The changing role of women in political life in Wales and England

How much success did women achieve in the fight for political rights in Wales and England in the early twentieth century?

Suffragists and Suffragettes (Millicent Fawcett and the NUWSS; peaceful protest; the Pankhursts, Emily Davison and the WSPU; violent protest)

Votes for women (the 1918 and 1928 Acts and their consequences; women MPs)

Have women benefitted from UK government legislation since the 1960s?

The growth of feminism (the feminist movement; Women's Liberation)

Moves towards equality (legislation: the Equal Pay Act 1970; the Sex Discrimination Act, 1975; the work of the Equal Opportunities Commission from the 1970s; the impact of this legislation)

How successful have women been in achieving important political roles in Wales and England?

The UK Parliament (the achievement of women at Westminster; MPs and ministers) The Welsh Assembly Government (women in the WAG; attempts to ensure equality of

representation) The achievements of a woman in modern political life (the achievements of an

individual such as Margaret Thatcher, Harriet Harman or a local AM, MP or councillor)

WOMEN AND THE VOTE

In 1867 John Stuart Mill’s Bill to give the vote for women was defeated in the House of Commons. Similar Bills were introduced nearly every year after many SUFFRAGE (which means the right to vote) societies were set up and they were united into the NATIONAL UNION OF WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE

SOCIETIES led by Millicent Fawcett. Their tactics were peaceful : petitions, meetings, pamphlets, letters to politicians etc. They were called SUFFRAGISTS.

There was much opposition to them, including Queen Victoria, and so Mrs Emmelene Pankhurst founded the breakaway WOMEN’S SOCIAL AND POLITICAL UNION in 1903 (SUFFRAGETTES). They became more and more militant and after 1912 became violent. The vote had still not been won when the First World War broke out in 1914. Women then proved they were equal to men and it was impossible to deny the vote to women after their work to help to win the War.

In 1918 householders or women married to householders over 30 could vote only in 1928 did all women get the vote at 21.

Suffragists:In 1897, various local women's suffrage societies formed the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, under the leadership of Millicent Fawcett. The NUWSS wanted the vote for middle class property-owning women. They believed they would achieve their end using peaceful tactics - non-violent demonstrations, petitions and the lobbying of MPs. Fawcett believed that if the organisation was seen to be intelligent, polite and law-abiding then women would prove themselves responsible enough to participate fully in politics.

The leadership of the suffragists was exclusively middle class but some of the more radical members recognised early on that the movement needed the support of working class women. The issue of the franchise was drawing women of various sections of society together and giving them an identity which they had lacked until that time.

By 1900 there was already evidence that many Members of Parliament had been won over, with several Bills in favour of women's suffrage gaining considerable support in Parliament, though not enough to pass. Some believed it was only a matter of time until women would gain the vote.

The methods used by the Suffragists were peaceful, and focused on persuading people with reasoning to support their cause. These methods included speeches, rallies, marches, (such as the mud march) lobbying Members of Parliament, and writing leaflets and other publications. In 1900 Selina Cooper and the North of England Women’s Suffrage Society organised a petition that was only signed by women working in the Lancashire cotton mills. Over 29,000 women signed the following petition that was handed to Parliament on 18th March 1901.

Suffragettes:

The suffragettes, a name given to them by the newspaper The Daily Mail, were born out of the suffragist movement. Emmeline Pankhurst, who had been a member of the Manchester suffragist group, had grown impatient with the middle class, respectable, gradualist tactics of the NUWSS. In 1903 she decided to break with the NUWSS and set up a separate society. This became known as the Women's Social and Political Union.

Mrs Pankhurst believed it would take an active organisation, with young working class women, to draw attention to the cause. The motto of the suffragettes was 'deeds not words' and from 1912 onwards they became more militant and violent in their methods of campaign. Law-breaking, violence and hunger strikes all became part of this society's campaign tactics.

In 1907 the Women's Social and Political Union itself split into two groups after Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel came into conflict with other members of the WSPU's executive body. Those who left formed the Women's Freedom League, while the Pankhursts and their supporters established an even tighter grip on the workings of the WSPU.

