THE WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT IN BRITAIN,

Transcription

1 THE WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT IN BRITAIN,

2 The Women's Suffrage Movement in Britain, Sophia A. van Wingerden palgrave macmillan

3 Sophia A. van Wingerden 1999 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act Published by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin's Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. Outside North America ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / In North America ISBN This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging. pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to confonm to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: Transferred to digital printing 2002

4 To my grandmothers, Sophia Fox Kenamore and Johanna Wilhelmina Hendrika van Wingerden-Henkes

5 Contents Chronology Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Preface x xx XXI xxii 1 Introduction 1 The Ladies' Petition 2 The Legal Position of Women 4 John Stuart Mill's Amendment to the Representation of the People Act Votes by Accident 17 2 Early Years to Parliamentary Progress 26 Discord and Division: Contagious Diseases and Voting Wives 31 Progress for Women in the 1870s 37 Women's Suffrage - Pro and Con 40 The Free Trade Hall Demonstration in Manchester 49 Extra Cargo - the Reform Bill of The 'Doldrums' - Women's Suffrage The 1890s 63 4 'Deeds, not Words!' the Women's Social and Political Union 70 The Suffragettes and the Courts 77 An Increase in Militancy 85 VII

6 viii Contents Political Prisoner Status and Forcible-Feeding 89 'The more they are imprisoned and punished the more they go on' 92 5 'Suffrage Ladies' and the 'Shrieking Sisterhood' 96 The Rift within the Lute 99 'If we were enfranchised, we should do much better' 101 Pretty Woman Quakers, Actresses, Gymnasts and other Suffragists 108 The Anti-Suffragists - 'A man, it is commonly felt, ought to be a man, and a woman a woman' Conciliation 118 Black Friday 123 The Conciliation Bill in The Coronation Procession 127 The Conciliation Bill in The Reform Bill in Descent into Chaos 136 Splits - the Pethick-Lawrences Leave War is Declared 142 The NUWSS and Labour 145 The East London Federation of Suffragettes 149 The Year Patriots and Feminists 154 August 4,

7 Contents IX Patriots or Feminists? The Impact of War on Feminist Ideology 158 The WSPU and the War 161 The ELFS and the War 163 Suffrage in Wartime 164 The Speaker's Conference - Suffrage Again After the Vote was Won 172 NUWSS into NUSEC; WSPU into Women's Party 172 After the War was Won 176 The Cause 178 Notes 182 Bibliography 214 Index 224

8 Chronology August July Mary Wollstonecraft publishes A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. The Reform Act increases the male electorate to approximately 20 per cent of the adult male population. Mary Smith petitions Parliament for the vote. The Municipal Corporation Act uses the word male, not person, which denies women the right to vote they had technically been allowed to exercise in the older boroughs. Anne Knight, a Quaker, issues a leaflet in favor of women's suffrage. Lord Brougham's Act, 13 & 14 Vict., c.21, 4 states that, unless explicitly specified otherwise, the term 'man' in Parliamentary statutes applies to women and men equally. The Sheffield Association for Female Suffrage is formed and produces a suffrage petition, which is presented to the House of Lords. Harriet Taylor Mill publishes 'The Enfranchisement of Women' in the Westminster Review. Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon et al., organize a committee to petition Parliament in favor of the Married Women's Property Bill. The Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Act authorizes divorce by the husband on a showing of adultery by the wife, and by the wife on a showing of adultery and cruelty by the husband. The Ladies Institute at Langham Place is founded. The Langham Place group founds The English Woman's Journal, later The Englishwoman's Review. The Langham Place group founds the Society for Promoting the Employment of Women. The Kensington Ladies' Discussion Society is founded; after Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon leads a discussion on women's suffrage, a Women's Suffrage Committee is founded. x

