BRITISH CONSERVATISM AND THE PRIMROSE LEAGUE ... - ideals

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accorded local voting privileges.
in municipal elections in 1869.
They were eligible to cast a ballot
Married women were subsequently
prohibited from participating until 1894 when they qualified as
occupiers, but not with respect to the same property as their husbands.
The powers of female property owners were extended by 1888 in the same
manner to the election of County Council members.
However, they were
effectively barred from sitting on these bodies until 1907. Their
right to participate on school boards was granted in 1870 while similar
legislation entitled them to run for Parish and District Councils in
1894.31 Despite advances made in the local and regional spheres, all
women were prohibited from voting and sitting for parliamentary
elections.
The League appeared to be sharply divided on the issue of
women's suffrage.
Many members of the Ladies' executive opposed
extending the parliamentary franchise to women while the League as a
whole remained officially neutral.32
Nevertheless, this did not stop
members from taking a position, particularly at the local level. In
August of 1889 Miss Milner, an active organizer in the West Riding
region of Yorkshire, spoke out against women's suffrage at a Primrose
rally in Bath.
Her remarks were politely received, although those
present passed a motion in support of the enfranchisement of women.33
31 Pugh, Women's Suffrage in Britain, p. 13.
32 LGC Executive Committee Minutes, 4 November 1892; 18
November 1892; 19 March 1897; 11 February 1898.
33 Robb, The Primrose League, p. 125. Nor was the League
alone in hotly debating the issue of women's suffrage and passing
controversial resolutions on the subject. A member of the National
Union and Grand Council executives, Mr. H. Wainwright, proposed at the
1887 annual Union meeting a resolution calling for the extension of the