The Changing Role of Women c.1850–c1950
CW22: The Changing Role of Women c1850–c1950
The role and status of women in the economy
Content / Sources- Different types of work
Domestic – Poor conditions, preference for factory work
Factory – 59% of the workforce in the clothing trade in 1891
Shop – Development of department stores, almost half a million shops in Britain by 1907
Professional – School of Medicine for Women, 77 female barristers by 1927
Business world – Technological inventions, Post Office
- Work during wartime
World War One – Women’s War Register, Women’s Land Army, munitions factories, Amalgamated Society of Engineers
World War Two – Conscription of women into war work, nurseries at work, Equal Pay Campaign Committee, women in the Armed Forces
- Terms and conditions of employment
Requirement for domestic servants to remain unmarried, annual contracts for domestic servants, low wages for women factory workers, 85-hour week for some women shop workers, Shop Hours Regulation Act.
- Setbacks for women
Fewer than 10% of married women in paid employment in 1910, unemployment after the war, pre-war Trade Practices Act, no full implementation of the Sex Disqualification Act, return to cult of domesticity after World War Two
Sarah Burstall
Helen Martindale
Clementia Black
Emma Smith
Popular pressure (Part A)
What was the short-term significance of World War One in bringing about change in women’s role and status?Individuals (Part A)
What was the short-term significance of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson in bringing about change in women’s role and status?Key legislation (Part A)
What was the significance of the Trade Boards Act in bringing about change in women’s role and status?Women’s changing role in the political system
Content / Sources- Towards female suffrage
Local voting – For single and widowed women who paid rates (1869), then married women (1894)
Female suffrage – Accidental voting of Lydia Becker (1868), Representation of the People Act (1918), Equal Franchise Act (1928)
- Pressure for change
Attempted suffrage legislation – 1870, 1897, 1906, 1907, 1908, 1909, 1910, 1911 and 1913
Impact on national political parties – 1884 Reform Act, Primrose League, Women’s Liberal Federation, National Union of Conservative Associations, Kier Hardie, George Lansbury, Speaker’s Conference
Organisations for political change – NUWSS, WSPU, Women’s Franchise League
- Political influence
Impact on local politics – Workhouse Visiting Society (1859), Education Act and School Boards (1870), Local Authorities (1902), Poor Law Guardians
Impact in Parliament – Intoxicating Liquor Act (1923), Poor Law (Amendment) Act (1937–38), Criminal Law Amendment Act (1951)
Political participation – Local Government Act (1894), Constance Gore-Booth, Nancy Astor, Margaret Bondfield, 21 female MPs by 1951
Florence Davenport-Hill
Emma Sheppard
Emmeline Pankhurst
Martin Pugh
Sarah Ann Jackson
Millicent Fawcett
Christabel Pankhurst
Sylvia Pankhurst
Annie Kenney
Ray Strachey
Votes for Women (suffragette journal)
The Lancet
‘Opinions of Leaders of Religious Thought’, published by the Central Society for Women’s Suffrage in 1905
Common Causes (NUWSS)
Women’s Franchise League
WSPU (Votes for Women and The Suffragette)
Dreadnought (Sylvia Pankhurst)
John Hassall
W. H. Dickinson
Popular pressure (Part A)
What was the short-term significance of the NUWSS in bringing about change in women’s role and status?Individuals (Part A)
What was the short-term significance of Christabel Pankhurst in bringing about change in women’s role and status?Key legislation (Part A)
What was the significance of the Local Government Act (1894) in bringing about change in women’s role and status?Educational opportunities for girls and women
Content / Sources- Elementary education
Education Act (1870), Sandon’s Act (1876) penalised parents who kept their children away from school, elementary education made compulsory in 1880;
school leaving age fixed at eleven (1893) then raised to twelve (1899)
- Secondary education
Frances Mary Buss founded the North London Collegiate School for Ladies (1850), Dorothea Beale became principle of Cheltenham Ladies College (1858), Fisher’s School Act (1918) raised school leaving age to 14, Butler’s Education Act (1944)
- University
Queen’s College London founded in 1848, Bedford College London founded in 1849; first women’s colleges at Cambridge University in 1869 and 1871; University of London opened its degrees to women in 1878; Lady Margaret Hall and Somerville colleges opened at Oxford University in 1878; Sex Disqualification Act (1919); almost a third of undergraduates female by 1950.
