Today I want to tell you about how the fight for women’s votes began, we have all heard about the famous suffragettes and their brave marches and protests. We think about women’s suffrage, as something that happened in the early twentieth century. But in reality the struggle stretches much further back.
In the early nineteenth century, politics in Britain was largely a male domain. Women were expected to focus on their homes and families and to leave the law and government to the men. Many women had very little legal independence, especially after marriage, and few people openly questioned this. But that did not mean that women were not interested in politics. Some followed the debates, discussed reform, signed petitions, and they watched the political landscape change around them.
In 1832 the Reform Act came in and it became an important turning point. Although it may not have been in the way women might have hoped for. Before this act, voting qualifications had been confusing and varied, and a small number of women may have been able to vote in certain local circumstances. The 1832 Act formally described voters as “male persons,” making the exclusion even more clear. For the women who had hoped that the reforms might bring about more fairness, it must have been hugely disappointing. It was clear what the political class was saying, women were to stay out of politics.
By the middle of the nineteenth century, society was beginning to change. Industrialisation and urban growth were influencing everything. Education was becoming more accessible. Some women were becoming teachers, writers, campaigners, and reformers. They were becoming involved in movements that were against slavery and they were campaigning for social improvements. This mattered because it taught them about public speaking and political confidence. Women who were working to improve society increasingly began to ask difficult questions: they wanted reform, they wanted the vote.
Barbara Bodichon
One of the first organised voices for women’s voting rights was in the 1860s. Women like Barbara Bodichon and Lydia Becker helped to encourage discussion and to build support. In 1866, a major petition calling for women’s suffrage was presented to Parliament. It had thousands of signatures and was even supported by philosopher and politician John Stuart Mill. To the women this was not just paperwork. It was a declaration that they demanded to be seen and heard.
Lydia Becker
The following year, Mill attempted to amend the Reform Bill so that women could be included in voting rights. The proposal failed. It must have been discouraging, but it did not stop the movement. Instead, local suffrage societies began to pop up across Britain. These groups generally wanted peaceful campaigning, controlled arguments and persuasion. The meetings were organised, articles written, and the petitions continued.
John Stuart Mill
These early campaigners were not the suffragettes. That later term became associated with the more militant campaigners of the twentieth century. Their methods were subtler but they definitely laid the foundations for everything that followed.
Without these women and their supporters, the later suffragette movement may well have never gained the strength or visibility that they did.
Do you think these early peaceful campaigners receive the recognition they deserve?
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