Reasons Given by the Suffragettes for Demanding the Vote for Women in the United Kingdom

Before the Suffragettes, women were not able to vote and the move for women to have the right to vote really started in 1897 when Millicent Fawcett founded the National Union of Women’s Suffrage. Fawcett strongly believed that women should have the right to vote but also believed in peaceful protests, patience and logical arguments. She felt that if any violence occurred then men would believe that women could not be trusted and therefore should not have the right to vote. She also made the argument that if women were made responsible for sitting on school boards and paying taxes that they should be part of the process to make the laws and should have the same rights as men. A main argument of hers was that even though some women who were wealthy mistresses of large manors and estates employed gardeners, workmen and labourers who were able to vote but women still could not, regardless of their wealth and social class. However, the progress of Fawcett was very slow and although she converted some of the members of the Labour Representation Committee (The Labour Party) but the majority of men felt that women would not understand how parliament functioned and therefore should not take part in the electoral

Before 1918, women were considered to be very much within their own sphere of influence separate from men. Throughout the 19th century women had slowly been gaining voting privileges, but only in areas considered to be within their spheres such as the vote for school boards, the vote for poor law boards and the vote for county councils. Traditionally many historians have argued that the main reason for the enfranchisement of women in 1918 was their work during world war one. This view is being disputed on multiple levels; some argue that the war itself called for a rearrangement of the whole electoral system. Alternatively other historians argue that the work of the women's suffrage workers such as the suffragist's and the suffragettes,

What were some reasons women wanted the right to vote? In the 19th century Women’s Voting Rights began when male suffrage extended in many countries. African American men achieved their voting rights before the women. Many people looked at this as sexist towards the women. After this amendment women became more determined to achieve their rights and started movements towards Women Suffrage. Many men and women tried preventing the process of Women Rights. Yet women who believed in their own rights didn’t give up hope to one day have the same rights as any other individual.

Women’s rights to vote women couldn’t vote back in the late 1800’s. Women had to stay home and take care of the children, cook and clean the house and when their husbands get home take care of them too. Although women had to do all those things they were not paid equal for the things they did. Women were told it is not job to vote that it is a man’s job to do the voting and women to take care of everything else. Gaining the vote for American women, known as woman suffrage, was the single largest enfranchisement and extension of democratic rights in our nation’s history. Along

In the cartoon, it states “20,000,000 American Women Are Not Self-Governed” (Doc 7). This cartoon establishes the idea of women not taking part in the process of developing their own government. This is a necessary part to uphold as the equality of women leads to the right to vote, a key point in basic American rights. Two major women that fronted women's suffrage movement were Elizabeth Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Lucretia Mott initially started this movement with Elizabeth Stanton, in Seneca Falls, NY. In the letter to Elizabeth Stanton from Susan B. Anthony, she asks the question, “If only now--all the women suffrage women would work to this end of enforcing the existing constitution--supremacy of national law over state law over state law” (Doc 2). The idea of women's suffrage is not a simple task, as enforcing this law is a difficult task to continually maintain within both the national and state

Women temporarily filled non-traditional roles in the wartime labour force and society (MacIvor 14). The entrance of women into society and out from their roles as homemakers was monumental as it was the first time women were seen as capable individuals, held paid positions, and proved they could do “man’s work”. Married women who entered the workforce juggled between working full time hours and being the keeper of the house and children. War records were created to commemorate women’s roles during the

Nevertheless, the Woman’s Suffrage Movement did cause women to doubt themselves they began to think that they were not smart enough to vote because most of them were unable to read and right. Whereas women in this generation can read and right so it is easy for them to vote and understand the ballots. Women began to express how they fell by the laws and customs of their time. (History house) explained this by saying, “Working for the emancipation of black slaves opened their eyes to the unsatisfactory nature of their own situations while providing necessary training in the techniques of political organization and action.’’

All through American history women have frequently asked and ordered the right to vote. Roughly, they were prohibited. One of the first recorded noting of the request for women’s voting advantages were from Abigail Adams, who was the first lady of the second president. She asked her spouse in a letter to not ignore the right to vote for women. She primarily said that if women cannot vote, then they would not have a reason to pursue the new legislation acts.

Did you know that women haven’t always been able to vote? They also haven’t always had the same rights as men. The U.S is a democracy but women knew that a democracy meant all the people could vote but in 1848 women were not allowed to vote. The U.S. was not respecting minority rights. Some women decided to take a stand.

