel (Ed.), The Oxford History ofBritain Volume V (New York: Oxford University Press, n.d.), 89.----------------------- 13 Brighton: Wheatsheaf Books, 1984.Morgan, Kenneth O. He never threw his support behind the bills whichwere introduced to give women the franchise after he became Prime Ministerin 19 6 and used his considerable parliamentary dexterity to defeat them orkeep them from being voted on. Sylvia Pankhurst, Portrait of a Radical (NewHaven: Yale University Press, 1987). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.Arnstein, Walter L. According to Harrison, "during 1913-1914, militancy was extremely unpopular."[14] Whether or not it was thatunpopular, the rage of the suffragettes at the Asquith government whichthey felt had repeatedly misled and tricked them is understandable. Pankhurst and Christabel which narrowed the base of their support andeventually led to the expulsion of Sylvia from WSPU in 1913 was what Romerocalls their gradual "shift away from working-class women."[1 ] Neal expresses a more extreme view which was common in Anti-suffragette circles at the time: "it is doubtful to this day that usefulservice was rendered to the movement by the suffragettes, who certainlyundid much of the good work painstakingly achieved by the suffragists."[11]Mrs. Britain lost the flower of its manhood in World War I. E. The Oxford History of Britain Volume V. Sylvia Pankhurst, The Life of Emmeline Pankhurst: The SuffragetteStruggle for Women's Citizenship (London: T. [1 ]Patricia W. Heath, 1966.Fulford, Roger. In October 19 5, two WSPU members, Sylvia and a young laboractivist Annie Kenney, were arrested after spitting in the face of apolicemen at a Liberal Party rally. Britain in the Twentieth Century. Suffragettes and suffragists alike placed great hope on the LiberalParty which swept into power in the election of 19 6 with a crowded reformagenda and was said to have 4 M.P.s who were favorable to women'ssuffrage. When Miss Emily Davison died from injuries received after she threwherself in the path of one of the King's horses at the Derby, Mrs.Pankhurst staged her funeral as a public spectacle. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.