CONCLUSION BY MUTT:
Although it is true that women themselves failed to organise themselves into a more coherent and united political faction, the key reason for the lack of progress was the attitude of existing parties. Critically, the major political parties proved highly adept at adjusting to this new challenge and simply absorbed new voters into their existing structures. As a result, the new MPs and new voters were ‘tamed’ by these relatively conservative existing political institutions. Thus the system was preserved, much as it had been before. Consequently, there was no political revolution caused by the introduction of female MPs, or by the extension of the franchise. Real progress had to wait until the 1960s and 1970s, when more powerful advocates of ‘second wave feminism’ appeared, to change the attitudes of these existing political parties.