Votes for Women!

New employment opportunities were opening up for middle-class women, who had some education.

• Domestic servants in 1900's-> 1,740,800
• Teachers->124,000
• Nurses-> 68,000
• Doctors->212

In marriages, women were in a very inferior position to their husbands.  they were treated with violence, they couldn't start their own divorce proceedings and they were their husbands property.  BY the 1900 women...

• keep their property
• get a divorce against their husband
• leave the marital home voluntary.
• HOWEVER-> Wife-battering and marital sexual assault was legal.
• If divorce occurred a mother would lose her children.

By the 1900...

• It was easier for women to enter professions, especially teaching.
• When telephones and typewriters were invented, it brought women new job opportunities.
• 1 million women were eligible to vote at council and parish elections.

So...

• Politically, women's rights were still very limited.
• Socially, women were starting to leave their homes and play a bigger part in society.

By the 1890s "Votes for Women" was becoming an important issue, and arguments were being advanced for and against the idea.

• Women would be paid more, less crime/prostitution.
• Parliaments decisions affect both sexes.
• Women could make a valuable contribution.  they are the creators of future soldiers and good citizens.
• Why shouldn't educated women get the vote, uneducated men can vote?
• Women can vote in local elections, why not vote in the bigger elections?
• Rich women pay taxes so they should be able to vote.
• Women are the spiritual spine of the nation and women can vote in other nations.
• Many single women have the same responsibilities as men.
• Women need to be represented as they are specialists in the home.
• Not a real democracy until women vote.

• Women have no idea about politics or business.  The men vote on women's behalf.
• Only higher class women would be able to vote and make no difference to ordinary women.
• Not all men can vote yet, so why give women the vote?
• Giving women the vote means duties will not be completed.
• The issue of voting is causing too many problems.
• It is too risky to change a system that already works.
• God intended Eve to obey Adam.
• Women are hysterical, they have small brains.
• Their menstrual cycles make women incapable of voting.