Free Sample Essays > Sociology
Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
What methods did the suffragettes use, and how effective were these in gaining the vote for women?
same method. They felt this for a variety of reasons, not only because it indicated to government the large numbers in favour of votes for women, but because once again it helped arouse public interest in the campaign. However the lack of the vote amongst women meant that their petitions were not as sympathetically viewed as those made by men regarding the Corn Laws. Another method involved the lobbying of MPs.
The first Committee of Members of Parliament who pledged their commitment to votes for women was set up in 1887 by Lydia Becker, and seventy one MPs joined. Combined with the NUWSS the work done resulted in a private members bill in support of women’s suffrage being brought in almost every year. Government franchise bills were also looked at to be amended to include women’s suffrage. John
Stuart Mill introduced the first ever women’s suffrage amendment to the Second Reform Bill while William Woodall tried to secure the inclusion of women’s suffrage to the Third Reform Bill of 1884. An amendment supporting voted for women was attached to the three Plural voting Bills of 1906,1913 and 1914, and the 1912 Irish Home Rule Bill. Unfortunately, all of the amendments failed. As reform bills and amendments were not working, the suffragists looked to helping Liberal MPs who supported votes for women get elected.
In the 1910 election the NUWSS obtained the candidates views on women’s suffrage, and then undertook door-to-door canvassing to support sympathisers. In Wimbledon the NUWSS ran the entire election campaign of the women’s suffrage candidate. The NUWSS were disillusioned by the Liberal Party and from 1912 onwards they redirected their allegiance to the labour Party. The NUWSS subsidised Labour Mps in Parliament who were sympathetic to the cause, and set up an Election Fighting Fund to sustain Labour candidates and defeat the Liberals. These tactics were thought to be successful. The suffragists did not only use legal methods to try and obtain the vote, but they did also use some that were illegal.
An example of an illegal method used by the suffragists is that of tax evasion. The refusal to pay taxes had a long history in the annals of the suffrage movement, as it was thought that taxation and representation were inseparably united. A number of wealthy suffragists lost property and faced heavy fines for non payment of taxes, but felt these punishments worthwhile for the sake of the cause. Along with tax evasion, another illegal method chosen by the suffragists was census resistance.
It was not just the suffragists, but all suffrage groups linked the census with citizenship, and citizenship with suffrage, and as a result ‘no-vote no-census’ became one of their chants. The Women Freedom League organised a boycott of the 1911 census, and both the NUWSS and [next page]