Women in the Political Background

Abstract

There is a cliché that says that behind every great man there is a woman. Like all clichés, there is an element of truth and of exaggeration in it. In any case, few people would deny that women — or rather certain women — have exercised political influence through their relationships with men. As wives, mistresses, mothers, daughters or simply friends, women have listened to men’s problems and offered their advice. This is true in politics as much as in any other field. Until this century, only a few women in Britain could vote in certain local government elections, but in spite of this many people have argued that women still possessed political power. In 1864, one anti-suffragist argued that: ‘There can be no more baseless assumption than that the polling-booth is the main source of influence in politics. Women already enjoy greater influence in other ways, both public and private, than the franchise would give them.’¹ In the light of events since then, this interpretation is controversial — to say the least. It is also clear that even if women did exercise some background political power, there were very few who did so. Furthermore, most of these were, by definition, from the upper class. This should not come as a surprise because, with few exceptions, Britain before the twentieth century was governed by an oligarchy based on the aristocracy. Much of the history of Britain before the First World War is that of a country coming to grips with the idea of democracy — and, as part of this, with the acceptance of a political role for women.