Women's Suffrage: A Short History of a Great MovementFawcett, Millicent Garrett, Dame
Philosophy
Women's Suffrage: A Short History of a Great Movement
Fawcett, Millicent Garrett, Dame
Women -- Suffrage -- Great Britain
The Conciliation Committee and the suffrage societies successfully
refuted the charge made against the Conciliation Bill that it was
undemocratic. It would, if passed, enfranchise approximately 1,000,000
women, and it was proved conclusively, by careful analysis of the
social status of women householders in a large and representative group
of constituencies, that the overwhelming majority of these would be
working-class women. In London (1908) the proportion of working-class
women was shown to be 87 per cent., in Dundee (1910), 89 per cent.,
Bangor and Carnarvon (1910), 75 per cent. The average in about fifty
representative constituencies, where the investigation was conducted
under the auspices of the Independent Labour Party, was shown to be
82 per cent. The Bill gave no representation to property whatever.
The only qualification which it recognised was that of the resident
householder.
This Bill, drawn in such a way as not to admit of amendment, was
introduced by Mr. Shackleton, Labour member for Clitheroe in the new
Parliament, elected in January 1910. Two days of Government time were
given for its second reading in July of that year. It was the first
time a Women's Suffrage Bill had been the subject of a full-dress
debate. Parliamentary leaders on both sides took part in it, and the
voting was left to the free judgment of the House of Commons. Among
the supporters of the Bill were Mr. (now Viscount) Haldane, Mr. Arthur
Balfour, Mr. Philip Snowden, and Mr. W. Redmond, while among its
opponents were Mr. Asquith, Mr. Austen Chamberlain, Mr. F. E. Smith,
and Mr. Haviland Burke. Mr. Lloyd George and Mr. Winston Churchill also
vehemently opposed the Bill, not on the ground of opposition to women's
enfranchisement, but because of the alleged undemocratic character of
this particular measure, and because it was introduced in a form that
did not admit of amendment. The division resulted in the large majority
of 110 for the second reading, a figure in excess of anything which the
Government could command for their chief party measures. An analysis
of the division list gave the following results, omitting pairs of whom
there were 24:--
For the Bill Against the Bill
Liberals 161 60
Unionists 87 113
Labour 31 2
Nationalists 20 14
---- ----
299 189
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account