Womens Suffrage

WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE. The Women's Suffrage Move ment dates, for all practical purposes from the middle of the 19th century. The systems of government of the ancient world were all based upon the theory that women could take no part in polit ical matters, except when they became reigning queens.

In Great Britain.

In spite of Plato and a few other political theorists, it was not until the French Revolution that the idea that women might share in political power gained any support. Then, however, Condorcet upheld it, and Mary Wollstonecraft wrote her great book A Vindication of the Rights of Women in 1792. The French Revolution speedily became unpopular in Eng land, however, and although in the next 4o years a few isolated advocates appeared, it was not until the Chartist Movement began that it again attracted attention. The first draft of the "Charter of Rights and Liberties" was composed in 1838, and is stated to have included Women's Suffrage; but it was not allowed to re main, as it was thought likely to bring ridicule upon the agitation.

Between 1840 and 1850 a certain number of politicians men tioned the subject in their speeches, in particular Richard Cobden, who strongly supported it, and Disraeli, who spoke in its favour when a resolution was introduced into the House of Commons by Joseph Hume. The election of John Stuart Mill to parliament in 1865 marked its real beginning.

Mill was a convinced believer in the importance of this reform, and it occupied a foremost place in his election address. His return to parliament therefore encouraged those women who were think ing about the subject, and in 1866, when it was found that almost all the 5o members of the Kensington Ladies' Discussion Society were its supporters, a group of them, led by Barbara Leigh Smith (Mme. Bodichon), Elizabeth Garrett (Mrs. Garrett Anderson), Emily Davies and Bessie Rayner Parkes (Mme. Belloc) decided to form a provisional women's suffrage committee. Its first work was to collect a petition to parliament, and names were secured. This petition, the first of a long series, was presented by Mill in 1867, and in the same year he moved an amendment to the Reform bill by which women were to be enfranchised.

A number of suffrage societies came into existence about this time in London, Manchester, Bristol, Edinburgh and Birmingham, and a real effort at propaganda was undertaken. Mill published

The Subjection of Women, which he had written seven years earlier, and serious organization was begun. The leader in the north of England was Miss Lydia Becker, a woman of unusual political insight ; and her first care was to make certain that women were not already enfranchised under the existing law. Over 4,000 claims to be put on the parliamentary register were sent in by women ratepayers in Manchester, and the same thing was done in other parts of the country. The test case (Chorlton v. Lings) was tried before the court of common pleas in 1868, and the de cision was that women were disqualified, and attention was there after directed to promoting a bill in parliament. In 1869 the mu nicipal franchise was extended to women ratepayers, and in the following year, when the school boards were created, women were made eligible and were actually elected to them.

In 1870 Jacob Bright brought forward a bill for extending the parliamentary franchise to women, and it passed its second read ing, but was not allowed time to proceed further. The suffragists then began to hold meetings in various parts of the country.

In 188o the vote was given to women owners in the Isle of Man, and it was subsequently extended to occupiers also.

During the years before the introduction of the Reform bill of 1884 the suffragists were very active. The political parties seemed to be favourable, and a majority of the members of the House of Commons was individually pledged, but W. E. Gladstone killed their chances of securing the amendment they hoped for. He an nounced that women would "overweight the Bill" and must be "thrown overboard," and accordingly 104 Liberal members broke their pledges, and the thing was done. The women at last realized the difficulty of trying to secure reform while they were them selves without political power. In 1888, when the county councils were created, women were included among the electorate. Two women were elected to the first London County Council, but their eligibility was challenged, and rejected by the courts, and it was not until 1907 that an act was passed making them eligible to serve on these bodies, and also to hold the office of mayor. The first woman mayor in Great Britain was Mrs. Garrett Anderson, mayor of Aldburgh in 1908.