A level History

The Changing Position of Women c.1860–1930

Section 1: The changing personal status of women

• The position of women in 1830
• Early legal reforms
• The legal status of marriage, 1873–1895
• Two significant marriage cases
• Married women and property reform, 1870–1882
• Josephine Butler and the Contagious Diseases Acts, 1864–1885

Section 2: Women’s changing role within the political system, 1870–1920

• Women and the franchise
• Women, education and welfare
• The origins of the suffrage campaign
• NUWSS campaigns
• WSPU campaigns: deeds not words
• The impact of the First World War on the suffrage campaign

Section 3: Attitudes of politicians, parliament and the public to the suffrage question

• Political parties and the suffrage question
• Asquith and the Conciliation Bills
• The NUWSS and the Labour Party
• The wider public debate
• Representation of the People Act, 1918
• The female franchise and politics, 1918–1928

Section 4: Changing educational and employment opportunities for women, 1870–1930

• Educational reform and working-class girls, 1870–1914
• The education of middle-class girls
• Women in higher education and the professions
• Legislation and the lives of working women
• Trade unions and technology
• Women’s work in the First World War
• Job opportunities in the 1920s