ABSTRACT
This chapter identifies the different moments when adult suffrage became a key issue for socialist women and describes changes in the position of organisations and of individuals over time. It explores the tactical considerations which underpinned differences between adult and limited suffragists, which in themselves illuminate deeper tensions over political priorities and loyalties, but also seeks to interrogate the arguments used, the meanings that lay behind them and the language in which they were framed. The goal of universal adult suffrage had widespread support, since it was argued that a more limited franchise would benefit only propertied women. The arguments advanced by contemporaries that adult suffragists were at worst hostile to women’s suffrage, or at best doing little to achieve it, have had a long-lasting influence on the perspective adopted by suffrage historians. Socialist newspapers are central as a source for understanding socialist women’s outlook on the suffrage.
