How and Why Did Women Try to Win the Vote?

• improving the lives of women so they were valued equally to mens and so they got what they wanted such as an Equal Pay Act
• get rid of prostitution 
• improve men's sexual behaviour
• much higher moral standards
• pre-marital sex --> disappear
• follow other countries 
• 'right'
• not a true democracy until women have the vote

• women (cooking, looking after the home etc) and men (work and politics) have separate spheres
• most women do not want the vote
• womens' role is in local affairs
• women are already represented by their husbands
• it's dangerous to change a system that works
• women do not fight to defend their country 

• National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies 
• Millicent Fawcett --> president for 20 years
• writing, lecturing and organising petitions
• national organisation:
  1914 --> 400 branches, 100,000 members
• democratic organisation --> elected president and committee
• many were middle-class
• did have some working class women
• men were allowed to join 

SUFFRAGISTS DON'T USE FISTS 

• Women's Social and Political Union
• Emmeline Pankhurst --> her and daughters controlled organisation
• impatient with Suffragists peaceful methods
• militancy was news
• men- not allowed to join
• recruited manly middle and upper class women
• membership of working class women fell 

Peaceful Methods:

• propaganda
• meetings and demonstrations
• putting pressure on Parliament
• civil disobedience 
• ^ mainly Suffragists

Violent and Illegal Methods:

• attacking property
• attacking people
• hunger strikes --> prison, gain sympathy
• Emily Davison 'killed herself' by running out in front of the King's horse in the derby
• ^^ Suffragettes in particular 
• ^ Response by the government:
  -Cat and Mouse Act: hunger strikers were released to recover their health, once recovered they were re-arrested to serve the rest of their sentence
  -force feeding 

Suffragette Impact

• made the front page news- lots of media attention and publicity
• the issue was not going away
• however, it gave the government a reason not to give in as they cannot be seen as giving into violence 
• violence showed that women were irresponsible 

Suffragists:

• still held meetings and petitions
• supported war effort
• opposed conscription and giving of white feathers
• set up employment register

Suffragettes:

• encouraged women to work
• funds used to help the government
• became more patriotic to men
• military conscription and white feathers 

War work:

• women took the jobs of men- showed they could act responsibly

• defended their country --> war work
• aged over 30 --> MP's believed they wouldn't vote Labour
• working class women could vote to make it more fair
• the government were afraid Suffragettes would restart their violent campaigning