As we might say today, women’s ‘public image’ changed and improved,” says Constance Rover, a historian. Part of the reason why the war was key to women gaining the vote in 1918, was because of changing opinions towards women. “Surely a land fit for heroes to live in might include a place for a few heroines as well?” says Constance Rover. Women had proved themselves useful which was leading to greater equality with men. It would have been simply unreasonable to deny women the right to vote, especially now that women had more of a presence in society.
The peaceful campaigning of the suffragists’ was a key factor in women receiving the vote. The suffragists’ started the whole route of women gaining the vote; they were the ever moving force behind the movement. However historian Martin Pugh suggests that “Suffragists would probably have done better to have made common cause with all unenfranchised men and women from the start and thereby they might have extended their appeal” because all men had not yet received the vote it was argued that women should not receive the franchise when it was not fully given to all men. However there were other contributing factors leading up to 1918 and women gaining the vote. They include the work of the suffragettes’ who caused chaos and grabbed the spotlight away from the suffragists’ after a group of women decided it was time to make a militant stand.
A victory party was held by suffragist societies at the Queen’s Hall in March 1918. However, there were women who still saw the act as a betrayal as it still classed them as second class citizens to men. The 1918 Representation of the People Act gave all men over the age of 21 the right to vote (and aged 19 if the men had been on active service in the armed forces). Therefore, politically women were still not the equal to men in Britain even after the 1918 act. Women achieved full equality regarding suffragein 1928.
One of the reasons that women over 30 got the vote in 1918 was because of the Women's Suffrage campaigns that had been going on as far back as 1850. Women were originally thought of as delicate little things that did as men said and enjoyed doing the housework and looking after the children. These were the women's jobs and men didn't think they could do much
From the beginning, wifehood and motherhood have been regarded as a women’s profession. They were not seen as breadwinners or professionals. As history has told us, women were considered the weaker sex, doing jobs such as laundry, milking cows, and taking care of children, leaving the “heavier” labor to the big strong men (wic.org). With technological advancement today, physiological test suggest women have a greater pain tolerance and statistics show that women live longer and are more resistant to many diseases. In the 20th century, women in most nations won the right to vote, this in return increased their educational and job opportunities.
To what extent did women’s lives change 1850-1901? Women’s lives may not have changed a great deal between the years 1850 and 1901 but the changes that did occur did have an impact on women’s lives. Though there may have been some much bigger changes that came after this time period, it was the changes that happened in these years that kick started the change for women politically and socially. In 1850 women’s roles within society were extremely restricted and they had very limited opportunities. Women were expected to marry, have children and financially they were expected to be fully dependent on their husbands.
Before World War I, women had few rights. But their experience in the Great War changed that forever. Their views towards life changed or improved, and by the middle of the 19th century, women were demanding equality with men. They wanted the right to vote in elections and an equal chance to work and get educated. They also wanted the right to have their own possessions, to divorce their husbands, and to keep their children after divorce.
The Perfection era was an important era because it displayed some amazing women and separated them from that housewife status. Women began to spread their wings, attack the sky and fly. They improved their overall status in the world and began to be accepted into other arenas. The women were perceived as housewives prior to this era. The women became writers and novelists who gave the women aspirations and dreams to be successful.
The facts suggest that Britain was in need of reform and this is why the vote was extended to increasing numbers of people. Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or marital status. In 1918, with the war over, Parliament agreed through the 1918 Qualification of Women Act to enfranchise women who were over the age of 30; providing they were householders, married to a householder or if they held a university degree. This was an important reason as to why the vote was extended to more and more people.
Fighting for a cause The women’s suffrage movement, symbol of nineteenth and early twentieth century feminism, is the one most visible manifestation of women’s emancipation. From the birth of the nation to a Constitutional Amendment passed in 1920, suffrage for women had been batted aside, ignored, criticized, and denied. Those who attacked women’s suffrage were attacking much more than the idea that women as well as men should enter the polling booth. Across America women living in the 1900’s were angry and tired of feeling betrayed and treated as an unequal second class citizen. However these brave remarkable women decided to take action that helped forever changed American history, the right to vote.