The Role Of Women's Suffrage In Early 20th Century England

In the early 20th Century women in England were dissatisfied by the inability to voice thier opinions on national matters. Since the popular view was that men were the heads of families and the ones expected to go to war, voting on a national scale was reserved for males only. The people who were against women’s enfranchisement did not realize how essential women were to the progress of society and the disadvantages faced by the female sex. The women's suffrage movement was created to thwart the notion that women do not deserve the right to vote because they are not capable of handling the same responsibilities as men. As a result of England’s misogynist culture, women were forced to band together and take action against the restrictions that
Women’s suffrage and feminism went hand and hand during this time period; they both believed that to better the population, women must be given the same opportunities as men, "By 1900, powerful feminist movements had arisen. These movements sought various legal and economic gains for women, such as equal access to professions and higher education as well as the right to vote" (549 Stearns). The majority of people who were feminists and involved in women’s enfranchisement were middle class women. At this time, the middle class was the working class, which is the most active in the nation’s workforce and the driving force behind the economy that helped society run efficiently. Women wanted to to be acknowledged for their efforts in society and for putting in the same amount of work as men. They wanted to experience the same gratuity that men feel. Women’s war efforts were rewarded by granting women the right to vote. The lives of women were changed forever, "Post-war legislation granted women suffrage in Britain, Germany, and the United States. Further Prosperity and the declining birth rate gave many women the chance to develop new leisure habits and less restrictive fashions... Wives in Britain wrote of new interests in sexual pleasure, while maintaining commitment to marriage. Women began to smoke and drink in public and to enjoy
10 years later, in 1928, all women over the age of 21 were able to vote. This accomplishment was a direct result of organizations like the NUWSS and the WPSU, along with leaders like Millicent Fawcett and Emmeline Pankhurst. Different roles in the fighting for the right to vote were taken by different organizations and parties. “NUWSS under Fawcett conducted its campaign through law-abiding activities of petitioning MPs, holding public meetings, and sponsoring marches and public demonstrations. In contrast to the Pankhursts, who led the members of the WSPU with an authoritarian control that would brook no dissent… but she worked to ensure that the NUWSS presented a unified public face” (Merriman). Millicent Fawcett conducted women suffrage protests in a civilized manner to show that women did not need to lower themselves to the violent level that men would expect. It also gave the impression that not all women wanted to create a violent frenzy over women's suffrage in order to gain public sympathy. On the other hand, Emmaline Pankhurst did believe it was necessary for women to use all the ammunition they had, since people would not take women seriously unless something that was important to them was at risk. Whether it be their property or their workplace, Pankhurst believed that in order to gain attention the WSPU had to threaten what men held valuable. In