9 Chronology Xl 1866 June 1866 June May 1867 July 1867 August 1867 November 1867 November 1867 November April July 1869 November Emily Davies and Elizabeth Garrett Anderson bring the 'Ladies' Petition' to Parliament. John Stuart Mill and Henry Fawcett present the Ladies' Petition to the House of Commons. The second Reform Act increases the male electorate to approximately one-third of the adult male population. John Stuart Mill proposes to amend the Reform Act by replacing the word 'man' by 'person'; his amendment is defeated by a majority of 123. The London National Society for Women's Suffrage is formed. The Manchester National Society for Women's Suffrage is founded. A women's suffrage society is formed in Edinburgh. The National Society for Women's Suffrage is formed to coordinate the activities and policy of the women's suffrage groups. After her accidental inclusion in the voting register, Lily Maxwell votes for Jacob Bright. Women's suffrage societies are founded in Bristol and Birmingham. The Court of Common Pleas hears Chorlton v. Ling. The Manchester National Society for Women's Suffrage holds the first ever public meeting on women's suffrage in the Free Trade Hall, Manchester. Jacob Bright's bill gives women the right to elect members to the municipal council in certain towns on the same terms as men; this right is extended to county councils in 1888 and to district councils in The suffragists hold their first public meeting in London. The General Election returns 90 friends of women's suffrage to Parliament. The Education Act enables women to elect members to school boards and to sit on school boards. The first of the Married Women's Property Acts allows women to keep any property or earnings acquired after marriage.

10 xii Chronology January 1873 May June 1880 February During this time, a women's suffrage bill is introduced each year, with the exception of 1880, and defeated each year. The Ballot Act institutes the secret ballot for Parliamentary elections. Regina v. Harrald determines that only unmarried women ratepayers can exercise the local municipal vote. The London organization for suffrage splits over the question whether to support Josephine Butler's anti Contagious Diseases Acts campaign openly. John Stuart Mill dies. The second of the Married Women's Property Acts allows the wife's creditors to reach the wife's property that went to the husband upon marriage. The London organization reunites. Anti-suffragists systematically canvass against a women's suffrage bill. A series of Demonstrations of Women is begun in Manchester. The third of the Married Women's Property Acts creates the concept of separate property for husbands and wives, allowing wives to hold all the property they had before and after marriage. The Contagious Diseases Acts are suspended. The Corrupt Practices Act outlaws payment for election campaign work. Gladstone's government introduces a Reform Bill to enfranchise agricultural workers. A women's suffrage amendment thereto is rejected. The Women's Council of the Primrose League is founded. The Women's Liberal Association and Women's Liberal Unionist Association are founded. The House of Commons votes only twice on the issue of women's suffrage during these years. Parliament passes the Local Government Act, creating the County Councils.

11 Chronology Xlii July 1896 October 1897 October October The Central Committee of the National Society for Women's Suffrage splits over the question of permitting political groups to affiliate with the suffrage societies. The Women's Liberal Unionist Association is founded. The Women's Franchise League, which includes Emmeline Pankhurst and Josephine Butler, is formed. An appeal against women's suffrage, signed by 104 women, is published in the June issue of Nineteenth Century. Regina v. Jackson establishes that a husband cannot physically force his wife to live in his home. In De Souza v. Cobden the court establishes that women's right to vote for County Councils does not include the right to sit on them. The Independent Labour Party is founded. The Women's National Liberal Association splits with the Women's Liberal Federation over the question whether to work primarily for suffrage or the party. The passage of another Local Government Act effectively removes the barrier of coverture. Millicent Garrett Fawcett presides over a joint conference held by the two London-based suffrage organizations. A Special Appeal for women's suffrage in The Englishwoman's Review gathers 260,000 women's signatures, which are presented to Parliament. Millicent Garrett Fawcett presides over the Birmingham Conference, a meeting of 20 suffrage societies. The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) is formed. Suffragists suspend their activities upon the outbreak of the Boer War. The Women's Liberal Federation Executive takes the 'Cambridge Resolution', barring election help to anti-suffrage Liberal candidates. The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) holds its first meeting.

