The greatest change brought by the twentieth century would have to have been the Women’s Suffrage. They struggled for the right to vote, the right for equal pay and many other issues that I will discuss in this paper.
Women’s Suffrage in England Women’s Suffrage in the right of women to share political privileges on equal terms with men, the right to vote in elections and referendums, and the right to hold public office. The women’s suffrage was a worldwide issue that had begun a long time before the 19th century. The issues involving women’s right to vote was aroused in 1839 when the American Missionary Association began to work to develop education opportunities for blacks and other minorities in the U.S. which begun with the defending of the slaves of the Amistad.
The women suffrage was first advocated in Great Britain by Mary Wollstonecraft a Vindication of the Rights of Women. During the 1830’s and 40’s British Suffrages received notable aid and encouragement from the Chartists, who fought unsuccessfully for human rights. John Stuart Mill, John Bright, and Richard Cobden were Liberal Legislators that helped to make the Women’s Suffrage issues public to Britain. John Stuart Mill was a great supporter of the suffrages. He helped to found the first British Women-Suffrage Association in 1865. At this same time he entered the Parliament as a member from Westminster. Barbara Bodichon and Elizabeth Garrett co-drafted a petition for Women’s Suffrage. The petition had 1,550 signatures. It was given to John Stuart Mill in 1867 who “as a member of Parliament, proposed that the suffrage be extended to women (the proposal was rejected by a vote of 194 to 74)” (Perry 214-215)
In the 1870’s these organizations submitted to Parliament petitions that demanded the franchise for women and it contained almost 3 million signatures. . This led to the formation of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) in 1897. Seventeen Suffragist societies had united to...