History essay: the History of Women in Britain, 1750-1950

History essay: the History of Women in Britain, 1750-1950

This is a history essay that I edited for my Italin friend, Laura. In English Language Resources Online, there are many history resources, history essays, and history term papers spanning these various topics:

the Communist Manifesto,
Southeast Asian history,
South Asian history (India under the British, in particular),
and history essays and history term papers in general.

This history essay on women in Britain, here on my site, is by my friend Laura, whose native language is not English. The essay has been edited by me, and you can see where the differences of expression are, and where the similarities of expression are. One thing to take away from this essay series on the History of Women in Britain is that: if Laura from Italy can write well, and if she can write a history of women essay properly with some English editing from a friend and do well for it and get graded excellently, you can do it too.

That is: self confidence and self belief are important in writing a good history essay.

If my Italian friend can write a good history essay, so can you - even if English is not your first language. If it is your Third or Fourth language, bear in mind that that is the same case for Laura my friend too.

In addition, if English is your first language, and you are seeking to improve your general knowledge, Knowledge and Inquiry, history and other important writing skills and information, this essay written by a foreigner to English will be very illuminative of writing practices and skills. Do remember to ask questions! Here is the essay question and here is the essay introduction.

The history essay question:
WHAT PART DID WOMEN PLAY IN BRITISH POLITICAL LIFE BEFORE THEY WERE GRANTED THE VOTE?

From the eighteenth century there was a continuous development in women’s political involvement that brought women the right to vote at the end of the First World War in 1918. This political participation concerned, in different ways, women of all social classes. Political historians have considered the political history before the suffrage movement as male history because women were not actors of high politics, they were not allowed to sit in parliament, and they could not vote to be represented. Women’s political participation was normally considered by historians as ‘indirect, unaccountable and unquantifiable’[1] and the ‘separate sphere’ model made easier the identification of the politics sphere as exclusively male. But, in reality, politics during the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twenty centuries was the result of the convergence between high politics and social-politics which considers all the different social class as political actors because they played a fundamental role in the political scene also without being empowered. Women were involved in different ways in the political life of Britain. In this essay, I will analyse some crucial moments of political history when women were protagonists of political events, demonstrating in this way women’s fundamental involvement in the ‘public sphere’ along the centuries. I will examine how women of the social elite participated in the political life of the country through their family’s interests and network of political-friendships; how working-class women took part actively in the politic scene participating, for example, in the Chartist Movement; and how middle class women were involved in the anti-slavery campaign and in the Anti-Corn Law League. Finally I will examine the struggle for women’s suffrage from the 1860s.

[1] Chalus, ‘“That epidemical Madness”’, p. 152.

If you note any mistakes, bear in mind that Laura is not a native speaker of English.