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16 Journal of Liberal History 62 Spring 2009 the Liberal Party and Women’S Suffrage, 1866 – 1918

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16 Journal of Liberal History 62 Spring 2009 the Liberal Party and Women’S Suffrage, 1866 – 1918 ThE LIBERAL PARTY AND WOMEN’S SUffRAGE, 1866 – 1918 16 Journal of Liberal History 62 Spring 2009 ThE LIBERAL PARTY AND WOMEN’S SUffRAGE, 1866 – 1918 It is no exaggeration to mong the leaders Liberal Federation executive in of the early wom- 1892 – something usually over- say that the Victorian en’s movement looked in her later, anti-Liberal women’s movement were Barbara Leigh phase. grew out of the Smith, daughter Against this background, it Aof Benjamin Leigh Smith, the is not surprising that the parlia- ideas and campaigns free trader, Unitarian and Lib- mentary launch of the women’s eral MP, Millicent Fawcett, the suffrage campaign in 1866 was of early-to-mid wife of Henry Fawcett, the Lib- largely a Liberal affair. In June nineteenth century eral member for Brighton and Mill presented a petition to the Gladstone’s Postmaster-General, Commons prior to introduc- Radical Liberalism: and Josephine Butler, an inspi- ing a women’s amendment to temperance, anti- rational Liberal feminist who Gladstone’s Reform Bill. This campaigned for the repeal of was good timing, for although slavery, peace and the the Contagious Diseases Acts.1 the 1866 bill failed and the Lib- repeal of the Corn The movement also enjoyed eral government resigned, a the active support of many male bill introduced by the minor- Laws. Martin Pugh Liberals including John Stuart ity Conservative administration traces the relationship Mill, philosopher and briefly in 1867 was heavily amended MP for Westminster (1865–68), by Liberal backbenchers, and between the Liberal Jacob Bright, who was elected enacted as the Second Reform for Manchester at an 1867 by- Act. This extended the elec- Party and the various election when a woman, Lily torate from 1.3 million to 2.4 campaigners for Maxwell, found her name acci- million, representing one in dentally on the register and three adult males, and in the women’s suffrage from voted for him, and Dr Richard fluid parliamentary situation the 1860s until women WSPU leader Pankhurst, who tried to become the inclusion of women was Emmeline Liberal member in Manchester not impossible. In the event, finally won the right to Pankhurst at an 1883 by-election and whose Mill’s amendment was defeated vote in 1918. arrested in wife, Emmeline, attempted by 196 votes to 73 – of which London, 1914 to get elected to the Women’s 62 were Liberal. But at a stroke Journal of Liberal History 62 Spring 2009 17 THE liBERAL PARTY AND woMEN’S SUffRAGE, 1866–1918 he had given credibility to the Extending enthusiasm for a public, political because late-Victorian society cause and put the issue firmly role. was subject to the fear that the on the agenda, although some the vote was birth rate was falling, thereby Liberals had supported it more part of the undermining Britain’s role as out of respect for Mill than Married or single women? a great industrial and imperial from enthusiasm for women’s wider Victo- In view of this happy beginning, power in the face of new rivals suffrage. it is necessary to ask: what went such as Germany. In any case, rian Liberal wrong? How are we to explain giving single women a vote the paradox that a quintessen- looked like punishing other Liberal suffragism purpose – tially Liberal cause was thwarted women for getting married. In As Henry Fawcett argued, the opening all up to 1914 by opposition from addition, throughout the period opposition to enfranchising prominent Liberals, including up to 1914 many Liberal and women was ‘based on the fallacy institutions Gladstone and Asquith? Despite Labour MPs suspected that bills that man possessed a superior the suffragists’ early reliance to enfranchise a small number kind of wisdom which enabled to individual on Liberal support, tactics dic- of unmarried women were cal- him to decide what was best tated that the campaign should culated to give the Conserva- for the other half of the human talent, lift- be a non-party one. Several tives an advantage by adding to race.’2 Extending the vote was ing people’s of the early suffragists, such as the votes for property-owners, part of the wider Victorian Emily Davis and Frances Power and, as a result, Dilke, Richard Liberal purpose – opening all horizons, Cobbe, were Conservatives, Haldane, Walter MacLaren and institutions to individual talent, and getting legislation through W. H. Dickinson were among lifting people’s horizons, and and making the House of Lords indicated the Liberals who introduced making government subject to that Conservative support was bills designed to include wives. the influence of informed citi- government increasingly necessary. In any However, this made for a much zens. However, this was quali- subject