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VOTES Historians’ view F OR WOMEN 100YEARS minority of women (and some men) were inspired by the bravery and determination of the most militant women, many others recoiled in horror from violence against property, which seemed likely to inflict eventual personal injury. It is clear that the prewar Liberal government was negatively influenced by suffragette violence. Prejudices against ‘irrational’ female voters were reinforced, and even those politicians who favoured enfranchisement were reluctant to respond to pressure exerted by suffragette extremists. FR:We haven’t paid enough attention to the sheer scale of the suffragette violence. During its height, in one month alone, there were 52 violent attacks including 29 bombs and 15 arson attempts on churches, railway stations, post offices, banks, newspaper offices and even MPs’ homes. Until we fully comprehend the full impact of these actions, we can’t begin to understand what it did to the suffrage campaign as a whole. JP: Too much emphasis is given to suffragette violence and not enough to state violence against women campaigning for their democratic right to the parliamentary vote. Even when campaigning peacefully, suffragettes could be roughly handled by the police, imprisoned, or forcibly fed if they went on hunger strike. Forcible feeding was a brutal, life-threatening and degrading operation, performed by male doctors on struggling female bodies. Many of the women experienced it as a form of instrumental rape. Damage to property did not make the suffragettes popular but they always observed the strict orders of the WSPU leadership never to endanger human life. They did not kill or harm anyone. Since argument had failed to persuade an obdurate Liberal government to grant women the vote, some were prepared to adopt the violent methods that men had used successfully in the past when campaigning for their enfranchisement. Banned from attending Liberal party meetings and holding their own, the suffragettes were outside the constitution with no legitimate forms of protest. JA: Some things they did disgusted the public, such as the slashing of the Rokeby Venus in the National Gallery. The suffragette who did this thought it would aid the cause, but the logic escaped art lovers. Starting fires in theatres and planting bombs in churches endangered lives. By the end of the campaign, the authorities feared that a suffragette would be seriously injured by members of the public outraged at their vandalism. On the positive side, in the early 20th century, suffragette violence kept the issue of votes for women on the agenda. It could otherwise easily have been subsumed under the furore over Ireland, labour unrest and German military expansion. When they were nally given the vote, how did women feel about not being granted an equal franchise to men? JA: The act of 1918 was a settlement with the people of a country that was still engaged in a major war. Britons had a lot to be concerned about and the issue of votes for women wasn’t high on the list. In this climate, supporters were happy that suffrage had been achieved, even if it was limited. You’ve got to remember that an equal franchise would have entitled more women to vote than men. That prospect was unpalatable to a lot of people so the compromise of offering the vote to some women over 30 was generally deemed acceptable. This meant that the women who had done most for the war effort – those under 30 – were excluded from the ballot. That very fact qualifies the idea that war work earned women the vote. JP: Both the suffragists of the NUWSS and the suffragettes of the WSPU had campaigned for votes for women on the same terms as it was, or would be granted to men. This did not happen with the 1918 act and both groups felt let down. However, they knew that the sex discrimination that had prevented all women from being granted the vote had been broken and that it would not be too long before women won enfranchisement on equal terms with men. JB: There was disappointment within the suffrage movement over the restriction of women’s voting rights in 1918, which related both to age and income. However, there was no public outcry. Instead, both suffragists and anti-suffragists turned enthusiastically to the task of organising newly enfranchised “Too much emphasis is given to su ragette violence and not enough to state violence against women” JUNE PURVIS Mary Richardson is detained after slashing the Rokeby Venus in the National Gallery, 1914. “The suffragette who did this thought it would aid the cause, but the logic escaped art lovers,” says Jad Adams women and testing out their influence upon social reform agendas. The demand for an equal franchise was never silenced during the first decade of votes for women. Suffragists eventually found themselves pushing at an opening door, since only 10 MPs voted against the 1928 bill to give women the same voting rights as men. The vote was won, at least partly, because female voters had proved themselves harmless! How did people feel about New Zealand – then a British colony – giving the vote to women 25 years before Britain? JB: Suffragists drew inspiration from the enfranchisement of New Zealand women, and valued their visible support at many public marches and meetings. However, anti-suffrage women argued that the colonial New Zealand experience was irrelevant to the debate over women’s participation in Britain’s imperial government. A strong current of imperialism flowed through both suffrage and antisuffrage campaigns, with an emphasis upon motherhood at its heart. British suffragists saw the success of New Zealand’s social welfare programme as evidence of female voters’ potential to enhance imperial power. On the other hand, anti-suffragists believed that New Zealand’s healthy women and children proved the suitability of women for local government only. Social welfare was women’s business, while military and imperial affairs belonged emphatically to the male parliament at Westminster. JA: Feelings were mixed. From one point of view, the New Zealand achievement was seen to be the harbinger of widespread enfranchisements. On the other hand, what I M A G E S G E T T Y 30 BBC History Magazine
