Source A GCSE History coursework :: essays research papers

This question is going to investigate how reliable source A is, about peoples attitude towards women’s suffrage. Source A shows waomen holding papers and leaflets banging on the door, but ‘John bull’ is barricading the door. ‘John Bull’ is portrayed as the British Government not letting women into parliament to get the vote, he has fists clenched and is determined to not let women in. The women banging on the door look ugly, fat, un-ladylike and dirty, the cartoonist may be biased towards women getting the vote. This is emphasised by the title ‘An Ugly Rush’. The women protesting may be the suffragists, the leaflets and papers that the women are holding could be petitions and posters. They resemble spinsters. In the background there is a group of elegant, formal posh and ladylike women, one woman has a child. Theses women may be frowning at the rabble of women in disgust. It is possible that the women in the background are the Anti-Suffrage League. The message of this cartoon is that men don’t want women to have the vote. The person who drew this carton could have been a biased male, against women’s suffrage. This carton was out in the late 19th century early 20th century. Punch magazine was published by a group of liberals who campaigned for the poor and working classes. By 1870 the magazine was in big trouble as it could only sell 6,000 copies a week but it needed to sell at least 10’000 copies a week to pay for the venture. So the magazine started to appeal to middle-class men. ‘John Bull’ became a common figure in the magazine, around the 19th century. He was portrayed as a hero of Britain. He often wore a Union Jack waist coat. This source may not be reliable as it could have been drawn by a biased male. But the source shows some women not campaigning for the vote, because not all women wanted to have the vote like upper-class women , they didn’t care because they had a good life. The men liked some of the women for not wanting the vote so the cartoonist in this source has praised them by making them look smart and elegant, and not dirty and ugly. The Source isn’t very useful because the cartoonist was biased towards women’s suffrage, so he could of made the campaigning women look like a huge unorganised rabble.