The Women’s Suffrage Movement was an incredibly influential campaign of both women and men which emerged at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. The majority of women in Britain were becoming increasingly frustrated at the lack of political enfranchisement. A common misconception relating to the Women’s Suffrage Movement is that it was only women who campaigned, this is wrong.
Huge numbers of both men and women felt that women’s lack of political enfranchisement was an anomaly in Britain’s morals. Why was this? Large numbers of men throughout Britain shared many women’s desire to be included and given the right to vote. Thousands of men joined women in hundreds of branches and societies campaigning for women’s right to vote across all parts of Britain. Societies such as the Men’s League for Women’s Suffrage, the Men’s Political Union for Women’s Enfranchisement, and the Northern Men’s Federation for Women’s Suffrage were all established by men who wanted to support female enfranchisement into British politics. One of the key reasons for why the Northern Men’s Federation for Women’s Suffrage campaigned for women’s right to vote is because they believed females skills and attributes were just as important in society to men’s[1]. In addition to the many ordinary men who supported women’s suffrage, there were large numbers of politicians from within the House of Parliament that were in favour of women’s suffrage, Labour MP James Keir Hardy is one of the most well-known politicians to be a supporter of the Women’s Suffrage Movement. Hardy regularly discussed women’s rights to vote in parliament, another politician that was in favour of women’s suffrage was George Lansbury, who gave up his seat to campaign for women’s right to vote. One example which shows politicians willingness to support the Women’s Suffrage Movement was when supporters from within the House of Parliament allowed a number of women into the House itself to protest to the other members of parliament. These campaigners then chained themselves to an area of the women’s chamber in the House of Parliament and were subsequently removed whilst still chained to the railings. Some Conservative politicians argued in favour of women’s suffrage saying that it would be wrong to deny the vote merely just because it was in female hands[2].
Figure 1 – Unknown Photographer, Frederick Pethwick – Lawrence
Many husbands and male family members were supportive of the women’s suffrage movement, in a very similar way that during the chartist movement wives and female members of the family supported increased male enfranchisement into British politics, despite the reality that it would not affect the women’s rights to vote. Some male supporters of the woman’s suffrage movement were even imprisoned for their support, men such as Frederick Pethwick – Lawrence who helped finance parts of the movement, Victor Duval, founder of the Men’s Political Union for Women’s Enfranchisement, and Hugh Franklin, were even forcibly fed while imprisoned for the cause of women’s suffrage[3]. Men’s support for women’s suffrage even extended into the First World War, The Manchester Men’s League for Women’s Suffrage said “the worst horrors of war fall upon women. Help to make this war the last, and to repair its ravages the sooner by securing for women an effective voice in human affairs through the parliamentary vote[4].
References
[1] Claire Eustance, Citizens, Scotsmen, ‘bairns’ manly politics and women’s suffrage in the Northern Men’s Federation, 180-206, 1913-20, in The Men’s Share Masculinities, Male Support and Women’s Suffrage in Britain, 1890-1920, eds Angela V. John and Claire Eustance, Routledge, 1997, p. 186.
[2] Martin Pugh, The March of the Women a Revisionist Analysis of the Campaign for Women’s Suffrage, 1866-1914, Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 103.
[3] Joyce Kay, ‘No Time for Recreations till the Vote is Won’? Suffrage Activists and Leisure in Edwardian Britain, Women’s History Review Vol. 16, No. 4, September 2007, pp. 535–553, p. 548.
[4] Laura E. Nym Mayhall, The Militant Suffrage Movement Citizenship and Resistance in Britain, 1860–1930, Oxford University Press, 2003, p. 118.
Bibliography
- Kay, J. ‘No Time for Recreations till the Vote is Won’? Suffrage Activists and Leisure in Edwardian Britain. Women’s History Review, 2007, 16(4), pp.535-553.
- Mayhall, L. The Militant Suffrage Movement Citizenship and Resistance in Britain, 1860–1930. Oxford University Press, 2003.
- Pugh, M. The march of the women: a revisionist analysis of the campaign for women’s suffrage, 1866-1914. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
- V. John, A. and Eustance, C. ed, The Men’s Share, Masculinities, Male Support and Women’s Suffrage in Britain, 1890-1920, 1st ed, London: Routledge, 1997.
Figures
- Figure 1 – Photograph of Frederick Pethwick – Lawrence, unknown photographer.
Britain and rights 