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were colonials doing possessing a right that had been denied British women? It was particularly objectionable to society ladies like Millicent Fawcett that native women should be given the vote. Her position was now inferior, as she said, to “that of the Maori women of New Zealand who have more power in developing and moulding the future of the empire than we have in England. Why should the Maori women be in a superior position to that held by the women of England?” Women go to the polls in 1899 in New Zealand, the first nation to entitle women to vote in national elections Why did it take so long for British women to get the vote? JA: Did it take that long? In Britain female ratepayers got the vote for municipal elections in 1869 – they would have to wait less than 50 years to receive the parliamentary vote. And that delay wasn’t due to rabid opposition but because where was no agreement on which women should get the vote. By the 1890s there was a majority for women’s suffrage in the House of Commons. A narrow franchise based on the ownership of property would primarily benefit the Conservatives in general elections; a wider franchise of ratepayers would benefit the Liberals. The breakthrough came when the NUWSS made a deal with the new but fast-growing Labour party in 1912 to support Labour candidates, particularly in seats held by Liberals with unsatisfactory records on women’s suffrage. JP: There are two main reasons. First, the two leading political parties – the Liberals and the Tories – sought party advantage from a female suffrage measure and could not agree on the grounds for such legislation. Second, for the major part of the 20th-century suffrage campaign, the Liberal Herbert Asquith, a staunch opponent of votes for women, was the prime minister. Even in 1920, he still expressed his contempt for female voters, describing the women on the voting register in Paisley, Scotland, as “a dim, impenetrable… element – of whom all that one knows is that they are for the most part hopelessly ignorant of politics, credulous to the last degree and flickering with gusts of sentiment like a candle in the wind”. T O P F O T O JB: The length of the suffrage campaign is evidence of the depth of resistance from male politicians, sometimes linked to opportunist calculations about the electoral impact of female voters. Both male and female opposition to votes for women was fundamentally due to deep-seated views on separate gender roles and their importance to a stable and civilised society. Such views were reinforced by late 19th-century concerns over “Resistance from male politicians was linked to calculations about the electoral impact of female voters” JULIA BUSH national and imperial strength, in an era of increasing economic and strategic rivalry among the world powers. Did women see any immediate changes to their lives as a result of the act? JA: Not really. As 19th-century British philosopher John Stuart Mill pointed out – when, in 1867, he proposed votes for women in parliament – there was no justice in denying women the vote. It was an easy concession to grant because it would make no difference. He realised that women would vote with their families or class, rather than with their gender. And so it proved. JP: There was much more legislation that changed women’s lives after 1918 than before. On 21 November 1918, the Parliament (Qualification of Women) Bill was passed, making women eligible to stand for parliament on equal terms as men. In doing so, it allowed women between the ages of 21 and 30 to stand for election to a parliament they could not themselves elect. The Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act of 1919, in principle, abolished disqualification by sex or marriage for entry to the professions and universities, and the exercise of any public function. The following year, 200 women were appointed magistrates. Also in 1919, the Industrial Courts Act allowed women to sit on courts of arbitration on issues such as workplace pay and conditions. The 1922 Infanticide Act eliminated the charge of murder for a woman guilty of killing her child when it was shown that she was suffering from the effects of her confinement. Then, in 1923, the Matrimonial Causes Act relieved wives of the necessity to prove desertion, cruelty or other faults in addition to adultery as grounds for divorce. JB: An unprecedented amount of social reform legislation was passed during the decade after the 1918 act, but this does not prove a causal link. The social welfare agenda of the organised women’s movement was finally addressed during the 1920s, and women’s legal status also improved. However anti-suffrage women had always argued that male politicians could be persuaded to support their reform agenda without conceding the vote. Non-political women’s organisations continued to press effectively for policy reform, both before and after the vote was won. Meanwhile many former suffragists were disappointed by their failure to transform the male institution of parliament, and by the defeat of important campaigns to improve women’s employment opportunities. Interviews by Charlotte Hodgman DISCOVER MORE TELEVISION E How Women Won the Vote, presented by Lucy Worsley, is due to air on BBC One later in 2018 LISTENAGAIN E Suffragettes recall their experiences in a collection of programmes on the BBC Archive website: bbc.co.uk/archive/ suffragettes BBC History Magazine 31