12 xiv Chronology 1904 May 1905 October February 1906 October February 1907 February 1907 September Mrs Pankhurst holds a protest meeting outside the Houses of Parliament in protest at the talking-out of a women's suffrage bill. Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenney are arrested after asking questions at a political meeting in Manchester. The NUWSS organizes a deputation comprising 26 suffrage organizations and numbering more than 300 persons to Prime Minister Henry Campbell-Bannerman. The WSPU moves its base of operations to London. The Daily Mail coins the term 'suffragette.' The WSPU holds its first large London meeting, concluding with a deputation of women to the House of Commons. Eleven WSPU members are arrested and imprisoned in Holloway. Approximately 130 suffragettes are arrested and imprisoned during this year. The Artists' Suffrage League is founded. The Men's League for Women's Suffrage IS founded. The WSPU holds its first annual Women's Parliament; the confrontation after the subsequent deputation to the House of Commons results in 50 arrests. More than 3,000 women from 40 suffrage organizations march through London streets for the cause (the 'Mud March'). A group of suffragettes breaks with the WSPU to form the Women's Freedom League. The NUWSS makes a definite break with the WSPU after the suffragettes abandon their policy of suffering violence but using none. The Gymnastic Teachers' Suffrage Society is founded. The Forward Suffrage Union (within the Women's Liberal Federation) is founded.

13 Chronology xv February 1908 February 1908 June 1908 June 1908 June 1908 October 1908 October 1908 October 1908 November February 1909 March 1909 July 1909 July The Women Writers' Suffrage League is formed. The WSPU holds a three-day session of the annual Women's Parliament. A women's suffrage bill passes a Second Reading by a majority of 179, marking the first time since 1897 that the House of Commons has acted favorably on a women's suffrage measure. The NUWSS holds a procession of 10,000 women from 42 organizations in London. The WSPU holds a meeting in Hyde Park; purple, green, and white become the colors of the Union. Suffragettes Edith New and Mary Leigh throw stones through the windows of 10 Downing Street. The suffragettes invite the public to help rush the House of Commons. Two Women's Freedom League members chain themselves to the grille of the Ladies' Gallery; officials have to remove the grille from the stonework. The suffragettes begin an organized campaign of heckling cabinet ministers. The NUWSS publicly disavows the methods of the militants. The Hastings and St. Leonard's Women's Suffrage Propaganda League is founded. The Scottish University Women's Suffrage Union is founded. The People's Suffrage Federation is founded. Leigh v. Gladstone et al. determines that forciblefeeding is permissible. Suffragette deputations to Parliament result in the arrest of, inter alia, Lady Constance Lytton, who receives preferential treatment. The Conservative and Unionist Women's Franchise Association is formed. The Women's Freedom League keeps a 'Great Watch' outside the House of Commons. The London Graduates' Union for Women's Suffrage is founded.

14 xvi 1909 July 1909 September 1909 December January 1910 January 1910 January 1910 February 1910 February 1910 March 1910 June 1910 June 1910 June 1910 July 1910 October 1910 November April Chronology The imprisoned suffragette Marion Wallace Dunlop hunger-strikes to protest at the Government's failure to grant women political prisoner status; she is released after 91 hours. Prison authorities begin forcibly feeding hungerstriking suffragettes. The NUWSS organizes a Voter's Petition, with more than 280,000 voters signing their names and addresses to this petition, for the General Election. The Women's Tax Resistance League is formed. In the General Election, a Liberal government is returned with reduced majority. The Men's Political Union for Women's Enfranchisement is founded. Lady Constance Lytton goes to prison disguised as 'Jane Warton' to prove that upper-class women receive preferential treatment. A cross-party committee ofmps is formed to draft a women's suffrage bill (the 'Conciliation Bill'). Suffragettes declare a truce for the Conciliation Bill. Political prisoner treatment is to be given to all whose crimes do not involve moral turpitude. The Conciliation Bill is introduced into Parliament. The WSPU sponsors a march of 15,000 women in a two mile-long procession from the Embankment to Albert Hall to support the Conciliation Bill. The NUWSS sponsors a meeting to support the Conciliation Bill. A majority of 109 vote in favor of the Conciliation Bill; a majority of 145 refer the Bill to a Committee of Whole House. The Free Church League for Women Suffrage is founded. The WSPU truce ends on 'Black Friday.' The suffragettes resume their truce in honor of Coronation Year. The suffragettes boycott the national census.

