The Major Reasons for Women Receiving the Right to Vote

World War 1 lasted from August in 1914 until November 1918. By the end of the War there had been over a million deaths and the role of women in England had changed in many different ways. This essay will be evaluating to what extent WW1 was a turning point for women, through evaluating a variety of contributing sources for their usefulness and reliability. Traditionally, WW1 has been viewed as a positive turning point for women. This is because before WW1 women had mainly been resigned to the role of a housewife and were considered to be inferior. Women that did work were mainly working class, and worked in domestic service jobs. However, between 1914 and 1918 an estimated 2 million women replaced men in employment, which led to the passing of the People 's Registration Act in 1918. Which finally gave women the right to vote, something the suffragettes and suffragists had been campaigning for before the war, creating the impression that WW1 was a positive turning point. However, revisionist historians have been challenging this viewpoint. They argue that although women replaced men in the workplace, following the men 's return after the end of the war, 60,000 women had no choice but to return to their former jobs. Which suggests WW1 was not a positive turning point as this was a quarter of the female workforce.

For the longest time, women’s role in society was very narrow and set in stone. Women weren’t given the chance to decide life for their own, and there was a very sharp distinction of gender roles. Women were viewed as inferior, weak, and dependant. They were expected to be responsible for the family and maintainance of the house. But as the 19th century began, so did a drastic change in society. Women started voicing their opinions and seeking change. Trying to break away from this ideology called “cult of domesticity” was a lengthy, burdensome, and demanding struggle.

August 26, 1920 was perhaps one of the greatest victories of the century for women. Now when the polls open women and men stand next to each other and cast a vote that holds the same importance. Every person should remember the time and effort it took to get here as they approach the poll booth. There was a struggle to over come and that struggle was won. The landmark acceptance of the Nineteenth Amendment changed the way of life in American forever.

Before the war, women had very little rights. A married woman could not control property that was hers before marriage, keep control of her wages, acquire property while married, she could not transfer or sell property, she couldn’t even bring a lawsuit. A husband could do anything he wished to with a woman’s material. He could sell them, break them, and his wife couldn 't sell or give away the exact same things. It was immensely unfair to women. But, they would not stay quiet for long. The sexism had to stop!

Over the past five hundred years or so in america as the overall majority in Mankind, women comprise of the largest group in the world, but they are a vital asset in every aspect of our society. Woman and women's rights are tied hand in hand with american culture, which entails in these rights that they're dependent of social status, race, and geography in america like civil rights in the south. There were different types of economic changes for the different types of ethiniticities in America in which there were different of turning point that women won over their sufferage through their racial discrimination, these included the native american women, hispanic american, african americans and the chinese american women of the united states.

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,

To understand the reasons behind some women getting the vote in 1918, one must look back at the history of the women’s movement to fully understand the reason female suffrage was sought and gained. In Victorian Britain there was a longstanding and persistent belief that men and women occupied separate spheres. The

Women's Failure to Gain the Right to Vote between 1900 and 1914 In the years leading up to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, women's suffrage was never far from the headlines due to the constant bombardment of publicity stunts pulled by Emmeline Pankhurst and her Suffragettes. Using all within their power to gain attention, the Suffragettes believed in using direct persuasion, and if necessary, violent protest to remain in the public eye, pulling stunts from chaining themselves to the railings of the houses of specific members of Parliament to smashing the shop windows on Oxford Street. At the other end of the spectrum were the Suffragists, who based their campaign entirely on their

The lack of success of the movements for women’s suffrage in achieving their aims by 1918 cannot be held accountable to solely one reason due to the abundance of causes for this. Voting, however, was not the only area where women were subjected to inequitable treatment: in1850 women were regarded as second class citizens. It was common belief that their brain was smaller than their male peers and they were therefore provided with very little or no form of education which, consequentially, meant that jobs for women were unskilled and low paid. Many professions would not employ a female as it was considered that a woman’s place was in the home. Politics was an additional area where women were uninvolved. Political parties (except

World War I also provided women with the means to finally achieve suffrage. Groups such as the National American Woman Suffrage Association, led by Carrie Chapman Catt, enthusiastically joined the war effort, thereby intertwining patriotism and women’s rights. After the House of Representatives passed the women’s suffrage amendment in January 1918, President Wilson told the nation, “We have made partners of the women in this war. Shall we admit them only to a partnership of suffering and sacrifice and toil and not to a partnership of privilege and right?” (James and Wells, 67-68). True political equality did not result from the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment—very few female candidates were elected in the 1920s—but, in the words of Allen, “the winning of the suffrage had its effect. It consolidated woman’s position as man’s equal” (96).

The Importance of the First World War in Achieving Votes for Women in 1918 The First World War had a serious effect on womens suffrage. Just as Britain was going to war against Germany in August 1914, the WSPU declared peace with the Liberals. So in theory the war of the sexes was swamped by the World War. However, it has been argued that the greatest effect of the war on women's suffrage was that women were given the vote towards the end of it.

Women's suffrage in the United States of America, the legal right of women to vote, was established over the course of several decades, first in various states, and then nationally in 1920. Some of the women who fought for women’s suffrage are: Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, Lucretia Mott, Virginia Louisa Minor, and Victoria Woodhull. These women had different ways to achieving suffrage.

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It was uncertain to what extent did women’s participation in WWI changed the attitude and position of women in post-war Europe. One thing assured is that women’s wartime efforts were recognized in the years after WWI. In recognition of women’s support during the war, Canada, the United States, Britain, and a number of European countries extended suffrage to women. It seems that the turbulence and the despair of World War I had caused a re-examination of many of the treasured values in many western societies, including gender expectations.

This investigation assesses the question: To what extent did the First World War lead to the accomplishment of the women’s suffrage movement of Britain in 1928?