Women's rights

Question 1

How were women looked upon in the early 20th century?

Answer 1

There rightful place is the home looking after the family, some men believed they were too emotional and of inferior intelligence to be apart in business
In 1911, 10% of married women were employed (mainly the poor)

Question 2

What evidence was there that attitude to women were changing in the early 20th century?

Answer 2

More girls schools were opening, more women were going to university and some were becoming doctors
They could also vote in local elections as it will affect the home

Question 3

What were suffragists?

Answer 3

Women campaigning for the right to vote in general elections

Question 4

What was the national union of women’s suffrage societies? (NUWSS)

Answer 4

Created by a wealthy house wife (Millicent Fawcett), middle to upper class women campaigned peacefully and legally to win the right to vote. They encouraged men to join to help there cause, they believed they would gain respect by protesting peacefully

Question 5

How did the NUWSS go about their campaigning?

Answer 5

As well as public protests and marches, they trained women to speak in public, produced pamphlets and newspapers.
In the 1906 elections some male MP members publicly stood against those that opposed the rights of women

Question 6

What was the Women’s Social and Political Union? (WSPU)

Answer 6

A member of the Manchester NUWSS (Emmeline Pankhurst) decided to take more drastic action, with her sisters Sylvia and Christabel she founded the WSPU.
Their main belief was ‘deeds not words’ in order to get the vote (eventually nicknamed the ‘suffragettes’)

Question 7

What did the NUWSS think of the WSPU?

Answer 7

Initially they supported them, however some of the militant action from the WSPU caused the NUWSS to withdraw their support because they thought their approach might put the men off

Question 8

What did Sylvia Pankhurst do in 1905 which lost the NUWSS’s support dramatically?

Answer 8

Spat on and struck a policeman, was sent to prison

Question 9

What did many dislike about the WSPU?

Answer 9

It’s increasingly violent tactics, and the domination of the Pankhurst family

Question 10

What was the Women’s Freedom League? (WFL)

Answer 10

In 1907 some WSPU members broke off and formed the WFL because they wanted to use militant action but not break the law

Question 11

What was Henry Campbell-Bannerman’s (Liberal Prime-minister) view on votes for women?

Answer 11

He was in favour - he said that women should “not show the virtue of patience, but to go on pestering”

Question 12

What political effect did both suffragists and suffragettes protests have?

Answer 12

1908 - parliament considered passing a law to give women the vote
1911 - parliament voted to extend the vote of women, but did not do so, also considering extending the vote of men (as only 60% of men could vote)

Question 13

What did the suffragists do in protest of the unsuccessful voting in parliament? (1911)

Answer 13

Organised a peaceful pilgrimage from Carlisle to London, thousands attended

Question 14

What did the suffragettes do in protest of the unsuccessful voting in parliament? (1911)

Answer 14

They adopted more aggressive methods, in 1912 the organised a mass stone-throwing operation in London (breaking hundreds of windows. 219 were arrested and they did not protest imprisonment

Question 15

What are other examples of the suffragettes more violent techniques?

Answer 15

Slashing valuable paintings, dig up golf courses and cricket pitches, cut telegraph wires and set fire to postboxes

Question 16

Examples of the suffragettes most extreme deeds?

Answer 16

Disused churches, put bombs in warehouses, assaulted politicians and carried out acts of arson
MP’s were advised to be careful of suspicious packages and be on the look out for suffragettes

Question 17

What was the ‘suffragette derby’? (1913)

Answer 17

Emily Davison ran onto the race track in Epson and tried to catch hold of the kings horse, but she was thrown to the ground and died four days later with a fractured skull

Question 18

What do most historians believe about Emily Davison’s intentions?

Answer 18

It was a protest gone wrong, she only intended to disrupt the race

Question 19

What did the suffragettes do after the derby?

Answer 19

Used her death as an example of the suffragette commitment, she was prepared to commit suicide for the cause, her funeral was turned into a suffragette celebration of her sacrifice (on her head stone it was written ‘deeds not words’)

Question 20

What organisations were set up to oppose the suffrage movements?

Answer 20

The Mens League for Opposing Women’s Suffrage
The National League for Opposing Women’s Suffrage
The Women’s National Anti-Suffrage League
Women opposed it because they thought it was against the natural order of humans (they believed men were intellectually superior)

Question 21

What did the women in prison do to protest? Why?

Answer 21

Went on hunger strikes, they knew that their deaths would cause great embarrassment to the government as many were from prestige families, the government could not let them die

Question 22

What did the government do in response to the hunger strikes?

Answer 22

Ordered prisons to force feed them, pushed a tube up the strikers nostril which lead to their stomach and poor liquid nutrients down it

Question 23

How did people respond to the force feeding of women?

Answer 23

There was a huge uproar and much unrest against it

Question 24

What method did the government try after the uproar against force feeding? (1913)

Answer 24

In 1913, parliament passed the Prisoners Act (Prisoners Temporary Discharge for Ill Health). This stated that hunger strikers could be released if they became weak and as soon as they regained strength they were rearrested to finish their sentence
This became known as the cat and mouse act because it reminded people of how a mouse was treated my a cat (teasing it before death)

Question 25

What happened to the battle on suffrage when the war broke out? (1914)

Answer 25

Women called off the campaign and replaced it with ‘women’s right to serve’ in voluntary work, factories, agriculture or even as nurses in the front line

Question 26

What was prime minister Asquith’s response to the women’s new campaign? (1917)

Answer 26

He said ‘I find it impossible to withhold from women the power and right of making their voices heard’

Question 27

When did women gain the first success in their suffrage campaign?

Answer 27

In 1918 the representation of the peoples act gave women aged over 30 the right to vote, and become MP’s

Question 28

When were men and women’s voting rights equal?

Answer 28

In 1928 both men and women aged 21 and over could vote

Question 29

What does suffrage mean?

Answer 29

The right to vote, something women didn’t have in the early 20th century