Issues concerning women

But women’s suffrage was not the breakthrough which it might at first appear. It had been hoped, and even assumed, that once women were given a political voice many other benefits would automatically follow. With politicians now accountable to women and seeking their votes, surely they would begin to listen to demands for further concessions. Furthermore, the movement had been almost exclusively middle class in character. There was little interest in the plight of women in working-class families such as lack of education, poor career prospects and the common burden of large families in poor circumstances of health and housing.