- Study of medicine
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson becomes first woman on Medical Register (1865), Enabling Bill (1876)
- Increasing opportunities for poorer girls
School’s Enquiry Commission set up to investigate the education of children from middle-class homes (1864), Girl’s Public Day School Company (1870); education made free in elementary schools (1891), free school meals introduced (1906), free medical inspections and free places in secondary school for the children of the poor (both 1907), scholarships to help clever pupils from poorer backgrounds go to secondary schools (1907)
- Life at school for girls
Principles of running a household, academic achievement; biased curriculum remains after Butler’s Education Act
Dorothea Beale
Sarah Sewell
Popular pressure (Part A)
What was the short-term significance of the School’s Enquiry Commission in bringing about change in women’s role and status?Individuals (Part A)
What was the short-term significance of Frances Mary Buss in bringing about change in women’s role and status?Key legislation (Part A)
What was the significance of the Education Act (1944) in bringing about change in women’s role and status?The changing domestic role of women
Content / Sources- ‘Angel in the house’
Domesticity, annulment/divorce, adverse reaction to ‘angel in the house’ view, different consequences for married and unmarried women
- ‘Separate spheres’
Limited work, domestic service
- Unfair treatment by the state
Adultery, case of Caroline Norton, Contagious Diseases Acts (1864, 1866, 1869)
- Reforming legislation or judicial rulings
Custody of Children Act (1839), Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Act (1857), Married Women’s Property Acts (1870 and 1882), Matrimonial Causes Act (1884), independent legal status granted (1884), Guardianship of Infants Act (1886), Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Act (1886), Married Women’s Maintenance Act (1922), Infanticide Act (1922), Matrimonial Causes Act (1923), Bastardy Act (1923), Guardianship of Infants Act (1925), Widows, Orphans and Old Age Contributory Pensions Act (1925)
- Reaction to the Second World War
Beveridge Report’s assumptions, Family Allowances Act (1945), role of advertising in cult of domesticity
Lord Tennyson
John Ruskin
Isabella Beeton
Florence Nightingale
Margaretta Gregg
Lord Shaftesbury
Henry Broadhurst
Lord Chancellor Cranworth
Professor Graveson
William Blackstone
Caroline Norton
Howard Vincent
Hippolyte Taine
William Acton
Josephine Butler
Popular pressure (Part A)
What was the short-term significance of the concept of the ‘angel in the house’ in bringing about change in women’s role and status?Individuals (Part A)
What was the short-term significance of Caroline Norton in bringing about change in women’s role and status?Key legislation (Part A)
What was the significance of the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Act (1886) in bringing about change in women’s role and status?Popular pressure (Part B)
Assess the significance of popular pressure in bringing about change to the role and status of women in the years 1850–1950.Individuals (Part B)
Assess the significance of the role of individuals in bringing about change to the role and status of women in the years 1850–1950.Key legislation (Part B)
In considering the process of change in the role and status of women 1850–1950, how far can the Representation of the People Act (1918) be seen as a turning point?Causes of change
Intelligent middle-class womenBored women
Key individuals
Pamphlet writing
Political support from MPs
Parliament
Judiciary
Pressure groups
Influencing election results
Labour Party
Reform Acts
Private Members’ Bills
Suffragists
Suffragettes
Press attention and support
Militancy (Black Friday, hunger strikes)
Martyrdom
Support of members of the government (Lloyd George)
Primrose League
Trade union support
Religious support
Press support
World War One
World War Two
Lack of political concern
International trends
Political factors
Technological inventions
Female trade unionism
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