HOW IMPORTANT WAS WW1 IN BRINGING ABOUT THIS CHANGE?

Women had been protesting for the right to vote for many years. They believed that they deserved the right to have the vote because 60% of men already had the vote. Women believed that men's views of the 'inferior' women were outdated and they believed that they deserved more in a twentieth century society. Women had previously been denied the vote because of the threat of the forthcoming war. Also troubles in Ireland had also preoccupied the Government and forced them to put the women's issue on the backburner. The People’s Budget of 1909 caused many other problems. The money needed by the Government to help the quality of living for thousands of British families forced them to install many new taxes. These taxes directly affected the House of Lords because these were the people who would be paying for the People’s Budget. The Lords vetoed Budget and then the MP’s brought in the Parliament Act, which meant that the MP’s could bypass the Lords and pass any law. All of these factors coincided with the build up to the Great War.

In the years leading up to the War, women’s equality was nearin

After the end of the war, 65% of those interviewed stated that they would never go back to domestic service regardless of their situation. Only 5% stated that they would go back to domestic work, but on their terms; £40 a year, 2 days a week off and clothes to wear on duty, to be chosen by themselves (unless the mistress/master paid for them). Before 1914, domestic servants had to pay for their uniform out of their own money and many resented this. This shows that women's roles changed very little after the war and many of the returning men took back the jobs they had lost whilst fighting in France. But the equality of women had changed dramatically; roles and equality are two different things. Women were regarded in a better light by all and thus many women’s pay and conditions of work improved. But all the work done by women during the war was to lead to something the Suffragettes had wanted but failed to get. In 1918, women over the age of 30 were given the right to vote and in 1928, this was changed so that all women had equal political rights with men. A quote from Lord Birkenhead, “It was in the year 1918, after the war, that the disaster took place. A member of the House arose and said, ‘If you are extending the franchise to our brave soldiers, how about our brave munitions workers?’ That argument was difficult to resist. Then… ‘How about our brave women munitions workers?’ And having yielded to the first argument it was absolutely impossible to resist the second.” This shows the general feeling from many members of the House of Lords, as well as all classes of British men. This shows that many men, and some women still, had no real reason for denying women equality, but did not want competition in the workplace and liked the situation of women staying at home and caring for the home and for the family.

A female munitions worker earned more than a soldier at the front, but only about of what a male munitions worker was paid. This showed that even women were invaluable in the war, but they were still prejudiced against even in the grip of a World War. Because of all the men involved in the Great War, particularly working class men who probably did not have the vote before 1914 gained their right to vote through their service in the forces. This caused many women to demand the vote more vigorously and thought their case to be as strong as ever, now that a higher percentage of men had gained the vote through their courage on the battlefield or high seas. A total of 25,000 women worked at the front in the war. 8,000 of which worked in the VAD, (Voluntary Aid Detachment.) They also worked in the WAAC, (Women's Auxiliary Army Corps), as drivers, cooks, and telephonists. (These jobs helped men realise that women had

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