to case, neither party had a for- larger number of new vot- fied by the belief that voting mal policy on votes for women. ers, and was unpopular among should reflect personal fitness; the influence Consequently all the bills to Conservatives. hence neither Mill nor Glad- enfranchise women were intro- The problem was further stone proposed to enfranchise of informed duced by backbenchers seeking complicated by a distinct wan- all men or women at one fell support from both sides of the ing of the reform impulse later in swoop. In this spirit two Liber- citizens. House. the century as Liberals became a als, Sir Charles Dilke and Jacob Yet although this approach little disillusioned by the popu- Bright, managed to add an sounded very rational, it was lar revival of Conservatism amendment to the Gladstone not realistic to expect to draft which had enjoyed considerable government’s 1869 Municipal a bill capable of satisfying both success in mobilising women Franchise Bill to include female Liberals and Tories. As only a through the Primrose League ratepayers without provok- minority of women were to be founded in 1883. As questions of ing controversy. Liberals liked given a vote initially, the ques- principle became increasingly to argue that participation by tion was one of what terms or entangled with considerations of women in local government qualifications to use that would party advantage, some Liberals was a continuation of an English not be seen as giving an advan- began to examine more closely tradition going back to Anglo- tage to one party or the other. the arguments used for female Saxon times, and, in any case, Most of the Bills introduced in enfranchisement in the 1860s. the duties handled locally, such this period enfranchised women Although Radicals had tradi- as health and education, could ‘on the same terms as men’, but tionally believed that payment be seen as a natural extension of this was far less radical than it of taxation implied the right women’s domestic interests and sounded because it effectively to representation, the argu- thus not as a challenge to con- meant women who were heads ment appeared to be working ventional ideas about gender. of households, that is, single rather too well. Conservative In fact, however, the municipal women and widows, who num- suffragists like Cobbe claimed franchise had a wider signifi- bered about 300,000–400,000 in that the most important rea- cance. Dilke considered that it the 1870s. Suffragists argued that son for enfranchising women was ‘only the first step towards single women had an unanswer- was the recognition it would adult suffrage’, for women’s able case because they paid rates give to property ownership; at a suffrage would come by instal- and in many cases had no male time when Parliament was giv- ments just as men’s did.3 Also, as relative to give them virtual ing the vote to comparatively voters and candidates in munici- representation.4 poor, unpropertied men, as in pal politics, women undermined However, politicians in all 1867 and 1884, it was tempting Victorian male notions by dem- parties were hostile towards to regard the inclusion of some onstrating their skills and their unmarried women partly women as a balancing factor 18 Journal of Liberal History 62 Spring 2009 THE liBERAL PARTY AND woMEN’S SUffRAGE, 1866–1918 that would help the Conserva- his mind on the issue, as he had sign of the long-term growth of tives. In this way Liberals began done over votes for men earlier support within the party in the to suspect that a limited reform in his career. He tolerated pro- country. More generally, home for women would be detrimen- suffragists such as Dilke, James rule had the effect of keeping tal to their own party, some Stansfeld and Henry Fawcett the Liberals largely out of office claiming that ‘every woman was as ministers even when they for twenty years, and it led some a Tory at heart’. As four out of voted against the Liberal whip prominent Liberal women, every ten men were still not on on women’s questions. Having including Millicent Fawcett, to the electoral register, even after argued that the disorder, drunk- move to the right out of a gen- 1885, some Liberals felt reluctant enness and violence attending eral disillusionment with Glad- to start enfranchising women elections made it inappropri- stonian Liberalism. It also led to before men had achieved adult ate for women to participate, a strengthening of Conservative suffrage. As a result, by the 1880s he removed the objection by support for the enfranchisement Liberal support for the cause had introducing the secret ballot in of women, many of whom had reached a plateau and on several 1872. ‘Now the voting is as sol- campaigned to save the union occasions more Liberals voted emn as a funeral and as quiet as a with Ireland under the auspices against suffrage bills than for Quaker meeting’, as one Liberal of the Primrose League.
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