The three groups disagreed over tactics but their message was consistent and they regularly worked together. Despite opposition, the argument for women's suffrage seemed to be winning support. By

1909 the WSPU had branches all over the country and published a newspaper called 'Votes for Women' which sold 20,000 copies each week. The NUWSS was also flourishing, with a rising membership and an efficient nation-wide organisation.

The rough treatment of many suffragettes arrested and jailed during the course of their protests also won the suffrage cause increasing sympathy and support from the public. The commendable behaviour of the suffrage movement during the war - suspending their protests for the sake of national unity - also proved that the women were far from unreasonable.

Emily Davison and the Derby:The Derby took place on June 4th 1913. Emily Wilding Davison was to achieve her place in history by giving her life for the Suffragette cause at this Derby - the world's most famous horse race. Emily Davison suffered terrible injuries at this race and never recovered from them. She died in a local hospital four days after the race.

spectators claimed that they heard a woman shout "Votes for Women" before leaping out in front of the king's horse. A crude black and white film was taken that caught the event 'live'. On its own it shows little as it has poor clarity. It has now been enhanced and it shows clearly that Davison stopped in front of Anmer (therefore she did not want to simply cross the course) and it appears that she tried to make a grab for the reins of the horse but the speed of Anmer and the impact on her were so great that she took a terrible blow to her upper body.

The effects of the War:On 4th August, 1914, England declared war on Germany. Two days later the NUWSS announced that it was suspending all political activity until the war was over. The leadership of the WSPU began negotiating with the British government. On the 10th August the government announced it was releasing all suffragettes from prison. In return, the WSPU agreed to end their militant activities and help the war effort. The Women’s Freedom League disagreed and continued with its campaign for the vote.As men left jobs to fight overseas, they were replaced by women. Octavia Wilberforce and Louisa Martindale from Brighton worked as doctors treating wounded British soldiers. Margery Corbett Ashby was married with a young child and so was restricted in the role she could play in the war effort. However, she was active in Danehill where she ran a school for local children. Clementina Black and Hildà Martindale continued their work trying to protect women workers in London. Women filled many jobs brought into existence by wartime needs. As a result the number of women employed increased from 3,224,600 in July, 1914 to 4,814,600 in January 1918. Nearly 200,000 women were employed in government departments. Half a million became clerical workers in private offices. Women worked as conductors on trams and buses. A quarter of a million worked on the land. The greatest increase of women workers was in engineering. Over 700,000 of these women worked in the highly dangerous munitions industry. Industries that had previously excluded women now welcomed them. There was a particular demand for women to do heavy work such as unloading coal, stoking furnaces and building ships.

The fear that the enfranchisement of women would benefit one political party over another had largely vanished. Liberal and Labour politicians felt that the social mix of such a large group of women would not lead them necessarily to vote Conservative;

In 1915 the Liberal government was replaced by a coalition government, and so there was a greater likelihood of cross-party agreement to any decision to enfranchise women.

The cessation of WSPU militancy, for the duration of the war, and the universally acknowledged important contribution of women to the war effort, enabled many MPs to change their minds without loss of face.

The international scene was changing. As the House of Commons, in 1918, debated votes for women, the House of Representatives in the USA was doing just the same and carried votes for women by a two-thirds majority; Australia, Canada (except Quebec), Denmark, Finland, Norway and New Zealand had already enfranchised women.

At the end of the debate on the Representation of the People Bill (1918) 385 MPs voted for the clause supporting votes for women, with only 55 voting against.

And so, on 6 February 1918, the Representation of the People Act became law. It gave the vote to all men over the age of twenty one, and to all women over the age of thirty who were on the local government register or who were married to men who were. This was essentially a very conservative measure, and this goes some way towards explaining why its passage through parliament was so relatively untroubled.

Despite wartime declarations of gratitude to munitions workers, few of them were able to vote after 1918 because most of them were under thirty years of age.

