Female Opposition to Women Parliamentary Franchise in England and its Impact on the Suffrage Movement (1908-1918)

Abstract

In the nineteenth century, the female suffrage movement was launched by women suffragists in Great Britain (England as a case study) in 1866 to call for the parliamentary enfranchisement of women. As a response to the female suffrage movement, the female anti-suffrage movement sprang up in 1889 to oppose the grant of the parliamentary franchise for women. The female anti-suffrage movement was carried on by women antis till 1908 when it started in an organized way through the resort to anti-suffrage organizations. This research work endeavours to tackle the reasons behind the female opposition to the parliamentary vote although it concerned all women. All the arguments, which were put forward, shared the resentment of the political equality between men and women through the acquisition of the parliamentary vote. This research sheds light also on the outcome of the female opposition which was failure. The defeat of the female anti-suffrage campaign was seen through the partial enfranchisement of women over the age of thirty in 1918.