15 Chronology xvii 1911 May 1911 June 1911 June 1911 November 1911 November 1911 November 1911 November March 1912 March 1912 March 1912 March 1912 July 1912 October 1912 October 1912 November 1912 November 1912 November The second Conciliation Bill survives its Second Reading by a majority of 167 and is referred to a Committee of the Whole House The Catholic Women's Suffrage Society is founded. All suffrage societies unite in a procession of 40,000 supporters for the coronation of George V. The Civil Service Woman Suffrage Society is founded. Asquith's announcement of a Manhood Suffrage Bill scuttles the suffragists' hopes for the Conciliation Bill. Militant and constitutional suffragists join in a deputation to confront Asquith, who assures them that the Government will not oppose women's suffrage amendments to a reform bill. More than 220 suffragettes are arrested during a demonstration to protest the announcement of a Manhood Suffrage Bill. The National Union adopts its Election Fighting Policy aimed at securing the inclusion of women in any government measure of franchise reform. Militant suffragists smash windows in the West End. The Scottish Churches' League for Woman Suffrage is founded. The third Conciliation Bill is defeated. Following a second raid on West End shops, police raid WSPU headquarters. The Women Teachers' Franchise Union is founded. After Mrs Pankhurst outlines a new militant policy for the WSPU, the Pethick-Lawrences break with the WSPU. The Forward Cymric Suffrage Union is founded. The Jewish League for Women Suffrage is founded. The Federated Council of Suffrage Societies is founded. The suffragettes embark on a campaign of damage to letter-boxes.

16 XVIll Chronology January 1913 February 1913 February 1913 February 1913 April 1913 April 1913 July August 1915 March 1915 April 1915 May 1916 October 1917 May 1917 November Sylvia Pankhurst and the East London Federation of Suffragettes break off from the WSPU. The Speaker of the House of Commons rules that a women's suffrage amendment to the Government's Reform Bill is out of order. The NUWSS decides that no Government candidates, even pro-suffrage ones, will receive election help from the NUWSS. The suffragettes burn down a refreshment kiosk in Regent's Park, the first incident in a program of damage to empty buildings. Lloyd George's new house at Walton Heath is damaged by a bomb. Mrs Pankhurst is sentenced at the Old Bailey to three years' penal servitude for the damage to Lloyd George's house. Parliament passes the Prisoners' Temporary Discharge for III Health Bill, known as the 'Cat and Mouse Act.' Mrs Pankhurst is released under this Act. The NUWSS' pilgrimage culminates in a demonstration in Hyde Park. In the seven months preceding the outbreak of war, suffragettes are responsible for 107 incidents of arson, 11 of mutilation of works of art, and 14 other 'outrages'. Britain enters World War I. The Board of Trade issues an appeal for women to register for paid employment of any kind. The Women's International League is formed at the Women's Peace Congress meeting in The Hague, the Netherlands. The Election Fighting Fund is suspended. An all-party conference meets to consider franchise reform for the unenfranchised fighting men. The Representation of the People Bill, enfranchising women, is introduced to the House of Commons. The WSPU changes its name to the Women's Party.

17 Chronology xix 1918 February 1918 November June The Representation of the People Bill becomes law; women over the age of 30 meeting certain property qualifications are enfranchised. World War I ends. The Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act abolishes disqualification by sex or marriage for entry to the professions, universities, and the exercise of any public function. The Matrimonial Causes Act relieves a wife petitioner of the necessity of proving cruelty in addition to adultery as grounds for divorce. The Guardianship of Infants Act vests guardianship of infant children in the parents jointly. The Representation of the People Act grants women the vote on the same terms as men.

18 Acknowledgements This book could not have been written without the assistance of many librarians and others, to whom I am extremely grateful. Particular thanks are due to David Doughan and the staff of the Fawcett Library, Gail Cameron of the Museum of London and the staff of the International Archief voor de Vrouwenbeweging in Amsterdam. I would also like to thank my parents for their encouragement, Desmond and Yvonne McCallum for their generosity and J. J. Gass for his yeoman efforts. xx

19 List of Abbreviations AFL CD-Acts EFF ELFS IWSA NUSEC NUWSS WFL WLF WSPU Actresses' Franchise League Contagious Diseases Acts Election Fighting Fund East London Federation of Suffragettes International Woman Suffrage Alliance National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies Women's Freedom League Women's Liberal Federation Women's Social and Political Union XXI

