Was world war one the most important reason for women being given the vote in 1918.
Despite much vigorous campaigning, which included increasingly violent and dangerous actions by suffragettes, all proposed laws to allow women to have the vote were defeated continually in parliament. Some accused the Suffragettes of harming the cause rather than helping it; other similar organisations campaigned without direct action. Although there was much campaigning, by 1914 women had the same voting rights as they did in 1831. They needed something to kick their campaign into action and move it forward. .
Although the war didn't immediately win women the vote, it gave them the opportunity to prove their worth in the war effort. Women volunteered to help fill shortages, were men had to leave for the front live. Many joined the Woman's Land Army or worked in munitions factories, on buses as ticket collectors or as nurses near the battlefield.
Initially men were opposed to women filling their job vacancies, believing they would fail to meet the intellectual standards required to fill such positions, when conscription was introduced it became clear women were need to work in factories and to take on what had previously been "men's jobs".
With the First World War, came a change in the general public's attitude. The Government could no longer call women irresponsible and irrational, and could no longer not trust them with understanding issues in the same way as men. The war changed the situation for women. The most obvious thing being, that women's contributions to war were seen and appreciated and that women, instead of being subjected to frequent criticism in the press and by public figures, they were generally praised. In addition public opinion also became more democratic, as the shared the hardships which created a more equal society with less emphasis on class divisions. There was a general desire that the sacrifices women had made shouldn't be in vain and that a better world should come out of the terrible war.
