Anti-Suffrage League
Encyclopedia
The Anti-Suffrage League was an organization that was opposed to women's suffrage
Women's suffrage
Women's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...

. It was founded in 1908 by the writer Mary Ward
Mary Augusta Ward
Mary Augusta Ward née Arnold; , was a British novelist who wrote under her married name as Mrs Humphry Ward.- Early life:...

, at the behest of Lord Curzon and William Cremer. The first meeting took place 12 July 1908 at the Westminster Palace Hotel in London, England.

The league proceeded to collect signatures to oppose the movement to grant women the right to vote, and by 12 March 1909 it had collected 250,000 signatures. A prominent member was the diplomat Gertrude Bell
Gertrude Bell
Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell, CBE was an English writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, and archaeologist who explored, mapped, and became highly influential to British imperial policy-making due to her extensive travels in Greater Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and Arabia. Along...

, who, although deeply involved in politics herself, felt that women were not ready to vote while they remained confined to the domestic sphere.

A similar organization, the Anti-Franchise League
Anti-Franchise League
The Anti-Franchise League was an Australian organisation opposed to women's suffrage.In 1900, thirty two prominent citizens established the Castlemaine Anti-Franchise League to oppose the Bill to allow women to vote...

, had already been formed in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

in 1900.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK