The Women's Suffrage Movement

The Women’s Suffrage Movement The women’s suffrage movement in Great Britain has been the subject of numerous debates over the recent years. During the nineteenth century, women were not allowed to hold any position in the British Parliament nor allowed to vote for political leaders. Social roles for women during this time period were based on the ideology of separate spheres. In these separate spheres, women were responsible for raising children and taking care of the household, and men were responsible for bringing home an income and dealing with political decisions. However, the Industrial Revolution gave women more opportunities to enter the work forces as unskilled workers and organize as a group. These opportunities meant that women …show more content…
At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, women had no rights to file for divorce, own property, vote or get the same education as men. However, the nineteenth century brought changes to women issues, more women were starting to recognized the imbalanced of power between the sexes and saw winning the right to vote would bring them closer to equality. During the starting stages of the women’s suffrage movement, elite and middle class women were the driving force in the movement. However, as the movement continued more working class women started to support the campaign. The women’s suffrage movement first started attracting major attention from Parliament when the philosopher John Stuart Mill proposed a new amendment calling for the inclusion of women’s right to vote in 1866. In spite of this, parliament did not ratify the Reform Bill of 1867. The battle for women’s voting rights took almost a century to be completely passed in British parliament. Even though, the suffragist face enormous oppositions from both men and women, ultimately their campaigns for equality proved to be influential in reshaping Britain society and politics. In my paper, I will be discussed the women 's suffrage movement’s tactics and viewpoints ' impact on the 1860s -1920s and how the movement needed to become militant to finally win voting rights for …show more content…
Also, men were the common denominator in keeping them from making a political difference. Women were still feeling a great deal of injustices on a daily bases and saw voting rights as the first step in gaining complete equality. Suffragist believed women’s emancipation could be the only way to secure social advantages in society. During the later stages of Industrial Revolution, women were entering the workforce in larger numbers then ever before in history and becoming more finically independent. In Sandra Holton’s Feminism And Democracy: Women 's Suffrage and Reform Politics in Britain, 1900-1918 she argues that women’s political liberation was building upon it successful alliances between the suffrage movement and political unions. The National Union’s policy had ensured the women suffrage movement became an integrated part of the discussion of the Labour movement. Also, ensuring that the suffragist campaign become an important part of its reform politics to insecure the Labour Party’s commitment to the enfranchisement of