• Very Few Civil or Political Rights
• Until 1884, A woman was officially part of
her husbands property
• In addition, Victorian women were
expected to live up to an image of ‘the
perfect being’ – beautiful, demure, loving
and intelligent. Many women actively
agreed with this attitude (Source A).
Source A
• Source A
• A woman should make a man’s home delightful.
Their sex should ever teach them to be
subordinate. Women are like children; the more
they show they need looking after, the more
attractive they are.
• Mrs John Sandford, Woman in her Social and
Domestic Character (1837).
• Notice that Elizabeth Poole Sandford, as she
was, writes under her married name of Mrs John
Sandford
• In 1897, the various women’s societies
joined together into the National Union of
Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS).
• These ‘Suffragists’ as they were called,
campaigned peacefully for the vote.
Although the number of pro-suffrage MPs
in the House of Commons grew, the
Suffragists got nowhere.
New employment opportunities were opening up for middle-class women, who
may have at least had some education at home, or been lucky enough to have
had some schooling … discrimination was still possible
• In 1870s Sophia Jex-Blake
completed a medical
degree at Edinburgh
University, but was
refused her degree ! Her
case caused some
Universities to change
their attitude to women –
Oxford and Cambridge
opened Women’s colleges,
there were also some
teacher training colleges
opened …
• Teaching – female
teachers had to be single
• Nursing – but had to
resign when they
married
• Clerical work answering telephones
and typing …
In marriages, women were in a very inferior position to
their husbands …
• when they married all their
property went to their
husbands; even they became
their husband’s property !
• Wives were often treated
with violence and assaulted
by husbands
• Women could not start
divorce proceedings
• By 1900 women could bring
divorce cases against their
husbands for cruelty,
desertion and bigamy
• They could keep their own
property after marriage
• Women could leave the
marital home voluntarily if
in danger
But, some things did not change…
• Wife-battering and marital sexual assaults
were still legal
• Husbands could divorce wives for adultery, but
wives would have to prove violence or cruelty
in similar cases
• If a divorce occurred, a mother would lose her
rights over her children
• In 1903, therefore, Emmeline Pankhurst
formed the Women’s Social and Political
Union
• WSPU
The importance of the vote
It is important that women should have the vote so that, in the
government of the country, the woman’s point of view can be put
forward. Very little has been done for women by legislation for
many years.
You cannot read a newspaper or go to a conference without hearing
details for social reform. You hear about legislation to decide what
kind of homes people are to live in. That surely is a question for
women.
No woman who joins this campaign need give up a single duty she
has in the home. It is just the opposite, for a woman will learn to
give a larger meaning to her traditional duties.
• From a speech made by Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst in March 1908
Arguments supporting votes for
women …
• The vote is the way to get rid of other inequalities
• The vote will improve men’s moral and sexual
behaviour
• Women are capable of being involved in politics
• There have been many changes in women’s roles
• Look at what is happening in other countries
• Voting is a ‘right’ to which women are entitled
• Britain is not a true democracy until women have
the vote
Arguments opposing votes for
women …
•
•
•
•
Women and men have ‘separate spheres’
Most women do not want the vote
‘A woman’s role is in local affairs’
Women are already represented by their
husbands
• It is dangerous to change a system that works
• Women do not fight to defend their country
Tactics of the Suffragettes
• Use Violent or Militant Tactics
Asking Awkward questions or shouting
out. When Winston Churchill
addressed a meeting in Manchester in
1905, he was interrupted by Christabel
Pankhurst and Annie Kenney
• Hurst Park Race
Course 1913
•
•
•
•
Slashing paintings
the famous Rokeby Venus
Mary Richardson
Her most notorious act was in 1914, when
she slashed Velasquez's masterpiece the
'Rokeby' Venus seven times with an axe
as it hung in the National Gallery.
• chaining themselves to the railways of
Buckingham Palace and Downing Street.
• The suffragettes sometimes assaulted
politicians who opposed 'votes for women'