User:Carlygould96/sandbox

Irish Exports during Famine:(edit #2)
The argument about the great famine in Ireland and the exports has been a long debate between historians. It mainly comes down to the decision of the new Whig political party coming into power in England in 1846, and angered wealthy Irish merchants. "During the Famine years Ireland was actually producing sufficient food and wool and flax to feed and clothe not nine but eighteen millions of people." The farmers were able to grow a variety of different crops other than potatoes during the famine to feed and supply the population. The goods being exported during the years of famine were not mainly grain and potatoes, but many other food supplies and even livestock. The population of Britain depended heavily on Ireland for a wide range of food and food products, not just specifically grain. Other merchandise that was exported during the famine years consisted of horses, bones, lard, animal skins, honey, tongues, rags, shoes, soap, glue, seeds, vegetables, fish, alcohol, and rabbits. The Repeal of the Corn Laws by Sir Robert Peel and his colleagues had attempted to keep grain and other merchandise to be exported and stay in Ireland, to help circulate food during these famine years in 1845; the first appearance of the blight. The main purpose for this repeal and importing corn was not to necessarily to provide food to the population, but to regulate and stabilize the food produces within Ireland; to make it affordable to every social class. This policy was successful and there was no excess mortality from 1846 till 1846. In 1846, when the Whig party came into power, they decided to discontinue Peel’s policy due to the angering Irish merchants. The party believed that the free trade market should not be messed with. This party also wanted to assure this powerful interest group, which were mainly wealthy Irish landowners. Instead of these wealthy Irish providing a source of food to their own impoverished tenant farmers, they had sold the crops produced by the peasant farmers living on their land. The Irish peasants working on these lands grew enough food for the population and to feed the hungry. Instead these poor farmers had to use their crops to pay to their landowners for shelter. Merchants were tempted to seek high profits outside of Ireland, due to the food shortages in Britain and Europe. Due to the high demand for merchandise in goods in other countries, merchants were able to sell their products at prices that lower class families in Ireland could not afford to purchase. Also wages paid on the relief work were too low for food purchase in Ireland as well during the period of famine. Therefore, overall exports on food products and livestock had increased during the years of famine in Ireland, but it was mainly due to the decisions of the Whig party in Britain to benefitted their population and markets, and to benefit the wealthy Irish merchants and landowners in Ireland to make a large profit rather than help and support their fellow Irish population and community. In 1846 from the Whig Party decisions and the potato failure, had left over thousands of people in Ireland without access to their usual supply of food; and caused death and starvation.

=Feminism in the United Kingdom: (article to edit(1)) =

Switzerland:
The Swiss suffrage movement had struggled for equality in their society for decades until the early 1970s; this wave of feminism also included enfranchisement. October 31, 1971 Swiss women were granted the right to vote in political elections. According to Lee Ann Banaszak the main reasons for lack of success in women’s suffrage for Swiss women was due to the differences in mobilization of members into suffrage organizations, financial resources of the suffrage movements, alliances formed with other political actors, and the characteristics of the political systems. Therefore the success of the Swiss women’s suffrage movement was heavily affected by the resources and political structures. “The Swiss movement had to operate in a system where decisions were made carefully by a constructed consensus and where opposition parties never launched an electoral challenge that might of prodded governing parties into action.” This explains how the closed legislative process made it way more difficult for suffrage activists to participate in, or even track women’s voting rights. Swiss suffrage also lacked strong allies when it came from their struggle to vote in political elections. The 1970s saw a turning point for Swiss feminist movements, and they began to steadily make more progress in their struggle for equality to present day.

Education:
Education amongst young Swiss women was very important during the suffrage movements. Educating young women in society on the importance of self-identity, and going to school was very important to the public and for women to realize what their full potentials were. The Swiss suffrage movements believed it was important for young women to know that there was more to their life than just bearing children, which was a very universal thought and action during the suffrage movements in the 1960s and 70s. In a 2015 evaluation from Lord David Willetts he had discovered and stated that in 2013, the percentage of undergraduate students in the UK were 54 percent females and 46 percent were male undergrads. Whereas in the 1960s only 25 percent of full-time students in the United Kingdom were females. The increase of females going to school and contributing in the educational system can be linked to the women’s suffrage movements that aimed to encourage women to enroll in school for higher education. This right and political affair eventually came after the right for women to vote in political elections which was granted in 1971. In the 1960s in the United Kingdom, women were usually the minority and a rarity when it came to the higher education system. When “The Feminist Mystique,” was published in the United States by Betty Friedman in 1963, the feminist movements set a new standard and gender roles for women as well.