Who Didn't Want Women To Have The Vote? | QI

This clip is from QI Series L, Episode 9, 'Ladies and Gents' with Stephen Fry, Alan Davies, Kathy Lette, Ross Noble, Sue Perkins.

[JoyceyNotus]

Constance Markievich when asked how a lady should dress in 1915 said, 'Dress suitably in short skirts and strong boots. Leave your jewels and gold wands in the bank, and buy a revolver.'
When women were given the right to vote and run for parliament in 1918 shortly before the election she was in prison. She ran and won becoming the first woman elected to the house of commons but never took up her seat as Sinn Fèin formed the 1st Dáil instead. In it she became the first female cabinet minister in the world.

[Stapler]

For the vast majority of women corsets were functional garments that were comfortable to wear, they were essentially the bras of that era, they weren't perfect but neither are bras today. Bernadette Banner and The London History Show both have great videos explaining what it's like to wear them regularly and how they work anatomically.

[jamesnewton]

Actually the woman who were against the vote were concerned that if they were allowed to vote then that removed the man's responsibility to vote on behalf of the whole house hold and instead vote selfishly. Their concern was to hold the men to account for their responsibility for the entire household.

[FrederickFokker]

I love that Alan's only contribution in this clip is, "HAH!"

[rayeasom]

It’s often an overlooked (misrepresented) fact that at the time of the suffragettes that working class men didn’t have the right to vote. We really do have a very distorted, misrepresented version of history taught to us at school. With the inconvenient truths omitted.

[lhfirex]

Reading the description... Sandi has found a way to swap bodies!

[Leo-wznh]

The look on her face when Stephen said "Socialist had most objections" :D..she's thinking 'how, why...oh nooo'

[ashleyzinyk]

The horror stories of corsets were exaggerated by the Rational Dress people, and later by Hollywood. Karolina Żebrowska and Bernadette Banner can correct your misunderstandings if you're willing to learn.

[monmothma]

I respect Stephen Fry so much it's quite sad to see him perpetuate the myth that the Victorians were corseted "within the inch of their lives and that's why they fainted so often".

[robynw]

I adore Stephen's innocence about "women things".

[CptSpears]

Phew, thank god we avoided parliament being filled with posh people

[ericwelsh]

I was expecting a different answer. I thought some women didn't want the right to vote because it could open the possibility of other responsibilities -- such as getting drafted and fighting in a war.

[mrfixitishere]

They also didn't want the mandatory service fire brigade, militia what have you

[thenecessaryevil]

And very little of that was true. The main objection the women's anti-sufferage movement had was men were given the general right to vote based on being subject to forced military service in time of war. They were worried that if women also got the right to vote that they would be subject to forced governmental service as well.

[jkbrown]

It was the young men who pushed the young ladies to abandon their corsets in the 1920s.

""The intoxication of rouge, " earnestly explained Dorothy Speare in Dancers in the Dark, "is an insidious vintage known to more girls than mere man can ever believe." Useless for frantic parents to insist that no lady did such things; the answer was that the daughters of ladies were doing it, and even retouching their masterpieces in public. Some of them, furthermore, were abandoning their corsets. "The men won't dance with you if you wear a corset, " they were quoted as saying."

---‘Only Yesterday An Informal History Of The Nineteen Twenties’, Frederick Lewis Allen (1931)

[TheZapan]

French women obtained voting rights more than fifty years after most countries in the West, precisely because the Socialist majority was afraid they would elect catholic priests, and thus reinforce the Conservative party. Mind you, that doesn't stop the current Socialist party from pretending they always fought for women rights!

[zapkvr]

In Australia we're forced to vote. If you think it results in better representation, you have another think coming. If you think it reduces the influence of special interests, have another think. If you think it makes us any more part of the process, youre wrong

[oldtimers]

The working class females and on the land woman where not decorative and demur, they worked bloody hard as did the men.

[Writeousne]

The reason a lot of women didn't want to vote wasn't "stockholm syndrome or brainwashing" they simply didn't want more responsibility or potential responsibilities... also a lot were happy in a traditional housewife role. I am a man and i hate working, i would much prefer if the traditional male role was to stay at home and do housework because i can do housework and look after kids much easier than any job i've had plus i'd have the luxury of being out of contractual hours which is more free than any contracted job is.

Even today a lot of polls still find 37%-54% of women would rather be stay at home moms than work.

[SonnyK]

How can a corset cut off circulation to the brain if the heart and the brain are both above the corset? Surely it's only what's below the corset that will struggle to receive oxygen?