What are the origins of the women's suffrage movement?

Britain – The Women's Suffrage Movement, 1780-1928

In this course, Professor Julie Gottlieb (University of Sheffield) explores women’s suffrage. In the first lecture, we think about the origins of women’s suffrage in the early 19th century. In the second lecture, we think about how the centralisation of women’s suffrage through national organisations progressed the movement. In the third lecture, we think about the formation of the Women’s Social and Political Union, its role in the women’s suffrage movement, and its interaction with other suffrage organisations. Next, we think about four key proposals which have been attributed to the success of the women’s suffrage movement. In the fifth and final lecture, we think about how members of the women’s suffrage movement have been memorialised.

What are the origins of the women's suffrage movement?

In this lecture, we think about the origins of women’s suffrage, focusing in particular on: (i) the context of women’s suffrage in a period of gradual change and democratisation in Britain; (ii) beginning the story of women’s suffrage in the first part of the 19th century, with surveys conducted in 1780 and 1831 outlining that fewer than 3% of the population could vote; (iii) the lack of representation in Parliament for the northern cities which were centres of Britain’s Industrial Revolution; (iv) early 19th century Britain being in a period of political reform, driven by a response to the American and French Revolutions; (v) the function and outcomes of the Great Reform Act of 1832; (vi) Chartism as a response to the failure of the Great Reform Act of 1832 to provide political representation for the working classes; (vii) the People’s Charter, published in 1838 by the London Working Men’s Association, William Lovett and Francis Place; (viii) the People’s Charter’s demands being that all men should have the vote, voting should take place by secret ballot, elections should be annual, constituencies should be equal in size, Members of Parliament should be paid, and the property qualification for standing for election should be removed; (ix) the meeting of the sixth demand in 1858 with the Property Qualification for Members of Parliament Act; (x) the meeting of the second demand in 1872 with the Ballot Act; (xi) the meeting of the fourth demand in 1885 with the Redistribution of Seats Act; (xii) the meeting of the fifth demand in 1911 with the Parliament Act; (xiii) the meeting of the first demand in 1918 with the Representation of the People Act; (xiv) the lack of achievement of the third demand, resulting in never gaining annual elections; (xv) links between women’s role in promoting the abolition of slavery and rejecting the Poor Law of 1834, with the development of the women’s suffrage movement; (xvi) Anne Knight’s formation of the first women’s suffrage society in 1851; (xvii) the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, which launched the women’s suffrage movement; (xviii) the inspiring power of London’s Langham Place Group with regard to mid 19th century feminist movements; (xix) key members of the Langham Place Group; (xx) some of the key goals, aside from gaining the vote for women, of the women’s suffrage movement in the 19th century; (xxi) Florence Nightingale’s attitude that gaining the vote was not a priority goal for women; (xxii) Queen Victoria’s support for the view that women and men had separate ‘spheres’ in society.