Educated, middle-class single women who were the backbone of the suffrage societies were unlikely to be enfranchised. Even if they were over the age of thirty they were most likely to be found living with their parents or in rented accommodation and so did not qualify as local government voters and so could not have the parliamentary franchise.

It has been estimated that about 22 per cent of all women aged 30 + were excluded from the franchise because of the requirement to be on the local government electoral roll - and thus be householders or married to a householder.

Women over the age of thirty were believed to be stable, probably married and with children and so less likely to support radical reforms and feminist measures. Indeed, about 83 per cent of the women enfranchised in 1918 were wives and mothers.

Nevertheless, 8,400,000 women did gain the vote after the 1918 legislation and they made up 39.6 per cent of the electorate.

Many were aware that they had not achieved equal suffrage rights for which they had been campaigning since the 1860s. Their legal status was still inferior to that of men. The battle was far from over.

The political advances of women in the 1920s were dependent upon the willingness of the political parties to accommodate them. The right to vote and a handful of women MPs were not very likely to change the male mind-set in parliament.

Seven women candidates stood for election to the House of Commons in 1918, but only one of them, Constance Gore-Booth (who became the Countess Markiewicz after her marriage to a Polish count), was successful. However, she had an alternative agenda. A strong advocate of Irish nationalism, she refused to take her seat because she did not recognise the legitimacy of Westminster to legislate for Ireland.

The first woman to be elected to parliament in her own right was Nancy Astor, who took over her husband's constituency in Plymouth when he moved to the House of Lords. Over the next ten years, the number of women MPs gradually increased: in I922 there were five women

MPs and by 1929 their numbers had swollen to fourteen. Even so, they were heavily outnumbered by the 601 male MPs.

Christabel Pankhurst tried to start an exclusively female political party, and, with so many women's suffrage organisations in existence, this didn't seem to be an unreasonable ambition on her part.

After the enfranchisement of women, a number of other reforms were implemented by successive governments, aimed at ironing out some of the more glaring inequalities:

1919 Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act gave women the right to become jurors, magistrates and barristers, and to enter the higher ranks of the civil service. It also removed legal barriers to women becoming graduates of Oxford and Cambridge universities.

1922 Married Women's Maintenance Act allowed women 40 shillings for herself and 10 shillings for each child.

1922 Infanticide Act removed the charge of murder from mothers who killed their infant children, thus recognising that some women were medically depressed after giving birth.

1923 Matrimonial Causes Act allowed women to divorce on the same grounds as men. 1923 Bastardy Act increased maintenance payments to single mothers. 1925 Guardianship of Infants Act gave mothers the same custody rights as fathers. 1925 Widows, Orphans and Old Age Contributory Pensions Act provided a pension

for widows of insured men 1928 Equal Franchise Act gave the vote to men and women on equal terms.

The nature of parliamentary politics did not change at all. Suffragists hoped that women's gentler, less confrontational approach would feminise parliament. Not a bit of it. The House of Commons remained essentially a man's institution, programmed to deal with matters of importance in a masculine way. After all, men dominated the membership. Women simply adapted, as women always have done down the ages. They learned adversarial debate and they sided on domestic issues along party, not feminist, lines.

Equal franchise: the final, push?

After 1918, women were still unequal and millions of them still disenfranchised. The final push had to come with franchise equality. In 1918 the coalition government's manifesto undertook to remove inequalities between men and women. Yet no government bill sought to do this. The Labour Party had consistently supported equal franchise, yet when it was briefly in power in 1924, it resisted all attempts to introduce an equal franchise bill. This was such a familiar story. Politicians gave lip service to principle, but when it came to putting principles into action, they drew back because they were afraid of the outcome. But equal franchise did come about - and only ten years after the limited franchise granted in 1918. And in the end it was granted by a Conservative government.

