Free Sample Essays > Sociology
Why did a campaign for women's suffrage develop in the years after 1870
therefore increased married women’s independence. Introducing a law which states that a man cannot hold his wife in his house means that he does not have such ultimate power: she could come and go and she pleased (e.g. to meetings, suffrage marches, etc). As women were having to rely on their husbands less and less they had more rights according to the law, and according to their right for franchise.
Women weren’t seen as responsible as men but these ideas were challenged when women were given more right to their own property.
Political advances could bot just come in the form of a granted franchise. Before this more laws were introduced which gave women a greater part on the political stage. In a speech to her local constitution (1896) Mary Harding said, ‘I live and breathe politics, and those [women] who confess to not liking or understanding it can hardly be expected to be granted the vote!’ Many women grasped an understanding of politics through their growing role in constitutional politics. In 1888 elected country councils established female ratepayers were allowed to vote. In 1894 elected parish, rural district and urban district councils established which women were allowed to be a part of. Female ratepayers could vote and stand as candidates.
The laws and acts explained above are vital to how the Suffrage movement developed. Though these: education, political influence and divorce and property rights, women were given the equal footing they required to campaign for what they believed in, and to one day achieve it.