Women's Suffrage During World War One Essay

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).

Many women longed for a more active role in the war effort. Suffrage leaders criticized the government for not involving women more. So, when a shortage of shells was revealed in the spring of 1915, certain government ministers concurred. Munitions Minister Lloyd George encouraged the leader of the British suffrage movement, Emmeline Pankhurst, to organize a massive demonstration and march on the theme 'Women's Right to Serve' (Grayzell, 1999).

Women showed great voluntary efforts throughout the course of the war and played a big participation mark in the

Women's Failure to Gain the Vote Between 1900-1914 There are many reasons why women failed to gain the right to vote between 1900 and 1914, these different reasons did not just appear overnight some were had been institutionalised into the very core of British society over a great length of time. The other reasons were public responses to, the then, recent actions of the groups looking to gain the vote for women. For the purpose of this coursework I will separate these reasons into three major factors that explain why women failed to gain the vote between 1900 and 1914.

When WW1 began in 1914, women in Britain were still very much the oppressed gender. Campaigns for women to be allowed the vote were well established. It was only one year previously that Emily Davison had thrown herself under the King 's horse at the Derby, but no votes

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.

The status of women during the years 1914 and 1925 did not stop to change and wonder if the First World War achieve any permanent change in the status of women in Britaint is very interesting question. Both points of view, meaning which agree with the idea that yes it did or on the contrary that it did not, already exist. Indeed, if the delegate of the American Women 's Trade Union League Congress, Mrs. Raymond Robins declared in 1917 that it was “the first hour in history for the women of the world” 1 on the contrary, Beatrice Webb was almost the only to expreme a different opinion at that time, saying that it had not significantly transform the status of women2. Historians such as Françoise Thébaud qualified the idea of Mmrs. Raymond Robins as very common during and just after the Great war. Like Françoise Thébaud, Janet McCalman in her book “The impact of First World war on female employment in England” tends to say that the Great war did not permit a real change in women 's status. Even if the question is debated between historians, the general mind is to desegree with the fatc that First World War conclude any permanent change in the status of women in Britain. As my opinion tends to be on the general side, I will construct my argumentation on the idea that the Great war did not achieve any permanent change for British women 's status. First I will talk about change in women 's employment during the Great war to contextualize and counter argue the fact that war allow

formed on what they read in the paper, so the view of the press and

The First World War reflected the women’s social and economic position. However, feminists still were not happy with the fact that women’s work was classified as less important than men. (Women Memorial.Org) Granted men did oppose women’s involvement in male jobs during the First World War, but the country needed women and their skills in order to get the men out of the office and onto the battlefield. Little do people realize that women have already been volunteering with organizations by providing nursing, transportation, and other war relief services, also women aligned themselves with humanitarian organizations such as the American Red Cross, YMCA, Salvation Army to meet wartime needs. World War I did mark a new era in the women’s movement.

Increasingly frustrated by their withheld rights and more determined than ever in their fight against female objectification and socially imposed identities, many British women took the gender war to the next level: politics. In the early 1900s the suffragettes campaigned peacefully in order to be granted the right to vote. Since this had no effect whatsoever, some of them radicalised and undertook more violent militant tactics. But the outbreak of the First World War made them leave their campaign trail to support the Nation’s war efforts. The male workforce being absent, female participation in the labour market was unprecedented. In 1918 the realisation that women could be of help in the democratic process eventually dawned on politicians

Women were trying to persuade their country that they deserved the suffrage. Many of their attempts were unsuccessful, but when World War One started, many women tried to put as much effort as possible to help their country survive through this time.

In 1897, different societies with the same aim came together to form the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), also known as the ‘suffragists’, which was led by Mrs Millicent Fawcett ("Early suffragist campaining"). The suffragists believed they could achieve their goal by using non-violent tactics such as lobbying MPs and organising petitions. Mrs Fawcett thought that if the NUWSS was seen as polite, responsible and intelligent by the public, they would gain the respect they wanted and they would gain their right to vote (Walsh, Ben.

The Suffragette campaign stopped during the war, as it felt unpatriotic to continue. The women were taking on jobs previously taken up by men. Women from all social classes helped in the war effort by doing jobs such as working in munition factories, being farm labourers, heaving coal, being policewomen, driving ambulances and helping to stop the country from falling into disappear and to function normally. The traditional argument was that women’s war work inspired men to grant women the vote as a reward – a role the Suffragettes played a part in. As Asquith stated in August 1916 “It is true [that women] cannot fight in the sense of going out with rifles and so forth, they have aided in the most effective way in the war. What is more, when

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?

The formation of the Women’s Social and Political Union and the entrance of Britain into World War I forced the issues of women’s suffrage into the minds of the British public and government at a pivotal time, but in differing ways. Women of both movements stepped out of their sphere of domesticity and into the male dominated world. The militant members of the Women’s Social and Political Union achieved this non-traditional status by opposing their society and government by means of increasingly violent methods. Conversely the British women involved in aiding the war effort worked with their country in a time of need. The militant suffrage movement, while often praised for its boldness, actually had many detrimental effects on the achievement