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The Women's Suffrage Movement in England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Edward Raymond Turner
Edward Raymond Turner
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
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Extract

At present neither the prospect of home rule nor the danger from Germany nor the mighty design of imperial federation assails the public mind of England so insistently as the demand for the enfranchisement of women. Since 1905 it has come to be realized that British men and women are face to face with a change of profound importance, and that the veil of the future hides immense possibilities of good or of ill soon to come.

Allowing British women to take part in the government of the realm is a question of the last century and particularly of the years since 1867, but the antiquarian traces the elements of the problem in the feudal law of the earlier middle ages, when tenure and service rather than persons furnished the basis of organization, and when instances occur of women taking part in local affairs and holding office and jurisdiction. For the most part, however, these instances are valuable now merely as the slender basis for legal argument.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 7 , Issue 4 , November 1913 , pp. 588 - 609
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1913

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References

1 Cf. Commons' Journals, i, 348.

2 Parliamentary History, ii, 1072–1076; Commons' Journals, ii, 413.

3 Rushworth, , Historical Collections, v, 357, 358.Google Scholar

4 Cf. M'Arthur, Ellen A., “Women Petitioners and the Long Parliament,” English Historical Review, xxiv, 698–709.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, 335.

6 Parliamentary History, xxxiii, 726, 727.

7 Cf. Schirmacher, Kaethe, The Modern Woman's Rights Movement (New York, 1912), p. 60.Google Scholar

8 3 Parliamentary Debates (abbreviated below P. D.), xcix, 950.

9 Mrs.Orr, A. S., Nineteenth Century, iii, 1010.Google Scholar

10 Blackstone, , Commentaries, bk. i, ch. 15.Google Scholar

11 Ibid.

12 Ibid.

13 “Statesman's Year Book, 1911, p. 31.

15 Cf. Ninteenth Century, iii, 1013.

16 Letter of SirWright, Almroth, London Times (weekly), March 29, 1912.Google Scholar

17 Cf. 3 P. D., cclxxxviii, 1946, 1947.

18 3 P. D., clxxxii, 1253; clxxxvii, 817–829.

19 3 P. D., clxxxvii, 843.

20 30 and 31 Victoria, c. 102, sec. 3.

21 2 and 3 William IV, c. 45, sec. 19.

22 Cf. Palgrave, , Parliamentary Writs, i, 164.Google Scholar

23 Cf. Commons' Journals, i, 875.

24 Cf. Statutes of the Realm, ii, 243.

25 Cf. C. C. Stopes, British Freewomen, Their Historical Privilege.

26 13 Victoria, c. 21, sec. 4.

27 Court of Common Pleas. Chorlton v. Lings.

28 48 Victoria, c. 3, sec. 2.

29 3 P. D., cci, 194, 239, 607.

30 Cf. Mrs.Fawcett, M. G., Women's Suffrage, 84.Google Scholar

31 In 1870, 1886, 1897, 1908, 1909, 1910, 1911. Cf. A Brief Review of the Women's Suffrage Movement Since Its Beginning in 1832 (London, 1911).

32 3 P. D., cclxxxix, 1860.

33 3 P. D., cccx, 256, 257, 258.

34 “There has been a majority in the House of Commons in favour of women's suffrage since 1886.” Fawcett, , Women's Suffrage, 85.Google ScholarCf. 4 P. D., cxlvi, 218.

35 5 P. D., xxv, 744.

36 4 P. D., xlv, 1174. Cf. ibid., cxxxi, 1335; cxlvi, 218.

37 3 P. D., cccii, 700.

38 5 P. D., xxv, 1660.

39 Cf. 3 P. D., ccix, 90; cccii, 187; 4 P. D., xiii, 404.

40 3 P. D., cclxxxi, 664; 5 P. D., xxv, 738.

41 Cf. 3 P. D., ccxxviii, 1659.

42 3 P. D., ccxxviii, 1667.

43 3 Ibid., ccxl, 1827.

44 5 P. D., xxv, 739–741.

45 3 P. D., ccxxviii, 1669; ccxxxiv, 1364; cclxxxi, 718.

46 “Woman suffrage means adult suffrage; and adult suffrage means the transfer of the right to govern the United Kingdom from some 7,000,000 of men to some 20,000,000 or, it may be, 24,000,000 of men and women, whereof women will be the majority.” Dicey, A. V., Quarterly Review, ccx, 299 (January, 1909).Google Scholar

47 Cf. Pethick Lawrence, Frederick W., Women's Fight For The Vote (London, 1911), 28–36Google Scholar; 4 P. D., cxxxi, 1358.

48 Some Reasons Why Working Women Want the Vote (leaflet).

49 Geraldine Hodgson, Five Points in the Relation between Votes for Women and Certain Economic and Social Facts (leaflet).

