Much of the opposition to women's suffrage stemmed from the Victorian preconceptions of women, which was supported by both men and women. These include: Women are sufficiently represented already by men, and their interests have always been jealously protected by the legislature; A woman is so easily influenced that if she had a vote it would practically have the same effect as giving two votes to her nearest male relation, or to her favourite clergyman; Women are so obstinate that if they had votes endless family discord would ensue; The ideal of domestic life is a miniature despotism—one supreme head, to whom all the other members of the family are subject. This ideal would be destroyed if the equality of women with men were recognised …show more content…
They strived to point out that women had been able to be elected onto boards dealing with the Poor Law and the 1870 Education Act, and from 1894 they'd been able to serve on new urban and rural district councils , whilst being able to maintain the home and look after their husbands and children. They aimed to show that women were not as weak willed as they were perceived and could easily work and complete their maternal duties. Women were also beginning to become as equally academic as men. By 1880, primary schooling had become compulsory for both boys and girls between the ages of five and ten- this was more of a change for working class families as girls from upper and well off middle class families had been going to private boarding school and dame schools since the 18th century. The compulsory school leaving age increased during the late 19th century (it rose to twelve when the 1893 Elementary Education Act was amended in 1899 ). The ability for women to be able to achieve advanced degrees at UK universities had increased over the 1800's. In 1878, the University of London was one of the first UK university to admit women onto its degrees, and by 1900 30% of its graduates were women . Millicent Fawcett and Henry Sidgwich founded Newnham College, a girls only college at Cambridge University, founded in 1871 and opened in 1875. Sigdwich had been giving women lectures at Trinity College, Cambridge since 1870, but found there was a demand by women who couldn't travel back and forth daily, so realised he needed to set up a site to accommodate these women. Newnham College was especially popular because it offered similar degrees to the ones men could study. This all showed that women were as academically advanced as men and had the same access to education, proving women could participate in academics and achieve advanced degrees just as well as men. Millicent Fawcett, herself, says that whether
Today, women and men have equal rights, however not long ago men believed women were lower than them. During the late eighteenth century, men expected women to stay at home and raise children. Women were given very few opportunities to expand their education past high school because colleges and universities would not accept females. This was a loss for women everywhere because it took away positions of power for them. It was even frowned upon if a woman showed interest in medicine or law because that was a man 's place not a woman’s, just like it was a man 's duty to vote and not a woman 's. The road to women 's right was long and hard, but many women helped push the right to vote, the one that was at the front of that group was Susan B. Anthony.
Women were trying to get the vote for many years before 1900, however this was not a serious concern and they were not doing much to achieve this. However in 1900 this all changed. The NUWSS (Suffragists) and the WSPU (Suffragettes) were set up in the early years of 1900; their goal was to allow women to get the vote. Their reason was that women were already allowed to work on city councils and become doctors, some notable ones too such as Florence Nightingale. The NUWSS believed that if women were house owners and had respectable jobs they should be allowed to vote. This is because men who were allowed to vote could be white slave owners and lunatics so why could these men vote and women could not? Notably however Queen Elizabeth herself proclaimed that women should not get muddled up with the world of politics.
Women's Suffrage in the right of women to share political privileges on equal terms with men, the right to vote in elections and referendums, and the right to hold public office. The women's suffrage was a worldwide issue that had begun a long time before the 19th century. The issues involving women's right to vote was aroused in 1839 when the American Missionary Association began to work to develop education opportunities for blacks and other minorities in the U.S. which begun with the defending of the slaves of the Amistad. (Banner, Lois W. 1,NP)
Women, like black slaves, were treated unequally from the male before the nineteenth century. The role of the women played the part of their description, physically and emotionally weak, which during this time period all women did was took care of their household and husband, and followed their orders. Women were classified as the “weaker sex” or below the standards of men in the early part of the century. Soon after the decades unfolded, women gradually surfaced to breathe the air of freedom and self determination, when they were given specific freedoms such as the opportunity for an education, their voting rights, ownership of property, and being employed.
The opposition to women's suffrage in the early 20th century stems from a deep rooted social phenomenon in england that took hold in the 19th century. The victorian era gave rise to the system of gender roles and relations that sought to separate the sexes on all fronts of society. This sex class system, also known as the separate sphere ideology, developed from the changing economic scheme, the opinions of great victorian philosophers, and a revival of religious integrity. The separate sphere ideology very popular amongst english society and developed a level of indisputable credibility when publically defended by an emergence of pseudo science discoveries on a woman's capacities. The separate sphere mentality would define the clear roles, duties and responsibilities of men and women in a rigid unforgiving manner. It would shape the english morality, freezing women out of public life and into the cult of domesticity. This perceived gender role and relation system would become the single greatest platform for campaigning anti-suffragists, who lead poplar ‘antis’ movements . The key ‘antis’ arguments discussed developed from a separate sphere ideology outlook, and are as following; biological differences could not allow equal voting rights, changing the gender system would negatively alter woman's life, and women can not physically, socially or mentality navigate the world of politics.
