Why was women’s suffrage not achieved until 1918?
Great Britain, before 1918, had a very clear picture of the roles women were to play in society. They were in the shadows of men, always to be seen and not heard. They were to maintain a composed façade, and a delicate and demure manner, with the highest rules of etiquette. The stereotype of a housewife cooking dinner in the kitchen and looking after the children, waiting for her husband to return from his working day, have never been truer in Great Britain at the turn of the century. Women were meant to have complete distaste for all things violent, and such an ideal did not allow for fighting on the street, destroying property and belongings, arson, and much more. The progression from the stereotypical woman to the fighting activist seemed radical, and indeed was; however it was a step in history that was inevitable. Women were finally being heard and this would lead to the emancipation of women in 1918. However, some say that this major step in history could have been achieved much sooner, and the actions of the female activists, known as the ‘suffragettes’, a termed used as an insult by the London Daily Mail, along with the outbreak of World War One, may well have hindered the process for a number of years.
Women were struggling for equality in Great Britain long before the turn of the century; one of the primary suffragettes started campaigning for women’s rights as early as 1832. Mary Smith petitioned quietly in order to include women who were privileged enough to own property, as she was, to be allowed to vote for members of Parliament. As expected, the House of Commons rejected her petition blankly and laughed in the face of it. These were the reactions of the House of Commons that were to be repeated for many years to come, until such actions from female activists could not be ignored. By the early twentieth century, the women of Great Britain were taking a step in the right direction, by achieving...