and ensure that men’s work remained the most valuable so that they might remain the breadwinners and head of households. 44 However, as Susan Grayzel noted, women who were paid less could threaten male employment. 45 Thus, the
acceptance by the ‘male state and male employers’ of women into the industrial
workforce came with the explicit agreement that the end of the War would also mean women would be demobilised and return to the home. 46 Although as previously
discussed women’s mobilisation did provide opportunities for economic liberation this
remained limited by the ‘gendered system of labour’ and a male -dominated political system. 47 The traditional interpretation suggests that women’s war work earned them
the vote, however, just a year after some women being enfranchised the Restoration
of Pre-War Practices Act was passed. As Edward Wood, MP for Ripon, spoke of in
the debate for the bill in June 1919, the passing of it would bar hundreds of
thousands of women from employment where they were not in direct competition with men. 48 Whilst women’s mobilisation was seen to be valued in the post -war
period there is an apparent attempt at not just reverting to pre-war society but
making it more entrenched in legislation. Therefore, the introduction of women’s
suffrage was not a reward f or women’s participation in the war effort but to eclipse
the more stringent assertion of the traditional view of women, as mothers and
homemakers.
In conclusion, women’s mobilisation during the First World War was not a
watershed moment in the introduction of women’s suffrage. However, the War was
paradoxical for the transformation of British society. Mobilisation provided women,
particularly working-class, with opportunities for economic liberation and social
independence. Whilst this deepened their connections to society and reinforced their
citizenship, this did not directly contribute to the issue of suffrage. The traditional
interpretation negle cts the agency of women’s suffrage campaigners and how their
tireless efforts had established the matter at the forefront of politics prior to the
outbreak of War and the continued threat they posed to a renewed masculine
44 Higonnet and Higonnet, p. 32. 45 Grayzel, Women and the First World War , p. 30. 46 Woollacott, p. 89. 47 Ibid, p. 112.
48 House of Commons, Restoration of Pre-War Practices Bill (2 June 1919, vol. 116, cols. 1756-7) [Online] <https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1919/jun/02/restoration-of-pre-war- practices-no-3> [accessed 17 April 2023].
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