50 3 P. D., ccxl, 1810; 4 P. D., cxxxi, 1334, 1345; “Easier to Starve” (leaflet). In 1905 it was asserted that the average weekly wage of British working women was seven shillings. 4 P. D., cxlvi, 223.

51 Lawrence, Pethick, Women's Fight For The Vote, 37–44.Google Scholar

52 3 P. D., ccxl, 1840.

53 What Is A Vote? (leaflet).

54 3 P. D., cclxxxix, 162. Cf. Punch, May 10, 1905.

55 A Wider World (leaflet).

56 Let the Women Help (leaflet); White Slave Traffic (leaflet).

57 “Men & Women Together (leaflet); The Question of the Moment (leaflet).

58 Cf. 4 P. D., xlv, 1175; The Anti-Suffrage Handbook (London, 1912), 67–69. For the most part married women are debarred from these rights.

59 4 P. D., cxxxi, 1333; but cf. The Anti-Suffrage Handbook, 59.

60 Manifesto. No Votes For Women (leaflet).

61 Cf. Nineteenth Century, lxxii, 179, 180 (July, 1912).

62 4 P. D., cxlvi, 235.

63 3 P. D., cclxxxix, 103; 4 P. D., cxlvi, 227.

64 3 P. D., ccxl, 1805; ccxxviii, 1700.

65 4 P. D., cxxxi, 1342.

66 Woman Suffrage And India (leaflet); Gronno, A. C., The Woman M. P., A Peril to Women and the Country, 35.Google Scholar

67 3 P. D., cccii, 697.

68 “Votes For Women,” Never! (leaflet); 3 P. D., cclxxxix, 173. In 1904 Mr. Labouchere said: “If the Resolution was adopted, therefore, the country would be absolutely in the hands of women.” 4 P. D., cxxxi, 1339.

69 Dicey, , Quarterly Review, ccx, 293, 294Google Scholar; 4 P. D., oxlvi, 233.

70 Scott, A. MacCallum, The Physical Force Argument Against Woman Suffrage, London, 1912Google Scholar; but cf. 4 P. D., cxxxi. 1346: “they had borne in their own arms those who became able to defend it.”

71 The Anti-Suffrage Handbook, 48–51.

72 Scott, A. M., Equal Pay For Equal Work, A Woman Suffrage Fallacy, London, 1912Google Scholar; cf. 4 P. D., cxlvi, 231.

73 It may be remarked that a great many men and women, who are averse to the granting of parliamenrary suffrage to women, are thoroughly in favor of having them engage in local politics, saying that here they are well fitted to take part, here their true interests lie, and here they could be of real service to themselves and to the state.

74 Fawcett, , Women's Suffrage, 85.Google Scholar

75 National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, report, 1913.

76 Constitution of the National Union, etc.

77 Lawrence, Pethick, Women's Fight For The Vote, 77.Google Scholar

78 Until 1912 its organ was Votes for Women, now published by Mr. and Mrs. Pethick Lawrence, who seceded from the Union in that year.

79 The Historic Anti-Suffragist Demonstration, etc., London, 1912; Mrs. Fawcett, The Best Friends of Women's Suffrage (leaflet).

80 Some of the opponents believed that the whole matter was an academic question. Cf. The Anti-Suffrage Handbook, 12.

81 Nineteenth Century, xxxi, 455.

82 Lawrence, Pethick, Women's Fight For The Vote, 77–83.Google Scholar

83 4 P. D., clv, 1570–1587.

84 5 P. D., xix, 41, 324, 2587.

85 5 P. D., xx, 272, 273.

86 Ibid., xxv, 738, 806.

87 Times (w), Nov. 10, 1911.

88 Ibid., Nov. 24, 1911.

89 Times (w), Nov. 24, 1911, March 8, 1912.

90 Broken Windows—And After (leaflet).

91 5 P. D., xxxvi, 728; xl, 643; Times (w), March 29, 1912.

92 Upon this passage, Miss Olive A. Jelley, of the National Union remarks: “This is of course a matter of opinion, but speaking for the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, that Society is growing rapidly in numbers and activities generally. The membership has increased from 30,000 in October, 1911 to 43,000 in May 1913. These numbers represent only annual subscribers and not friends and supporters who do not pay regular annual subscriptions, of whom we count about 20,000. The number of our affiliated societies has risen from 311 in 1911 to 450 in June, 1913, and our funds for the last three years show a similar increase.”

93 Cf. 5 P. D., xix, 1747; xxviii, 1517.

94 Cf. “A Canvass of Women Municipal Electors in 105 Districts,” Anti-Suffrage Review, April 1912; Fawcett, , Women's Suffrage, 51.Google Scholar

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