war effort

• Two days after war was declared on Germany in August 1914, both suffrage groups announced a suspension of their political campaigns for the duration of the war.
• The WSPU were given £2000 by the government to stage a march and a propaganda campaign demanding ‘Womens’ Right to Serve’ and help the war effort.
• The Suffragettes even changed the name of their newspaper from The Suffragette to Britannica and they focussed on patriotism rather than feminism for the duration of the war.
• Suffragettes also started the ‘white feather’ campaign to encourage recruitment, using them as symbols of cowardice on men who were not in uniform.
• Women stepped into the gaps where around 3 million men went to fight.

  • Women worked as conductors on trams & trains, as typists and secretaries and 20,000 women worked in government departments.
  • Over 700,000 women worked in munitions where explosions were commonplace and TNT poisoning caused women to be nicknamed ‘canaries.
  • ‘Women’s Land Army’ growing food for those at home and soldiers at war.
• ANALYSIS (FOR)

  • Everyone in Britain was thankful to the nation’s women for the role they had played in winning the war- it was believed Britain couldn’t have won without the women.
  • Historians have put forward the ‘reward theory’ – that women were given the vote as a reward for their hard work in the war and the 1918 timing of the vote and end of the war might support that – the government certainly would have felt the need to do something.
• ANALYSIS (AGAINST)

  • The women given the vote were 30+ whereas the majority of women who did war work were in their 20s so not actually rewarded with the vote.
• EVALUATION (FOR)

  • Wartime events gave women more opportunities to participate in traditionally male-only activities. The fact that women proved they were as capable as men, justified them gaining the same right to vote too.