Coursework 1c

History Coursework Alexandra Hebden YR11ESZ

Why, despite the Suffragette activity, had women not gained the vote by the outbreak of the First World War? C) ‘We called upon the government to give us the vote but they didn’t. So, now we will fight for our cause.’ The Suffragettes appeared in 1903, and in 1910 introduced their more violent methods after seven years of peaceful campaigning by the group. However peaceful methods had been campaigned since 1897 by other groups. The new methods consisted of hunger-strikes in prison, window-smashing, arson and bomb attacks and numerous other violent attacks against specifics. These methods attracted the public, making ‘Women’s suffrage a matter of news.’ The drastic methods were not all taken positively, ‘Prime Minister Asquith was against women’s suffrage, and the violence gave him a good excuse’ to be, so you could argue their methods did more harm than good. The anti-suffrage league created a petition containing signatures of 250,000 people against the vote. The Church of England also opposed the vote, responding the Suffragettes burnt down churches. Many suffragists also disagreed with the methods, in source C a Suffragist believes their methods make the cause ‘it’ worst enemy’. However Emmeline Pankhurst in source D says that their cause ‘had never been [news] before’. Alongside the anti-suffrage campaign, many MP’s didn’t think that the vote was politically important. When the vote was due to be discussed at meetings many MP’s would over run on other topics leaving no time to discuss the women’s vote. General elections of 1905 diverted the attention, as many MP’s supporting the vote became less interested. Moreover ‘The Vote’ was vague, people didn’t know exactly what was wanted, the two groups had different demands making the process more complicated, so when the Conciliation, Franchise and Representation Bills were introduced not everyone was satisfied. Up to the start of World War I in 1914, the vote had not been gained for many reasons, I think that one of the main reasons was due to their more aggressive methods for example an axe was thrown at Prime Minister Asquith. However without their methods the vote may not have been gained at all, as the suffragists who had been campaigning since 1897 had hardly been noticed. (Word count: 347)

3