preview

Women 's Influence On Women Essay

Decent Essays

Women’s Essay History Sarah Anne Cairns Question: “Women received the vote based on their contribution to the war effort”. How accurate is this view that women gained the vote based solely on war work? 20 marks Attitudes towards women in 1900 were very different from attitudes today. In 1900 women’s personality traits were traditionally that they were emotional, untruthful & immature, and so they were seen unfit and unworthy of the vote by men at that time. Many historians argue that there were many factors which led women to receiving the vote- Martin Pugh says the Suffragists were most important, Paula Bartley argue that pre war changes were important, and Arthur Marwick argues that war accelerated changing attitudes and believes in the reward theory. Women played many vital roles in jobs which had to be filled as men left for war, these jobs were dangerous and many women died, newspapers at the time branded women as “heroines” for their hard work, as so it can be argued they were given the vote as a reward. However, there are other factors that may have led women to receiving the vote, such as pre-war attitudes as women were beginning to be better educated and have better jobs, the Suffragettes and Suffragists were important as they campaigned for women to have the vote, and finally Foreign Influence as other countries such as Finland had already given women the vote. Therefore, they may not have received the vote solely on their war effort. Firstly, it can be

Get Access