By the time the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Bill reached the Commons, the real struggle had happened beforehand. Introduced by the Conservative government, the bill was supported by both Liberal and Labour parties, and what opposition there was came from Conservative backbenchers. The vote (387 to 10) seemed like a complete triumph for supporters of the bill, but it masks frantic behind the scenes manoeuvring. Aware of the level

of opposition, the government refused to allow a free vote and applied the parliamentary whips. Aware of the consequences of ignoring the whips, many Conservative MPs, including Winston Churchill, simply absented themselves on the day of the vote. The huge vote in favour of equal franchise must, too, reflect the actions of MPs who, realising that the passage of the bill was inevitable, did not want to be seen by the new women electors as opposing the female vote.

It was, of course, important to fight for the rights of women to vote in general elections and so have an input into the ways in which the country was governed. But if women were to play a full part in society they had to be enabled to enter the world of work - and enter it on the same terms as men. The key to this was education.

Feminism and women’s lib.The view, articulated in the 19th century, that women are inherently equal to men and deserve equal rights and opportunities. More recently, a social and political movement that took hold in the United States in the late 1960s, soon spreading globally.

In 1966, Betty Freidan helped found the National Organization for Women in the United States. And starting in about 1969, the women's liberation movement – a loose network of women's groups – criticised male-dominated society and condemned sexism. It achieved many goals through direct action and pressure-group lobbying mainly in the English-speaking world and in Europe. Issues included not only equal pay and equal legal rights, but campaigns against rape and violence against women, pornography, and other cultural attitudes – for example, sexist language – that exploit women.

Despite conservative counterattacks – and the failure of American campaigners to get the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution passed by enough states – the feminist second wave has succeeded in changing the role of women and their public perception. The sheer range and diversity of feminism was demonstrated at the United Nations Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995.

What is Feminism?

Feminism strives for political, social and economic equality for women.

Miss World and sexism.

Miss World turned 50 in 2001. Born in 1951, the brainchild of Eric Morley, a former bingo hall manager it was intended to be a one-off event as part of the Festival of Britain celebrations. Its original name was the 'Festival Bikini Contest' but the British press dubbed it Miss World — and this proved a more appropriate title. Only one winner — the very first — was actually crowned wearing a bikini.

The competition has survived protests from groups of varying political hues as well as scandals about contestants — and even the ignominy of being dropped from the British TV schedules.

Opposition

Controversy has dogged the competition throughout its history. There have been protests from feminists and socialists who argued that beauty contests were demeaning to women. There have also been complaints from traditionalists who thought it unfitting for women to parade around with few clothes on. The traditionalists had the first say. In the 1950s, Catholic countries such as Spain and Ireland threatened to pull out of the competition if the contestants wore bikinis. The competition organisers capitulated quickly, and bikinis were banned.

At the 1970 competition at the Royal Albert Hall in London , feminists protested against the 'cattle market'. They hurled flour bombs and fruit at the stage and several protesters were arrested and fined.

Feminist protest against the competition has continued, sporadically, up to this day. However, many feminists, in the West at least, think the competition has become too much of a joke to warrant protest.

Equal pay act 1970

The Equal Pay Act 1970 makes it unlawful for employers to discriminate between men and women in

terms of their pay and conditions where they are doing the same or similar work; work rated as

equivalent; or work of equal value.

The Act applies to both men and women but does not give anyone the right to claim equal pay with

a person of the same sex. In other words, any comparison must be with a person of the opposite sex.

The Equal Pay Act was passed in 1970, when the pay gap between men and women stood at 37%. By

the time the Act came into force in 1975, it had closed to 30%.

The Equal Pay Act addresses one aspect of the gender pay gap — that of unequal pay. The

Government is helping to tackle wider causes of the pay gap such as job segregation and differences

in work experience.

The purpose of the Equal Pay Act 1970 is to eliminate discrimination between men and women in

terms of their pay and contracts of employment where they are doing:

• work that is the same or broadly similar;

• work rated as equivalent under a job evaluation study;

• work of equal value in terms of the demands made on them under headings such as effort, skill

and decision-making.

The Equal Pay Act gives men and women the right to equality in the terms of their contract of

employment. It covers both pay and other terms and conditions such as piecework, output and

bonus payments, holidays and sick leave.

