1. The Movements for Women’s Suffrage 1850-1928

2. Economic and Social Progress 1850-1900
Between women did make progress and acquire greater rights in a number of areas.
However this progress was limited and women knew that without the vote they would never gain equality with men.

3. Employment/Trade Unions
New technology e.g. typewriter and telephone opened up office work for women. This offered a better quality of life than factory work.
Women continued to be paid less than men and face a marriage bar in many occupations.
The number of women in trade unions increased. Successful strikes such as the Match Girls’ Strike in 1889 helped women to achieve better pay and conditions.

4. Marriage and Family Life
Changes in the law improved womens’ rights with regards to access to children after divorce and it gave them a measure of financial independence during marriage and after divorce.
However the laws concerning divorce continued to favour men and socially being divorced was scandalous and unacceptable in Victorian society.

5. Education
Middle and upper class women did not receive an academic education – they were educated to be good wives and mothers.
First academic schools were set up in the 1850s by feminists.
Then in the 1870s women’s colleges were founded at Oxford and Cambridge.
By 1900 a small but increasing number of women were going into male-dominated professions e.g. teaching, law, medicine.
These changes had little effect on working class women.

6. To What Extent Did The Suffragists Help To Win the Vote For Women?
They had a realistic strategy of targeting the very people who could give them the vote – MPs.
They did win over a number of MPs e.g the first Conciliation Bill showed there was support among MPs.
Their peaceful tactics proved women were intelligent and rational

7. To What Extent Did The Suffragists Help To Win the Vote For Women?
Against
They made tactical errors. They argued unmarried heads of households should get the vote.
Politicians were more interested in giving married women the vote – they would be influenced by their husbands when it came to voting.
They were essentially a middle class organisation and were not a mass movement.
They failed to form an alliance with the Labour Movement.

8. To What Extent Did The Suffragettes Help To Win the Vote For Women?
Their militant campaign gained support and publicity for their cause e.g the first Conciliation Bill showed there was support among MPs.
The issue of votes for women was firmly on the political agenda.

9. To What Extent Did The Suffragettes Help To Win the Vote For Women?
Against
Their militant campaign scared off potential supporters and failed to scare the government.
Other issues grabbed the headlines and the government’s attention e.g. civil war in Ireland.
Organised attacks on economic targets such as railways, docks and factories would have been much more disruptive and put real pressure on the government.

10. To What Extent Did The Suffragettes Help To Win the Vote For Women?
Against
The failed to form an alliance with the Labour movement (trade unions and the Labour Party).
A number of working class men did not have the vote but belonged to trade unions.
Both groups could have worked together to achieve universal suffrage for men and women.
Trade unions could have used the threat of strikes to force the government into action and Labour MPs in Parliament could have pushed the issue.

11. From War To Equal Voting Rights
Aims:
To identify how the First World War contributed to women gaining the vote.
To identify the different opinions of historians about this issue.

12. Historians Views
The traditional view of historians is that women undertook a range of men’s jobs during the war. This helped prove their worth and secured them the right to vote.
Recent research has disputed this. Some historians argue women’s contribution to the war effort is not as significant as we once thought and that the war actually delayed votes for women.

13. To What Extent Did the First World War Help To Win Votes For Women?
* Women proved their worth during the war. They took over men’s jobs in a range of areas and proved their economic worth.
* This gave them a higher profile and greater credibility and changed attitudes towards women.
* The coalition government contained MPs including Labour MPs more sympathetic to votes for women

14. To What Extent Did the First World War Help To Win Votes For Women?
Against:
*The war removed the issue from the
political agenda. Both the Suffragists and
Suffragettes threw their energies into the
war effort.
*Meetings took place just before the war
between the government and members of
both groups. The war delayed votes for
women.

15. To What Extent Did the First World War Help To Win Votes For Women?
Against:
* For the first couple of years during the war there was not a dramatic increase in the number of women in the workplace.
By the end of the war 83% of women were doing work in factories which had previously been regarded as women’s work.
The 1918 Representation of the People Act was more concerned with giving the rest of the male population the vote. If winning the vote was a reward for their war efforts why did this act exclude many young, single women?