Up until the 1920s, women’s struggle for their right to vote seemed to be a futile one. They had been fighting for their suffrage for a long time, starting numerous women's rights movements and abolitionist activists groups to achieve their goal. “The campaign for women’s suffrage began in earnest in the decades before the Civil War. During the 1820s and 30s, most states had enfranchised almost all white males (“The Fight for Women's Suffrage” ). This sparked women to play a more emphatic role in society. They began to participate in anti-slavery organizations, religious movements, and even meetings where they discussed that when the Constitution states "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain

S. is an immigrant from Russia and a successful businessman who runs a garment factory. Since he started his work on an Atlanta textile shop floor, he would have worked with many female factory workers and witnessed their conditions of life. He also has three daughters. He is a widower so that he may be more involved in his daughters’ daily lives due to the absence of his wife. Taking the mother’s role in the house could have an impact on the Mr. S.’s view on the advocate of women’s rights including enfranchisement for women. However, on the other side, he has recently expanded his business interests into liquor industry. The liquor companies in the 1920’s did not want to agree on giving the suffrage to women because they considered the women’s suffrage as a threat to their business. If Mr. S. was considering the partnership in a brewery seriously, he could have the same thought about the enfranchisement for women, considering it as a major threat to his new business. Nevertheless, if he was a good father who wanted to make a change on his three daughter’s future lives, he would agree on the opinions that pursues the equality with men in terms of suffrage. Mr. S. could be swayed by Susan B. Anthony’s speech, “Woman’s Right to Vote”, which claims equal suffrage based on abstract justice. However, since he has working experiences with female workers, he would more likely be swayed by the Florence Kelley’s speech, which claims equality with men, especially for wage-earning women. Also, he could have taken the mother’s role in the house for his daughters, and realized that mothers need to vote to protect their children and make the community a better place to live. In this view, Mr. S. will agree with Carrie W. Clifford who claims that “Votes for Women” is really a campaign for “Votes for Children.”

Some scholars like Ellen DuBois, in The Radicalism of the Woman Suffrage Movement, argue that the vote was a complete necessity in order for women to assert their own foothold in the public sphere, defined by DuBois as “operating in the public world of work and politics.” Opposing this position, William O’Neill argued that the vote would provide no advance in the woman condition and that when the vote was gained, “feminists were in the same place they were before the movement even began.” Heidi Williamson does not necessarily take a side in this argument but she does proclaim that “voting ensures women’s reproductive and economic progress” because it causes candidates running for office to “cater” to the women condition in order to gain more support. As Williamson is simply observing what the vote did for women, and she does not speak to what the Women’s Movement hoped to attain, she does not intervene in the discussion between DuBois and O’Neill; however, using the premise of Williamson’s observations it is clear that women of the early twentieth century were motivated by the discrimination in the workplace to gain their right to ballot so that they could use the vote to strive for pay equality, a better environment in the workplace, and gain the possibility to advance their position in said environment.

The war gave women, who weren't yet allowed to vote, the chance to show that they were equal to men. It forced many men to change the way they regarded women. More people realized that women could make a contribution in the workplace as well as at home. The first World War could be said to have begun the movement for equal opportunities for men and women.

The suffragist movement was a movement that is highly important to British History. This movement started in around 1832 when the first suffrage petition was sent to Parliament Bartley (2003:32). The suffrage campaign focused on getting the vote for all women in the UK – regardless of their class. In the year 1918, any woman who was the age of thirty and were either on the local government register or married to a man on the local government register gained the right to vote. This in itself was a triumph but in 1928 all women gained the right to vote despite their martial or financial status Bartley (2003:1). During this campaign, there was two main groups, the suffragettes and the suffragists. These groups started off small and local to

Women didn’t have many human rights than men did, in the 19th century. On pg#145 of the textbook, it shows the rights women didn’t have, such as: “Everything a women owned passed on to her husband when married…forced to stay in husband’s home against her will…no maintenance money from husband after separation.” These are certainly death to women. Yet the most demanded right that women didn’t have was the “Right to free elections”. It was only by the time of 1918, women could vote in large elections and have some equality as men. At the time of 1800s, Britain was not a democracy whereas by 1884, 60% of the people would vote; regardless of the fact that only men could vote before 1918. Certainly this affected women who basically didn’t have