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Role of Suffragettes in Britain

e frustrating politics of the pre-war suffrage struggle, and the effects of the war itself. Perhaps the most important contributory social change of all was the entry of women into many occupations, a process which was accelerated by the war but which was well underway by 1914. Many historians claim that the movement lacked popular appeal and accomplished nothing before the war changed the nature of the debate, but an examination of the issue shows that this was not the case and that the movement did achieve gains before the war.

Women's Suffrage as a Middle Class Liberal Cause 1867-1903

Rover said the mid-19th century women's suffrage movement "was essentially a political movement run by middle-class women." A great liberal cause of the day was the extension of the franchise to males subject to fewer and fewer property qualifications under the Great Reform Act of 1832 and the Second Reform Act of 1867. Mary Wollstonescraft with her Vindication of the Rights of Women in 1792 and William Thompson, believed to be a pseudonym for an Irish widow named Mrs. Wheeler, with his Appeal in 1825 had called for the emancipation of women, but they were well before their time. By the 1860s and 1870s, economic and social changes had taken place in the position of middle class Victorian women which Lewis described as follows:

As land gradually ceased to be a major source of middle class wealth, and as salaries became more important, so marriage ceased to be an essentially dynastic settlement between two kin groups and it became possible to grant women more freedom, both emotional (to marry whom they wished) and legal, within marriage.

Under the Married Women's Property Acts of 1870 and 1882, women gained legal control over their earnings and separate property, respectively. The other property of the married couple remained, however, under the control of the husband. From the very first proposals for women's suffrage advanced by...

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Role of Suffragettes in Britain. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 09:12, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1681617.html