Obtaining the Vote for Women - Assignment Example

Assignment, Political Science By To what extent were women’s lives transformed by obtaining thevote in 1918 and 1928? In the ancient world, women were considered inferior to men. Very few women had access to employment opportunities as they were not educated. Parents considered it irrelevant to educate girls as they argued that they would get married and leave their homestead. Nevertheless, Women rights varied from one civilization to another, and considerable effort is being done to ensure that gender equality is achieved. The main purpose of this paper is to describe to what extent women’s lives transformed by obtaining the vote in 1918 and 1928. In the 19th-century women had no positions in the parliament. They had no right for electoral positions in the parliament, and they were also not permitted to vote. It was presumed that women were not required to vote since their husbands took that responsibility on their behalf. Women’s responsibility was taking care of the home and childbearing. During industrial revolution, women became full- time employees which implicate that they had no opportunities to meet in groups to discuss social and political issues. In 1866, organized campaigns for women suffrage started to appear and from 1888, women were allowed to vote in local council elections. John Stuart proposed an amendment that women should be permitted to vote just as men but unfortunately rejected. Voting for women was always considered as an improvement in women’s rights. Many women viewed a vote as an outstanding achievement as that would give them a voice in the laws that were affecting their lives (Lambert, 2015, p.22). For years, women have struggled to achieve equal representation and rights in official activities. The quest for equality accelerated in the 19th century. This is the period when men became actively involved in wars as there was tension all over the world. While their men were away, women served the nation, and they did men’s work in various ways. In 1918, the passed a law that the women should be given a right to vote. This was as a result of the ability they had shown during the period in which their men were away. More women were willing to volunteer to work in ammunitions manufacturing factories, others were willing to take even significant risks being nurses for the wounded soldiers, and others became secretaries and assistants in offices that were used to control war troops among other important roles. Almost every individual who supported the motion of women to obtain voting right plainly said that they deserved it due to their courageous conduct during the period of war. Supporters of women to be given right to vote argued that, women did not only play a significant role in assisting the war, but their contribution towards the running of the country was remarkable. Every woman who was over 30 years of age was given a right to vote. Approximately six million women were given the vote in the 1918 Parliament Act. Later in the 1928 another motion was raised that more women were supposed to be given voting right. Since the Britain government had already seen their contribution, a law was passed for women over the age of 21 year and above to be given a voting right. Nevertheless, this law did not bring women equality as they had anticipated as the voting age of men was also made to be 21 years and above (Lambert, 2015, p. 34). Women’s suffrage opened various doors for the British Women. Social expectations for women were raised. By late 19th century, women were equally attending to colleges for professional training. Although men still dominated in colleges, a significant number of women was represented. Among the professions they actively trained were medicine, law, corporate as well as clergy. During this era, the demand for women doctors was very high as there was still fear of another war. Therefore, majority of women practiced medicine to act as volunteer doctors in case of such a scenario. Majority of women also initiated new institutions and, as a result, the society entirely gained trust in them and started supporting their movements and activities. Right to political representation was the beginning of the transformation of women. More women gained credible public identity which made them raise their self-image. During the period when men were away the country required medical practitioners, nurses, and teachers, factory workers among others workers. In other words, the country had run out of its workforce as men were considered to be the only competent individuals to handle such occupations. Due to this shortage, the government had no choice than to train the available personnel who happened to be women. In this period, they received formal education in dealing with issues especially medical practitioners as some happened to volunteer to assist wounded soldiers in different parts of the world. To some extent, some women proved to be better than men even after their men returned. Therefore, by the time the war was ending, majority of women had already acquired skills necessary to safeguard their employment in their various organizations (Spender, 1983, p. 88). Women also proved they could cope with the male-dominated parliament environment. One of the key inquiries subsequent to the representation Act of 1918 was by what method women would vote and which party would allow women to be used as parliamentary candidates. Aftermath of women suffrage, It was a different case, political parties were trying to persuade supporters to understand the importance of women representation in parliament. Most political parties were persuading Liberal women who were prominent in the era of Suffrage. Despite the fact that most political parties were supporting women, they never numbered more than 15 members out of 615 members of Common. In addition, women could not be allowed to sit in the House of Lord till 1958. Women’s economic role increased in their families, society as well as in the country. Access to education empowered women to realize that they can still be family breadwinners. In the aftermath of women suffrage, more women got access to education and professional training. For this reason, women started getting well-paying jobs which they could use to boost their families financial position. Some women got access to a better job that their men. Also, most women established institutions which helped communities and especially girls to get more access to information. Community empowerment was not only beneficial to society but the country as a whole (Smith, 1998, p. 115). Women started gaining success in state level politics. In the year 1920s, more women got elected to political offices. By the year 1928, women had received more support and the number of women who got elected in Parliament increased significantly. Despite the fact, no women held positions in the parliament, having a significant number of women representatives in the Parliament was quite an achievement and a great boost to potential candidates. These women were serving in positions such as secretary of education, secretary of the state among other posts. This tremendous success in the state-level politics is considered to have been contributed by allowing more women to exercise their voting rights. In these posts, women made a significant impact despite the fact