During the late 19th century, women were in a society where man was dominant. Women did not have natural born rights, such as the right to vote, to speak in public, access to equal education, and so forth, did not stop them to fight for their rights. Women's lives soon changed when Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony played a prominent role to help bring about change.
Although women have been seen as inferior for many years, looking at the documents it’s unequivocal that women should have been given the same domestic, political and social rights as men. In the early 20th century, many Americans perceived women as unskilled and deficient, as this woman has never had the chance to prove how they can positively affect society. Document A, Supports Woman states; “They still love their homes and their children just the same as ever, and are better able to protect themselves and their children because of the ballot”. If women were given the right to vote, it would not only have helped the society by having more opinions, but it would have also helped women protect themselves and their children by voting for things like better education. Supports Woman explains how giving women the right to vote has only been beneficial to the society....
Queen Victoria was a fierce opponent of women's rights. "The Queen is most anxious to enlist everyone who can speak or write to join in checking this mad wicked folly of women's rights, with all its attendant horrors on which her poor sex is bent. " Queen Victoria 1870 Traditionally women's roles were within the home as "moral educators" and little or no formal education was offered to them, leaving them domestic prisoners[1]. Two factors in achieving their emancipation had to be addressed. Women needed an equal entitlement to the educational opportunities offered to men and they needed to gain the right to vote.
Mainly because women weren’t fully exposed to the happenings outside of the home, which led to the male figure believing that it was impossible for women to vote if they didn’t know the facts. Men thought that if women were able to vote, that they would reach a power, that they could not take away and they didn’t want that. Men wanted to be the head of the household and everything else in between. There were many women, who thought the fact of not being able to vote was outrageous. They wanted the same rights as men, and nothing was going to stop them.
Gaining woman 's rights and establishing woman suffrage were the obstacles that woman activists of the nineteenth century faced back then. Women 's rights are said to be universal and that means that it concerns all women. Most of the policies and laws in the nineteenth century highlighted the importance of men and their rights. However, women strived and struggled to fight for their rights. There was a similar group of people who fought for their rights who were African Americans. Voting rights and worker recognition was the main focus of women, as well as African Americans. Moreover, women 's rights and abolition often clashed together, but both events worked together as women were supporters of abolition. There were numerous rights that
Although they were fighting for a worthy cause, many did not agree with these women’s radical views. These conservative thinkers caused a great road-block on the way to enfranchisement. Most of them were men, who were set in their thoughts about women’s roles, who couldn’t understand why a woman would deserve to vote, let alone want to vote. But there were also many women who were not concerned with their fundamental right to vote. Because some women were indifferent in regards to suffrage, they set back those who were working towards the greater good of the nation. However, the suffragettes were able to overcome these obstacles by altering their tactics, while still maintaining their objective.
One argument in favour of women shows pictures of what men could be: A convict, lunatic, owner of white slaves, unfit for service and a drunkard. This portrayed men as being responsible, but they still could vote. Then it shows what women could achieve: Mayor, nurse, mother doctor or teacher or a factory hand, which showed them as responsible but they still couldn't the vote.1 Men's attitude towards women during the First World War was still negative. The ability of women to take on the roles of men meant that increasing numbers of men were vulnerable to conscription.2 The women were told that they couldn't vote because they weren't fighting for their country. They couldn't fight because they weren't allowed to.
During the beginning of the 20th century, the increase activity of the National Union Of Women attractive additional support of the suffrage movement. “However, it was possible to criticize the policy and tactics of the constitutional suffragist on several grounds. It was argued that the suffragists should have revolted in 1884, when the amendment to the reform bill of that year failed through the opposition of the liberal leadership, but the suffragists were too well mannered to do more protesting and concentrate all of their efforts on one private members bill.” The women suffrage’s organization could not force the political parties to adopt the cause of women’s suffrage and need a major party to pick up their campaign or there was no hope of a government bill. Women’s suffrages leaders saw that they need more of a drastic tactics to gain public awareness. Women started protesting by undergoing violence methods and tactics however, the National Union Of Women believed that any aggression or violence acts of protesting would only weaken the movement. These actions would persuade male’s voters that women are too emotional and thus could not be trusted with the responsible of voting. These gentle ways of protesting was unconvincing, as many political believed would give up or lose interests. The lack of actions cause many women to take strongest methods of protesting their rights and formed a more violent group called Suffragettes.
The Victorian era, spurred a momentary sequence of both women and men in search of a prosperous relationship regulated by the demanding etiquettes of the Victorian Society. If these desired qualities were not in possession, a man or woman could be labeled as ‘unsuitable’ in the positions of a husband or a wife. Women suffered mostly throughout the Victorian Era as rights were ceased and the rules and guidelines of society were placed. The Victorian Era caused the rights of women to escalate when the Vision of the “Ideal Woman” was introduced amongst society; producing segregation between men and women to last for years to come.
“See, it’s not that bad,” Anthony consoled the whimpering pet. But really, he was consoling himself. He couldn’t shake this eerie feeling he had. A few days later, this feeling became a reality.