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were colonials doing possessing a right that had been denied British women? It was particularly objectionable to society ladies like Millicent Fawcett that native women should be given the vote. Her position was now inferior, as she said, to “that of the Maori women of New Zealand who have more power in developing and moulding the future of the empire than we have in England. Why should the Maori women be in a superior position to that held by the women of England?”

Women go to the polls in 1899 in New Zealand, the first nation to entitle women to vote in national elections

Why did it take so long for British women to get the vote? JA: Did it take that long? In Britain female ratepayers got the vote for municipal elections in 1869 – they would have to wait less than 50 years to receive the parliamentary vote. And that delay wasn’t due to rabid opposition but because where was no agreement on which women should get the vote.

By the 1890s there was a majority for women’s suffrage in the House of Commons. A narrow franchise based on the ownership of property would primarily benefit the Conservatives in general elections; a wider franchise of ratepayers would benefit the Liberals. The breakthrough came when the NUWSS made a deal with the new but fast-growing Labour party in 1912 to support Labour candidates, particularly in seats held by Liberals with unsatisfactory records on women’s suffrage.

JP: There are two main reasons. First, the two leading political parties – the Liberals and the Tories – sought party advantage from a female suffrage measure and could not agree on the grounds for such legislation.

Second, for the major part of the 20th-century suffrage campaign, the Liberal Herbert Asquith, a staunch opponent of votes for women, was the prime minister. Even in 1920, he still expressed his contempt for female voters, describing the women on the voting register in Paisley, Scotland, as “a dim, impenetrable… element – of whom all that one knows is that they are for the most part hopelessly ignorant of politics, credulous to the last degree and flickering with gusts of sentiment like a candle in the wind”.

T O P F O T O

JB: The length of the suffrage campaign is evidence of the depth of resistance from male politicians, sometimes linked to opportunist calculations about the electoral impact of female voters. Both male and female opposition to votes for women was fundamentally due to deep-seated views on separate gender roles and their importance to a stable and civilised society. Such views were reinforced by late 19th-century concerns over

“Resistance from male politicians was linked to calculations about the electoral impact of female voters”

JULIA BUSH

national and imperial strength, in an era of increasing economic and strategic rivalry among the world powers.

Did women see any immediate changes to their lives as a result of the act? JA: Not really. As 19th-century British philosopher John Stuart Mill pointed out – when, in 1867, he proposed votes for women in parliament – there was no justice in denying women the vote. It was an easy concession to grant because it would make no difference. He realised that women would vote with their families or class, rather than with their gender. And so it proved.

JP: There was much more legislation that changed women’s lives after 1918 than before. On 21 November 1918, the Parliament (Qualification of Women) Bill was passed, making women eligible to stand for parliament on equal terms as men. In doing so, it allowed women between the ages of 21 and 30 to stand for election to a parliament they could not themselves elect.

The Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act of 1919, in principle, abolished disqualification by sex or marriage for entry to the professions and universities, and the exercise of any public function. The following year, 200 women were appointed magistrates.

Also in 1919, the Industrial Courts Act allowed women to sit on courts of arbitration on issues such as workplace pay and conditions. The 1922 Infanticide Act eliminated the charge of murder for a woman guilty of killing her child when it was shown that she was suffering from the effects of her confinement. Then, in 1923, the Matrimonial Causes Act relieved wives of the necessity to prove desertion, cruelty or other faults in addition to adultery as grounds for divorce.

JB: An unprecedented amount of social reform legislation was passed during the decade after the 1918 act, but this does not prove a causal link. The social welfare agenda of the organised women’s movement was finally addressed during the 1920s, and women’s legal status also improved. However anti-suffrage women had always argued that male politicians could be persuaded to support their reform agenda without conceding the vote.

Non-political women’s organisations continued to press effectively for policy reform, both before and after the vote was won. Meanwhile many former suffragists were disappointed by their failure to transform the male institution of parliament, and by the defeat of important campaigns to improve women’s employment opportunities. Interviews by Charlotte Hodgman

DISCOVER MORE

TELEVISION E How Women Won the Vote, presented by Lucy Worsley, is due to air on BBC One later in 2018 LISTENAGAIN E Suffragettes recall their experiences in a collection of programmes on the BBC Archive website: bbc.co.uk/archive/ suffragettes

BBC History Magazine

31

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