20 Preface The history of the women's suffrage movement in Britain has popularly been associated with images of the Pankhurst family and the suffragettes, women such as Emily Wilding Davison, who flung herself to her death under the King's horse in the Derby of 1913, or the groups of women chaining themselves to railings outside Parliament, sacrificing everything in protest at their unenfranchised state. Although accurate in themselves, the images do not offer a complete picture of the suffrage movement, but represent only one aspect - albeit an important one - thereof. In fact, the suffrage movement may be said to have begun in 1866, when a group of women as unlike the suffragettes as can be imagined presented a petition to Parliament, signed by 1,499 women asking for the vote, and did not end until not 1914, with the outbreak of war, or 1918, with women's partial enfranchisement. Many suffrage books focus on a few years or a particular aspect of the suffrage movement, or consider that the suffrage movement ended with the outbreak of World War I or with the partial enfranchisement of women in While many historians have ably dissected and analyzed particular aspects of the women's suffrage movement, this book seeks to bring together the history of the suffrage movement by considering the campaign as a chronological whole. Specifically, it addresses itself to the beginnings of the organized campaign for the vote, tracing the campaign through its many, frequently turbulent, changes, until its relatively quiet end in 1928, when women were finally enfranchised on the same terms as men. It also tries to focus particular attention to those subject matters within the suffrage campaign that have not yet been given as much attention by historians as other areas, such as the relationship between the suffragettes and the courts, and the effect of World War I on the suffrage movement. In considering over half a century of suffrage history, this book necessarily glosses over many of the interesting theoretical and historical questions that have been addressed by historians in recent years, such as the relationship between suffragists and party loyalties, the influence of reform politics, or the suffrage movement from the perspective of those women not involved in one of the major organizations. But by putting and keeping the movement within its own historical context, the various aspects of the campaign for votes for xxii

21 Preface XX11l women in their relationship to one another are clarified. The militancy of the suffragettes, for example, becomes understandable when set against the 40 seemingly unproductive years of work by the Victorian suffragists. This approach also highlights the tensions and contradictions within what may otherwise appear to have been a monolithic movement. The response of the suffragists to World War J, for instance, shows how feelings of patriotism and citizenship can come into conflict with the feminist principles underpinning the suffrage movement. Although the suffragettes brought votes for women to the attention of the public, for some 40 years prior to Christabel Pankhurst's imprisonment for 'the cause' a group of suffragists had been working assiduously to secure some measure of female representation. Many early suffragists, in fact, believed the vote would be given to them quickly and painlessly. Yet both Parliament and the courts soon made it clear that women were not to be enfranchised without a struggle. During the remaining decades of the century, suffragists made repeated attempts to get a measure of women's suffrage passed by Parliament, but to no avail. Despite their lack of success, the nineteenth-century women made progress in various other fields. Women's colleges at Oxford and Cambridge Universities were founded, women were permitted to take medical degrees, educational institutions for girls were established, married women acquired rights to hold property in their own names, and mothers gained rights of access to and control over their children. Women even obtained some limited political rights, such as the right to vote in municipal elections and to vote and sit on school boards. The Parliamentary franchise for women was one of the few goals that remained persistently elusive, and, by the turn of the century, this vote had become the focus of the women's movement. The Pankhursts' Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), it is said, was born out of a sense of frustration with the lack of progress made over the previous four decades' work for the vote, a feeling reflected in their motto, 'Deeds, Not Words.' The Pankhurst solution was to force the attention of the public and the politicians to the cause. Between 1905 and 1914, the suffragettes used militancy as their principal tactic in the campaign for votes for women, in contrast to the constitutionalist suffragists, whose methods had, during 40 years, never brought them into criminal court or even in contact with the police, although at the time and in their own way, the constitutionalists had been quite radical. The militants began, innocuously enough, by posing

