The Beginning of a Campaign for Women's Suffrage

The Beginning of a Campaign for Women's Suffrage

In this essay the reasons why the campaign for women's suffrage

developed will be explained using the various acts and all the

different changes that happened to women.

In the year 1870 and well before that time women were being treated

very unfairly and were classed as second class citizens. There were

many restrictions put there by men to stop women from being on the

same level as men these included

· The right to vote, they could not vote

· Women did not have the right to work in politics.

· Women could not own their own properties

· Women could not be the legal guardians of their own children.

· If women had any money or earned any money then it would all go to

the husband or the man of the house.

The only people before 1870 who could vote were middle class men,

upper class men and men who were working class but lived in towns.

Women could not vote at all.

There were many stupid but traditional ideologies at the time given to

why women could not vote. These were that men and women were not only

physically different but men were also psychologically and

intellectually superior to women. Men saw women as intellectually

inferior because they believed that women's brains are smaller than

that of a mans. They argued that women were unstable and would be

unaware of there surroundings during the stages of puberty,

menstruation, pregnancy and menopause. They were said to be fickle,

childish, bad tempered and prone to change their minds. They also

argued that women were already represented by the men of their

families and that if they had the vote they would be incapable of

forming their own opinions and would vote as their husbands or fathers

did.

There were many social changes that women experienced in the 1800s

which led to the campaign fro the right to vote developing these

changes included the opening of schools and colleges for girls.