The Emergence of the Women’s Suffrage Movement: Democracy and Women's Right to Vote

The era of parliamentary reform was a significant factor in the introduction the emergence of the Women’s suffrage movement. This introduction and concentration of democracy within this era were pivotal in this emergence, it established new grounds and encouraged a driving force nationally for democracy and women’s rights to vote. However, this emergence of suffrage was in fact a result of many reforms, this evolved initially from the case of universal male suffrage which over a period slowly encouraged the result of women’s suffrage.

The initial kickstart to the emergence of women’s suffrage came from the role of democracy and universal male suffrage. Those who voted tended to be of a high propertied class which disenfranchised many men, particularly those members in working and industrialization classes, therefore indicating this was all due to a debate of democracy in the path of reform to do with men rather than women to begin with. This path to reform was initialized by the growth of discontent between three demographical roots of society who were discontent with the political system. on the back of the campaign for the abolishment of slavery, this created a growth of working-class consciousness, a sense of identification, and unity which operated in hand with those radical parliamentarians such as William Corbett and Henry Hunt. Also, the rising influence of dissenters who were those who had parted ways from the church of England formed their own religious groups, due to this religious status they were deprived of full civil rights such as no university or not being able to become MPs in parliament. . Furthermore industrial and commercial family classes also became resentful as the landed elite had a monopoly within parliament, although factory families could complete with the elites but in terms of class and socially they were considered to not be equal level to the gentry. This discontent between these groups led to press increase focalizing on parliamentary reform however unsuccessful, leading to the unity of these groups. This led to the unity of these 3 groups through Cobbett and Hunt and now Attwood creating a political union and closing the political divider, leading to the great reform.

Reforms were essential in the emergence of women’s suffrage. The great reform act of 1832 portrayed a debate of Britain being on the brink of revolution, creating divides and unrest in parliament and society. This reform created an electoral system distributed to wealth and population, the increased representation of the middle class, and changed property qualifications. However, this did not benefit the working class and was key into channeling their energy into the chartist movement for the universal male suffrage in 1840 which unintentionally was laying the foundation works for the women’s suffrage as ‘Women certainly developed a firmer sense of being wronged by their lack of vote… by the Great Reform Act of 1832, which explicitly stated that women could not vote. the 1832 Reform Act was the beginning of women's suffrage in Britain as it was a formal acknowledgment that women could not form any part of the electorate and were excluded from it.

The next reform act of 1867 lead to expand franchise even more than in 1832, so one in three could vote as opposed to the previous one in five, alongside Birmingham electorates rise from 8000 to 43,000 and significantly this reform also paved the way for the 1870 education act which made it compulsory for all children to attend school and receive an education. This reform was significant as it triggered the roots of woman’s suffrage, creating the sense that women should have been included in the reform act. It was evident that although the franchise had extended to have property qualifications reduced even further to support men voting, the chartist movement had not extended its movement to support women, this raised created an underlying ideology for the rise of the suffrage movement that was to come later on.

In addition to the reforms, the franchise act of 1884 and redistribution act of 1885 again benefited men and their rights to vote yet no woman could vote, regardless if they met the property qualification. This clearly ignited rage among several influential women, in terms of class these women’s tenants of lower social and economic status were given the right to vote and sit in parliament but women were still unable although own more property.

Steps towards suffrage came from a political discourse focused on political reform and universal male suffrage concentrated attention, this fuelled the demands for female suffrage. This focus on democracy and what it supposedly stood for lead to further fuelled demands due to what was seen as patriarchal not allowing women to vote. John Stuart Mills in the subjection of women states ‘So long as an opinion is strongly rooted in the feelings, it gains rather than loses in stability by having a preponderating weight of argument against it.’ Supporting the rooted reasons for the rise of women’s suffrage. He was a strong advocate for the cause and published it and in turn created the first petition submitted to parliament to be from a man, therefore, furthering the step towards suffrage.

In terms of women’s suffrage, it went from ideology created to becoming a movement, this was seen in 1897 as Millicent Fawcett founded a national union of women’s suffrage societies working as an umbrella organization to bring together in unity organizations around the UK creating a movement. Alongside this, founded social and political unions were formed such as in 1903, these took this ideology of suffrage and in turn, created a movement for it. Although no political agreement had been made by 1914, by 1918 the fourth reform allowed the right for women over 30 to be given the right to vote, therefore establishing a suffrage moment.

To conclude it is evident that parliamentary reform laid the foundational groundwork for the emergence of women’s suffrage, this era of the first time concentrating on democracy and how it operates signaled the chartist emergence movement for universal male suffrage. Precisely because of this campaign extending voting to men raised concerns as to why not women as well, why they cannot vote especially when they qualify in terms of property.