# Social awareness

# You Should Know

We take for granted that ...

- All women were for female suffrage, but there were some women organisations that campaigned against the vote for women like the Women´s National Anti-Suffrage League (1908-1918).
- Only women campaigned for female suffrage, but although it was predominately a cause fought by women, some men played a crucial role both in Parliament and outside like John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)

> It appears to me that it is one of the fundamental truths on which all civilisations have been built up, that it is men who have made and controlled the State, and I cannot help thinking that any country which departs from that principle must be undertaking an experiment which in the end will prove to be exceedingly dangerous.

> Mr Harold Baker, 1912

From the "Debate of the Conciliation Bill", 1912, quoted in www.johndclare.net.

This statement was one of the arguements given at the British Parliament against the possibility of giving women the right to vote.

- What reasons did Harold Baker give to deny women´s suffrage?
- Divide the class into two groups and organise a debate about women´s suffrage, one group in favour and the other against (here you can find some reasons given at that time)

Member of the British Parliament

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