Women's Suffrage Essay

The second chapter entitled: The Long Road for Women’s Suffrage, begins with the feminist’s arguments about women which warmed the demand for the women's suffrage in the late 19th century and early twentieth century. It analyses in detail the propaganda material used by the suffrage movement and examines the interaction between the way the suffrage organisations viewed and related to the political system, and the way political leaders and parties viewed and acted in response to suffrage activities. It highlights also, the anti- suffrage movements and the activities that had been done by suffragists during the outbreak of

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

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.

The Suffragists brought together all local societies to form a national fight. They sent bills to Parliament and had petitions signed. In the 1870s Suffragists attempted to put through a private member’s bill by an individual MP. All their strategies were democratic and peaceful, in contrast to the Suffragettes who used illegal and militant methods to get wider exposure through the Press, and subsequent support. This made them harder to ignore and ensured everyone was aware of their cause.

that this would take to long and tried to the the courts to declare that voting

Women were trying to get the vote for many years before 1900, however this was not a serious concern and they were not doing much to achieve this. However in 1900 this all changed. The NUWSS (Suffragists) and the WSPU (Suffragettes) were set up in the early years of 1900; their goal was to allow women to get the vote. Their reason was that women were already allowed to work on city councils and become doctors, some notable ones too such as Florence Nightingale. The NUWSS believed that if women were house owners and had respectable jobs they should be allowed to vote. This is because men who were allowed to vote could be white slave owners and lunatics so why could these men vote and

The Women’s Suffrage took place in early 1900’s, 1920’s to be exact. A suffragist was a woman who believed in having both men and women vote. Alice Paul was a suffragist, and she pushed for the Equal Rights Amendment, which states that one’s rights cannot be changed or denied based

Manifesto Propaganda Source 1: This primary source is a manifesto with propaganda properties enticing support for the Woman Suffrage movement. This source was produced by the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) in 1897 and is directed at the general public of the time, aiming to increase female campaigners and obtain male support. Through this source the NUWSS outlines the fourteen reasons why they are campaigning for the women’s right to vote and encourages a peaceful protest towards gender inequality. The perspective of the manifesto is from Millicent Fawcett, one of the founding leaders of the NUWSS and provides an insight to the views of the members of this political organisation who believed peaceful and constitutional

Despite great advances, opposition was still quite prominent throughout the world. Many would think that all women would be in support of women’s independence and rights, but that is not entirely true. Lots of conservative women went out of their way to band together and unite making a voice loud enough to be heard that they wanted things to stay the way they were, with women at the bottom of the social hierarchy. The group of women opposing women’s rights were small but still prominent for they reached far distances to put their opinion out to the public and those who had place in politics. Specifically speaking on women’s suffrage, conservative Women had a lot to say on why they shouldn’t be allowed to vote. Although they still believed women were not inferior to men, they believed it wasn’t right that women got to vote. Their main point was that they should only be represented in the ballots through their sons and husbands whom they have brought up and raised correctly to make votes that benefitted both the men and women of the country. These women who opposed suffrage had high religious influences, believing that men and women were created with certain roles in this world. Essentially the role of a man was to support the family and make big decisions, leading the household. In contrast, a woman’s role was to hold down the fort whenever the man was away and provide any housewife/nurse duties,

Suffragettes in the 20th century, such as Emily Davidson and Emmeline Pankhurst, used radical tactics to achieve their goal of gaining the right to vote. Men were also involved in the Suffragette movement. While many opposed, men like James Keir Hardie, head of the House of Commons, devoted a lot of effort to help women gain the vote. The genius strategy and the support and funding from men had gigantic impact in helping women gain the right to vote.

The suffragists were the first wave of the feminist movement. The declaration was the beginning of women 's rights movement, the demand for equal legal, social, political and local rights. The women 's suffrage began to form protests, write and send letters to the Congress, and organize the political convention. The pioneers of Women Suffrage worked hard and assisted each other. Linda K. Kerber states in her work, No Constitutional Rights to be Ladies: Women and the obligations of citizenships, that the Women’s movement after the Nineteenth Amendment involved “capacious understanding of the possible ingredients of politics that includes petitioning, testifying and mobilization of themselves and others” (Kerber, 15). In 1878, Elizabeth Stanton and Susan Anthony proposed a national women’s suffrage amendment granting women the right to vote. The second wave of the suffrage focused on reproductive rights, domestic violence, and marital rape issues. The second wave women 's movement used different means to strive for equality: lobbying Congress to change laws; publicizing issues like rape and domestic violence through the media, and reaching out to ordinary women to both expand the movement and raise their awareness of how feminism could

When the NUWSS was formed to campaign for women’s suffrage, it was met by horror and disapproval. This made the situation difficult for the suffragists, but on the other hand perhaps it would be irrational to expect a more positive response as the traditional social position of women had been upheld for a long time. These

Previously, women have existed in a society ruled by man and have been put under the expectation to be at home raising the children and taking care of the home, while men were expected to go to work and provide for the family. Since the beginning of civilization, women have been victims to prejudice that eventually “compelled women at last to throw off the political, economic, intellectual and social shackles that bound them” (Joshi 13). The complexity of women’s hardship during the nineteenth century, in the fight for equality, resulted in many women getting arrested and looked down upon from their communities. Although the consequences seem treachery, many women risked their livelihood and pushed forth determination and will power to

Social change in Britain has been achieved primarily through the hard work of organized political groups. These groups created events to recruit and educate supporters of social equality to join them in fighting for progress. The Women’s Suffrage Movement between 1866 and 1928 in Britain is no exception to this trend. The reason for the great efficacy of these political groups, including the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies and the Women’s Social and Political Union, was the women who pioneered the groups and fought alongside them to create the change that they believed in. The goal of these political groups was finally realized in 1928 with the passing of the Representation of the People Act. However, the Women’s Suffrage Movement in Britain would not have been successful without the influential actions of several significant women. In addition to the overall necessity of female leadership for British Women’s Suffrage, the central efforts of Millicent Fawcett, Lydia Becker, and Emmeline Pankhurst particularly played a large role in the movement’s success.

So, the suffragists were women peacefully protesting for the vote using law-abiding methods such as marches and petitions. They were the first women’s suffrage group, founded in 1897, suffrage meaning ‘right to vote.’ Otherwise known as the NUWSS, the national union of women suffrage society. One of their most noteworthy leaders was Malicent Fawcett. She pressured the government peacefully about the vote because she thought if she was violent, politicians would think women were incapable of running the country. Even rejected petitions didn’t stop them. Then in 1918, when they were rewarded with the vote, only women over 30 and owned land could vote. She argued with the prime minister that women would not tolerate this because she wanted the vote for middle class land owning women. The leadership of middle class women aspired average women to take part in the suffrage fight and therefore changed their lives. It improved politician’s opinions on women ruling because the organisation was polite and intelligent so it made them realise that they were certainly capable of running parliament. They enhanced women’s lives and were a good example to women because it made them realise what they should be fighting for and that they were capable of more than just sewing. The group really did change the country because it lead to women receiving the vote. Subsequently, today, women are 50 percent of the UK vote. Sir Robert Ensor mentions that their “effect was beyond question”. Therefore the suffragists were quite significant towards the decision for the vote for women.