Summary:
● Aim of the movement -to achieve the right of vote for women;
● When did the movement begin? - in the 1897, when Millicent Fawcett founded the National Union of Women's Suffrage;
● They wanted a peaceful process, since if they stirred violence, they feared that they aren't going to be trusted by men;
● Their progress was very slow, since men believed that women would never fully comprehend the way the parliament was run;
● Women's Social and Political Union - established in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters. They were prepared to use violence to achieve their political standing;
● In 1905 the organisation interrupted a political meeting and asked Winston Churchill and Sir Edward Grey if they believed women should have the right to vote; neither polititian replied, so the women got out the banner which said "votes for women" and started protesting, they got
arrested as a result;
● They burnt down churches, since the Church was agaist what they wanted; they refused to pay tax; vandalised the shops on the Oxford Street, etc;
● Cat and mouse act - let women get weaker and weaker in prison, didn't force feed them. Women were released from prison when they in a very weak state, and could not participate in campaigns anymore;
● Other acts of protest: Emily Davison threw herself under the king's horse; they burnt down part of David Lloyd Georges' house;
Quotes:
"Fawcett argued that women could hold responsible posts in society, such as sitting on school boards - but could not be trusted to vote; she argued that if parliament made laws and women had to obey them, then women should be part of the progress of making those laws; she
argued that as women had to pay taxes as men, they should have the same rights as men, and one of the most powerful arguments was that wealthy mistresses of large manors and estates employed gardeners, workmen and labourers who could vote......but the women could not regardless of their wealth";
"This was the beginning of a campaign the like of which was never known in England, or for that matter in any other country, we interrupted a great many meetings, and we were violently thrown out and insulted. Often we were painfully bruised and hurt";
Key points: an outline of the struggle of women for political rights throughout the 1900s;
Date: 15 september 2011
The Siffragettes;
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/suffragettes.htm
Date: 15 september 2011
The Siffragettes;
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/suffragettes.htm
How do you think the movement would have played out if it hadn't been for the outbreak of the first world war?
ReplyDeleteDoes having the right to vote equate to economic power? If so how? If not how not?
Women at this time were able to own property and hold positions of influence, although not political, in society. So I wonder if this has any relevance... your quote even states that wealthy women existed who employed men and paid taxes as men.
What do you think? What about the rest of you???
I'm guessing that the First World War gave a starter to the movement, because the husbands of those women were killed as soldiers during that war, and so women alone were now responsible for sustaining their families economically. And also the country's polities are usually being reformed after the war, so I guess women wanted to have a say in the way their country was being changed;
ReplyDeleteinteresting ... i get the impression that the movement fractured and to an extent became much less extreme during the war years.
ReplyDeletethe differences between pro-war feminists and pacifist feminists seemed to increase perhaps?
what about my second question?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI did some research on the women's rights movement in the US, and it turns out that women already had more rights in the 1860s than I could have imagined:
ReplyDelete- In 1869: The territory of Wyoming passed the first women's suffrage law, and as a result women were allowed to act as juries;
- Throughout the years of 1896-1918 states such as Colorado, Utah, Idaho, California, Oregon, Kansas, Arizona, Alaska, Nevada, New York, Michigan and a few others, have agreed to adopt a law that women now had the right to vote;
- 1903: The National Women's Trade Union League
was established, aiming to improve wages and working cxonditions for women;
- 1916: Alice Paul and Lucy Burns formed the Congressional Union, which was trying to achieve the federal right for women to vote, and not just in separate states of the USA;
- 1916: Margaret Sanger opened the first U.S. birth-control clinic in Brooklyn, New York.The clinic was hsut down within 10 days and Sanger was arrested. However at the end she did win support through the courts and opened another clinic in New York City in 1923.
(So the events above highlight that women didn't stop their struggle for the rights even thoughout the war-time period);
Source: http://www.infoplease.com/spot/womenstimeline1.html
I think that politics and economy are both inter-linked, but they don't really equate, since politics is the law of the country, and is the aspect which actually controls the country's economy, businesses and the way the finances are managed. Some of those laws are voted for, and depending on what the majority is for, they are either passed or not.So having the right to vote would give women more access to power. And it was also only fair that if women had to pay taxes, then they should have been allowed to contribute politically. Although it really does seem that their economic contribution to the country on the other hand was quite successful, for they were able to afford the payment of taxes, and they ideed did have sufficient amount of money to employ gardeners and to own housing property, without the aid from the male gender, so their wages must have been quite high at the time.
ReplyDeletetrue and also women control the home economy as well... they are the ones who decide which brand of washing detergent the household should buy... it would be interesting to survey how much of advertising is targeted at women. women are big consumers and consumption drives the economy... hmm interesting thought...
ReplyDelete