that they held positions that had limitations to state administration or what was referred to as issues of women (Lambert, 2015). Giving women a right to vote increased the size of the government. As in the US, the attainment of women suffrage was viewed as equality between men and women. In most cases, women’s suffrage was seen as if the size of the government has increased. This rise was considered to have been brought about by adding women to the government. Initially, the government used to be administered by men. After women were given voting right, they became more empowered and were capable of running high government offices. After a series of discussions, women were allowed to participate fully in government operations. Nevertheless, the number of men did not reduce despite having a significant number of women running the government (Parliament UK, 2015). Women suffrage movements transformed gender structures in the society. Traditionally, there were those activities that could have been done by a particular gender. For example in a family set up, women were believed to remain in their homes and take care of their children while men used to work to sustain their families. During this period, gender structures, roles as well as gender relations were transformed. Women started to participate in community development projects like establishing of education institutions, community health among other projects which were considered to be men dominated. Some suffrage women received fame and recognition to both the society and the government. Some women worked tirelessly towards gaining their voting rights. For instance, Emmeline Pankhurst played a significant role toward the suffrage. Pankhurst was among the founder of WSPU (Women’s Social Political Unit) and together with her daughters Sylvia and Christabel pioneered the movement to what appeared to be significant after various achievement. Traditionally women neither had access to job opportunities nor did they have their own private business. For this reason, women were not contributing to the development of the country by contributing their tax from their salaries or through their organizations or businesses. Moreover, since they did not operate any form of business or organization, they did not pay for licenses as well. This inclination was until they were given the voting right. Women became actively involved in enterprises and organizations and as a result, the government generated revenues in form of taxes and license fees from organization which were started by women. The government also managed to tax other women who got employment opportunities. Revenue generated by the government was used in the general development of the county’s infrastructure, improving education system, improving medical facilities among other development. Invention of typewriter and telephone was a significant boost in the transformation of women during this period. The first efficacious typewriter was invented in 1874, and the first successful telephone went on sale in 1876. During this period, men were actively involved in wars, and there was fear everywhere. On the other hand, majority of men had dispersed to different parts of the world to look for colonies. This situation gave women a chance to be trained to operate typewriters to send instructions to organizations or individuals who were geographically far apart. Also, there was a need for communication as some soldiers were as far as in Africa. After various discussions, women proved to be the perfect candidates in the dealing with this technological equipment. Therefore, by the time they were given their voting rights, they had already demonstrated their ability to learn even technical details like troubleshooting of typewriters and telephone which by then they were already familiar with every detail. In other words, technology played a significant role in transforming the lives of women. Some prominent women acquired these equipment for teaching young girls in their institution. There was a variety of milestones for women in this period. After they were given a voting right, among those empowered women formed movement which they used to request further representation in the parliament. Women movements were also used to empower other uninformed women their ultimate rights as a citizen. Nevertheless, there were various courageous women before who acted as a milestone for women. Every occupation they were targeting was not a new field to women as some had done it before. For instance, in 1865 Elizabeth Garrett became the first woman to become a doctor in Britain, Lilian Murray became the first woman to become a dentist in 1895 among other milestones that encouraged Britain women in their quest for equality (Parliament UK, 2015).. Among the main argument why the government and other individuals were against women being given the right to vote is family reasons. Women’s place was believed to be in home. Also, men considered their women weak to be exposed to the rough world of politics. Other men found that exposure of their vulnerable women to the harsh world would change their caring. To some extent, their argument were right especially in terms of having adequate time to care for their families. Political women were relatively busy and rarely could they manage to hold a discussion with their men. In addition, throughout this period, there were very many political assassinations. A significant number of men could not have tolerated their women to engage actively in politics considering the extent of the danger that is associated with politics (Smith, 1998, p. 125). Additionally, during this period women were found to be unintelligent and could not be willing to vote or be voted. In other words, even though they got the vote, they could not have used it for whichever reason. In June 1914, Sylvia Pankhurst had to take a delegate of working class women to the then Prime Minister Asquith to in effort to convince the government support women were intelligent, and they could make sensitive decisions for themselves. The Prime Minister himself did not think any working class woman would be adequately intelligent to have a vote. Approval from the Prime Minister played a crucial role to the extent by which their lives got transformed as they were given consent from the government (Teacher Scholastic, 2015). In recap, woman right to vote was the mastermind of the economic, social as well as political development of Britain. The end of the Suffrage era was the beginning of a New Britain. The paper has described to what extent the lives of women were transformed by obtaining the vote in 1918 and 1928. References Lambert, T., 2015. A BRIEF HISTORY OF WOMENS RIGHTS. [Online] Available at: http://www.localhistories.org/womensrights.html [Accessed 19 March 2015]. Parliament UK, 2015. Women and the Vote. [Online] Available at: http://www.parliament.uk/about/living- Heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/womenvote/overview/thevote/ [Accessed 19 March 2015]. Smith, H. L., 1998. The British Womens Suffrage Campaign, 1866-1928. 2nd ed. London: Longman. Spender, D., 1983. There’s Always Been a Women’s Movement This Century. 1st ed. London: Pandora. Teacher Scholastic, 2015. Womens Suffrage. [Online] Available at: http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/suffrage/history.htm [Accessed 19 March 2015]. Read More