Women's Campaign for the Right to Vote

Women's Campaign for the Right to Vote

This propaganda poster, produced 16 years before women gained the

vote, explains the view of the campaigners by illustrating pictures of

what women may be and yet not have the vote. The pictures illustrate

women as a major, nurse, mother, doctor or teacher and factory hand.

This only applies to women of the higher and middle class, eg: women

of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) (National

Union who could afford such an education. It shows that women may be

successful even without the vote. Source A explains the importance for

votes for women by illustrating what men may have been and yet not

lose the vote. The illustrations show men as a convict, lunatic,

proprietor of white slaves, unfit for service and a drunkard. This

gives a bad view of men who even have the vote are not as successful

or wise as the women illustrated above the men.

Source A suggests the author wants us to believe that women can be

more successful than men, despite not having the vote and could gain a

higher status in society than men who are illustrated as unsuccessful

and in low paid jobs.

The idea behind this poster is to illustrate the determination of

women to get the vote. Not unlike many women in the past, such as

Florence Nightingale and Marie Curie, who stood up for their rights

and showed that even having a lower status than men, like the women

campaigning for the vote, they could not be prevented from standing up

for their rights.

Question 2

Source B and Source C both have similarities between them that

suggests women were seen as too violent and could not be trusted if

given the vote.

Source B describes the campaigners as a number of discontented women

with shrill cries. This source gives the message that women are

destined not to receive the vote but to produce male voters and

suggests that although women suffer unfairly from the demands of men

this is as a direct result of the way mothers bring up their sons.

Obviously the author does not believe in women gaining the vote.

Source C illustrates two women who are both campaigning for female

suffrage. The one on the left is a Suffragist and the one on the right

is a Suffragette. It gives out the message that suffragettes were

violent and prevented women, who were non violent like the NUWSS, from

getting the vote. This hints that if the WSPU didn't exist women would

have been given the vote much earlier. There is a clear indication of

prejudice and discrimination in this picture, showing the suffragette

who belongs to the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in rugged

clothes, shaking her fist and shouting where as the suffragist on the

right, belonging to the NUWSS, is wearing nice clothes and is upright

and not shouting. This suggests also that suffragists came mainly from

the middle and upper classes whereas the suffragettes came mainly from

the poorer working class. The images of the two women chosen by the

cartoonist give a view of how people and the author himself may have

interpreted the campaign.

There are many similarities between these two sources, which support

evidence about the female suffrage movement. The body language in the

picture of Source C suggests women were discontented, a word used

literally in Source B. There is also the similarity between shrieking

sister in Source C and shrill cry in Source B. Therefore these

similarities suggest that these sources have a definite connection.

Source B says women are destined not to get the vote. Whereas Source C

illustrates that due to their violent behaviour the suffragettes stand

in the way of getting the vote for women. This suggests that a

peaceful approach may gain greater support from the Liberals who

preferred the NUWSS simply because they used no violence.

Question 3

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In 1914 the First World War broke out and women despite their efforts

still had not gained the vote. In Source D Emmeline Pankhurst suggests

that violence has only been used because they did not receive votes

for women following a large public swing of opinion in 1906 when a

large section of public opinion were in agreement for votes for women.

This is based on an earlier statement in the same paragraph where she

states "The