Civil Rights Movement - Votes for Women

1842 Words8 Pages
Civil Rights Movement In this essay I am going to analyse the main issues when studying the votes for women movement and analyse the reasons for the policies and strategies used by the government. I will then explain and evaluate the effectiveness of the strategies and tactics of the resistance groups against the government policies. Before 1860 and certainly during men and women had very different roles, men dealt with work, politics and war where as the women were to be domestic, raise children and give support and comfort to their husbands. It is important to say that women and men have been fighting for women’s and men’s right to vote for years; however the suffragette movement began in 1860. The suffragette movement gave rise in Britain in 1860 by mainly middleclass women and it was a political struggle for women to be given the right to vote. The exclusion of women from the right to vote in parliamentary elections was the most striking example of inequality between men and women. In the 1860’s there were many ways in which women suffered inequality and discrimination such as married women not legally having the right to an independent existence. However this was mainly middle and upper class women as working class women due to daily struggles had to take on paid employment as well as her usual duties. However it is important to make clear that the women’s suffrage was not unique to Britain, similar movements had emerged in other countries in the second half of the nineteenth century. In some countries progress had been more rapid for example New Zealand was the first country to grant women the right to vote in 1893. The first sign of the suffragettes making progress in Britain was in 1866-7. The suffragettes began using tactics of peaceful persuasion and were never physically forceful. These methods proved effective as in 1867, the liberal MP John
Open Document