Question 1
Using these four sources in their historical context, assess how far they support the view that the contribution of women to the war effort was the main argument used to justify female suffrage.
Source A: The committee established in March 1916, representing 20 societies in favour of female suffrage, presents its recommendations to Prime Minister Asquith.
If a new qualification is to be based on services in the war, then the claim of women to share in such a qualification cannot be ignored. The services they have rendered to the country have been so amply acknowledged by the Ministers mainly responsible for the maintenance of the country’s industry, that we need not labour this point. But there is another body of women who deserve even better of the country than the munitions and industrial workers and field labourers. They are the women who have given their husbands and sons ungrudgingly to its defence.
Consultative Committee of Constitutional Women’s Suffrage Societies, memorandum, 4 August 1916
Source B: A Conservative peer writing to Lord Salisbury, leader of the Conservatives in the House of Lords.
I think it would be most unjust to women and dangerous to the State to enfranchise the adult fighting men and no women. Dangerous to the State because I firmly believe in the steadying influence of women voters. Unjust to women because I believe that the interests of labouring women, and of the woman’s view of certain social matters, would be ruthlessly sacrificed. Of course, things will be done which I vehemently dislike, but those things were already being done before the war; and the war has confirmed the intense faith which I have had now for a good many years in the instincts and intentions of my fellow countrymen and women.
Lord Selborne, letter, 25 August 1916
Source C: Speaking in the House of Commons, the Prime Minister explains his reasons for supporting women’s suffrage.
How could we have carried on the war without women? But what moves me more in this matter is the problem of reconstruction when the war is over. The questions which will arise with regard to women’s labour are such that I find it impossible to withhold from women the power and right of making their voices heard. And, since the war began, we have had no recurrence of that detestable campaign which disfigured the annals of political agitation in this country, and no one can now contend that we are yielding to violence what we refused to concede to argument.
H.H. Asquith, speech, March 1917
Source D: A member of the deputation from the women’s suffrage societies who met Prime Minister Asquith, points out her concerns about government proposals on franchise reform.
Women munitions workers have asked me to say on their behalf that they do not ask for the vote as a reward for wartime services. They ask it because they want to play their part in the great reconstruction work that is lying ahead of us all. We know there is no class which will be more affected by reconstruction proposals than the women who have come into industry during this emergency. We feel bound to point out that present proposals [for women’s suffrage] shut the door against the vast majority of women engaged on munitions work.
Mary Macarthur, comments, 29 March 1917
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