22 xxiv Preface questions at political meetings or gathering outside the Houses of Parliament, which initially provoked a violent response. But they soon recognized that such tactics could work only if their actions became more and more violent. Over the years, they employed arson and other means of destruction of property, for which the suffragettes are now remembered. The militants' tactics also resulted in criminal charges being brought against them. The presence of women political activists in court posed a problem for the magistrates, who were unaccustomed to dealing with this type of 'criminal.' Their responses are revealing of the more general attitude toward women in public life, women who broke with social convention, and women who, by virtue of their class and education, did not fit easily into the category of 'female criminal.' At first, the courts adopted a policy of leniency, giving the women a figurative rap on the knuckles and sending them home to their husbands or fathers. This satisfied neither the magistrates, who realized the failure of this policy when the same women re-appeared time and again, nor the suffragettes, who wanted to be taken seriously as rational actors who expected to suffer the consequences of their illegal actions. The women then attempted to rely upon the law to protect their protests, citing statutes that expressly permitted their public demonstrations, etc. This too failed, as the courts refused to accord women the benefit of the law. In addition to raising the same questions posed by the suffragists' earlier legal battle, the suffragettes' experience suggests new questions, about the responses to women in public life, the construction of woman as a criminal, and the class bias of the courts. Militancy was not popular with all suffragists. While many of the suffragists who had been associated with the women's movement in the nineteenth century joined the militants, others disagreed vehemently with the turn the suffrage movement had taken. Beyond condemning militancy as poor political strategy, many constitutionalist suffragists deplored the use of violence because it undermined the principles on which the suffrage movement was founded. Constitutionalists' arguments for women's suffrage rested on the idea that physical strength should not structure society; any movement based on that principle would never condone the violence of militancy. Militancy posed a threat to the suffragists' arguments that women would take a stand against war, exploitation of women and children, prostitution, and other social evils of primary concern to women. The goal of the WSPU, by contrast, was to redefine women in a way that appropriated

23 Preface xxv how men had defined themselves by attempting to uncover women's 'hidden masculinity' to prove women's ability to enter the public sphere on the same and equal terms with men. The outbreak of World War I further brought into relief the differences among suffragists made noticeable by the shades of disagreement between constitutionalists and militants. The war splintered the suffrage movement and exposed the complexities of the conflicting claims of patriotism and feminism. The suffragists who had previously considered themselves outside the political and social structure were unsure whether to capitalize on the benefits of their new position as war workers or to remain outside the system even in times of national crisis. Women were divided over whether the bonds of an international sisterhood were stronger than their ties to men of the same nationality and class; they disagreed on whether citizenship implied loyalty to one's country first, regardless of the rights and wrongs of its actions, or whether they owed a loyalty to an abstract ideal of justice that could be derived from their work for the vote. Suffrage societies' responses to the Representation of the People Bill of 1917 reflected the impact of war on feminist ideology. The WSPU moved away from its liberal feminism toward a strain of cultural feminism, exemplified by its change of name to the Women's Party. They glorified the unity of all women, but ignored the fact that the bill did not enfranchise more than half of the female population. The constitutionalist National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) accepted their new role on male terms, somewhat neutralizing the potential radicalism of their prewar views. The construction of the feminine as the politically progressive was lost as NUWSS members sought to gain ground in the male public sphere, working for political progress on masculine terms. They also ignored the bill's bias against working women; both the WSPU and the NUWSS's calling it a victory implies that the ties that bound them to the men of their class overrode the ties of sisterhood. Those who considered the bill a failure, however, did recognize that it maintained the economic oppression of working women, and hence would not succeed as an instrument of social reform. Ironically, the women who became enfranchised had in the prewar days argued that the vote was necessary to prevent manipulation of the voteless feminine private sphere by the masculine public sphere - yet after their enfranchisement, they neglected the significant portion of the female population who remained at the mercy of capitalist and masculine exploitation, according to the socialist feminists.

24 xxvi Preface In the 1920s, once women had become partially enfranchised, many of the more radical ideas of the prewar movement seem to have fallen by the wayside. Whatever their differences, the prewar suffragists had challenged traditional conceptions of womanhood, rejecting male control and embracing the feminine as potentially politically progressive. To them, the vote was not just a 'scrap of paper,' but an instrument with which to counter the evils of an all too masculine government and effect wide-scale social reforms. In the 1920s, questions about what to do with their newly enfranchised status returned women to many of the issues first dealt with in the nineteenth century, not least of which was women's employment.