Women wanted the same working rights as men, and they fought hard for it. Suffragettes stoped their campaign of violence and supported the government and its war effort in every way. The work done by women in the First World War was to be vital for Britain's war effort. Even though women gained the right to vote shortly after the war, its argued that the war wasn’t really the cause of giving women this right. After all, in countries such as New Zealand (1893), Australia (1901), Finland (1906) or Norway (1913) women got the vote before the war began, whereas others such as Denmark (1915), Iceland (1915), Holland (1917) or Sweden (1919) gave it to women during the war without being involved in it.
Explain the impact that women made on America and their changing role after the Civil War. If their role did not change would this have changed the future of the nation? Ali Sterner APUSH – Period 4 Shaw January 28, 2011 In American History, women have not exactly had it easy. In colonial times, women were to do strictly house work and take care of the children. This changed after the Civil War, giving women their right to speak up and become more like men.
Women went back to working at home and jobs were taken over by men again. They say that World War One did very little to change the position of women in Britain. The truth is that World War One did change the lives of women but the extent was limited and their role in society was never the same as it had been before 1914. It is important to remember that if it wasn’t for their protest and demonstration before, women’s rights wouldn’t have been on the agenda of the government and change would have taken much longer. With so many young men enlisted in the army, the role women played was crucial, not only to the war
Finally the men didn’t think much of women for doing things that they could. Most men married women for their inheritance, childbirth, appearance, housekeeping and were expected to be married by their families. I think the suffragists campaigns were important but not as important as what happened during WW1. Source one shows Joyce’s opinion so it’s not a solid fact so it might not be reliable as she could be bias to the suffragists. But I believe that the suffragists did help women win the vote by showing they can do it in a calm and peaceful way.
1 Women’s lives after the two world wars changed, but there is some debate as to how much it changed. Their lives changed politically, with women gaining the vote, they changed in terms of employment, as they were now permitted to join certain professions and they also changed socially as a better way of living was set out for them. It is argued that women were given greater opportunities after the wars due to their exceptional participation on the home front. However, many historians believe that this change in women’s lives was simply due to the changing times and the progression in society. The historical debate surrounding this topic is wether women’s lives really did change greatly after the two world wars, or wether their lives simply went back to the way they were before the war started.
Before 1918, women in Britain were not enfranchised to the vote on an equal status with men, though; they often worked for a living and paid taxes, just like men. I chose to talk about suffragettes and suffragists in the period of 1905 – 1914 firstly because as a woman I am related to it, and I am telling myself that, if these women did not exist and did not accomplish all they accomplished in that period, I may not be able to vote today, and for me the right to vote is something very important, especially when you know what did women in order to obtain it. I also chose this topic because I consider that the suffrage for women was a kind of revolution, a breaking up with the norms and traditions, and a big step for society at that time. Two principal organisations distinguished themselves in that period: The National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS, called the suffragists) and the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU, also called the suffragettes). These two organisations had the same aims (vote for women and equal rights with men), but were quite different.
Abigail Adams reminded her husband to not forget the women in the constitution which is significant because it was the beginning of women’s rights. Women also became more involved and interested in politics, to the distaste of most men. Many women followed their soldiers while at war and took care of the men. There were some women who acted in radical ways (ex. the New York City fire, riots, and letters), which hadn’t previously been so.
Also I thought that the Suffragists played a vital role in getting the rights for women to vote because they proved to the men that they could protest and campaign without using violence or breaking the law, unlike the Suffragettes, who resorted to violence when they wanted their way or when they wanted to be heard. Before World War 1 there, were two groups of women that campaigned for votes for women and they were known as the Suffragists and the suffragettes. They called themselves the Suffragists because they were trying to mock the word Suffrage which means the right to vote. Then there were the Suffragists they were so different from the Suffragists yet they were so similar. Both groups of women were campaigning and fighting for the same thing, but the way they achieved the vote was very different.
Women were able, furthermore, to stand as candidates in local elections by 1888, enabling women to challenge opposition views that had always denied them their rights, and the increasing roles of women in society indicated greater social acceptance. However, limitations persisted in that these responsibilities were seen as ‘domestic’ and women were still openly denied the parliamentary franchise. In addition, these crucial changes remained restricted to only middle class women, thus losing crucial support from working class women who had already established highly developed unions. Hence, the Radical Suffragist Party focused on working class women thus ‘radical’ for these views. These contributed to social reform through peaceful means and set up successful women’s trade unions which created equal rights for women in payment and working hours.
Their ideologies of social reform were more conservative and traditional in nature. They felt that because women had different needs, the law must be made to recognize these differences because they are significant and relevant to women’s lives and their futures. They fought for women’s suffrage not because they believed it was their “right” as women to vote, but more on the pretense that it was their “duty”. They believed that by having the vote, women would have more political power to improve life for themselves and their children. Their emphasis was on women’s responsibilities as mothers, “Maternalism”, Public Housekeeping, and women’s biological difference from men.