European law has extended the concept of equal pay to include redundancy payments, travel

concessions, employers’ pension contributions and occupational pension benefits.

This means that even though a man and a woman are receiving the same basic rate of pay there may

still be a breach of the principle of equal pay because other benefits (such as a company car, private

health care etc) are not provided on an equal basis.

The Equal Pay Act applies to pay or benefits provided by the contract of employment. The Sex

Discrimination Act covers non-contractual arrangements including benefits such as access to a

workplace nursery or travel concessions.

Sex discrimination act 1975

The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 (SDA) offers protection against unlawful discrimination to both men

and women. I makes sex discrimination unlawful in employment, vocational training, education, the

provision and sale of goods, facilities and services, the management and letting of premises and the

exercise of public functions.

In employment and vocational training, it is also unlawful to discriminate against someone on the

grounds that a person is married or a civil partner or on the ground of gender reassignment.

First Female Prime ministerMargaret Thatcher was Britain's first female prime minister and served three consecutive terms in office. She is one of the dominant political figures of 20th century Britain, and Thatcherism continues to have a huge influence.

Margaret Hilda Roberts was born on 13 October 1925 in Grantham, Lincolnshire, the daughter of a grocer. She went to Oxford University and then became a research chemist, retraining to become a barrister in 1954. In 1951, she married a wealthy businessman, Denis Thatcher, with whom she had two children.

Thatcher became Conservative member of parliament for Finchley in north London in 1959, serving as its MP until 1992. Her first parliamentary post was junior minister for pensions in Harold Macmillan's government. From 1964 to 1970, when Labour were in power, she served in a number of positions in Edward Heath's shadow cabinet. Heath became prime minister in 1970 and Thatcher was appointed secretary for education.

After the Conservatives were defeated in 1974, Thatcher challenged Heath for the leadership of the party and, to the surprise of many, won. In the 1979 general election, the Conservatives came to power and Thatcher became prime minister.

An advocate of privatisation of state-owned industries and utilities, reform of the trade unions, the lowering of taxes and reduced social expenditure across the board, Thatcher's policies succeeded in reducing inflation, but unemployment dramatically increased.

Victory in the Falklands War in 1982 and a divided opposition helped Thatcher win a landslide victory in the 1983 general election. In 1984, she narrowly escaped death when the IRA planted a bomb at the Conservative party conference in Brighton.

In foreign affairs, Thatcher cultivated a close political and personal relationship with US president Ronald Reagan, based on a common mistrust of communism, combined with free-market economic ideology. Thatcher was nicknamed the 'Iron Lady' by the Soviets. She warmly welcomed the rise of reformist Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

In the 1987 general election, Thatcher won an unprecedented third term in office. But controversial policies, including the poll tax and her opposition to any closer integration with Europe, produced divisions within the Conservative Party which led to a leadership challenge. In November 1990, she agreed to resign and was succeeded as party leader and prime minister by John Major. In 1992, Thatcher left the House of Commons for the House of Lords as Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven.

WOMEN — equal or not?From the 1960’s women began to point out how far short of equality they really were e.g. in 1980 only 8% of barristers, 4% of architects, 1 % of accountants were women. In 1983 only 23 out of 650 M.P.’s were women. Although there were more women wage-earners they tended to be low-paid workers. In 1975 97% of canteen assistants, 92% of nurses, 92% of cleaners and 81% of shop assistants were women. Average earnings of women were less than 4/5 of men and still are.

The EQUAL PAY ACT OF 1969 came into effect in 1975 making it illegal to pay women less than men for the same job. The SEX DISCRIMINATION ACT 1975 made it illegal to refuse a woman a job simply because of gender.It set up the EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES COMMISSION to investigate discrimination. In schools also girls have to have equal opportunities to boys.Childcare is a problem since women tend to take sole charge and will be discriminated against at work. They have to choose between jobs and children. Some employers offer crèches and job share. Some men role swap at home.