The failure of the women's suffrage movements to achieve their goals by 1918 cannot be held responsible for any single reason, given the abundance of causes in this regard . Voting, however, was not the only area in which women were subjected to unfair treatment: by 1850, women were considered second-class citizens. It was a common belief that their brains were smaller than those of their male peers and therefore they received very little or no form of education, which, as a result, meant that jobs for women were unskilled and low-paid. Many professions did not employ a woman as a woman's place was believed to be in the home. Politics was another area in which women were not involved. Political parties (except Labour) spoke mainly against women's suffrage. Some individuals have argued that involving women in politics would be wrong for biological reasons. Movement groups that included women's suffrage as part of their goals included the National Union of Woman's Suffrage Society (NUWSS) and the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). Each of these movements used very different tactics from each other in the hope that their message would be conveyed effectively and that the public and government would take action. The tactics used by these movements – the WSPU in particular – have been cited as the reason for the lack of success in getting women the vote due to government and public attitudes caused by their methods. But other factors also influenced the failure, for example the arrival of the First World War and other issues that occupied the government's attention at the time, such as the miners' and dockworkers' strike and the naval race with Germany during the first world war. ..... middle of paper ...... uline spinsters. Other issues the government was trying to resolve hindered women's suffrage because they were simply seen as more important than a group of women fighting for the vote. The war may have sped up or slowed down women's emancipation: sped up because of the war effort contributed by the Suffragettes, slowed down because conciliation bills were already under discussion and proposed before the war began. None of these reasons can be cited as the primary reason due to arguments among historians as to which was the most obstructive in the fight for women's vote. In conclusion, since there was discussion about women's emancipation before 1914, the war almost certainly delayed women getting the vote, but the Suffragette ceasefire contributed to a more positive image of women that had been eradicated from their previous ventures..