"The Order of the White Feather, founded in August 1914 by Admiral Charles Fitzgerald, encouraged women to give out white feathers to young men who had not joined the British army."
It is often the case that female misbehavior becomes widespread as a consequence of being tolerated or even encouraged and supported by powerful men in high places. Even the feminist movement itself was started by men. Towards the end of the 19th century, as the industrial revolution was reaching its final stages, there was a tremendous upward pressure on wages, as western economies grew quickly and demand for labor was high. This left the financial elite with two choices: a) pay higher wages to men; or b) get women to work for cheap. Enter the first stage of the feminist movement.
The next stage was to get women to vote, as certain male politicians (particularly those on the left) realized that they could manipulate female voters to support their causes. Those who have studied history know that the suffragette movement was not started by a woman. it was started by John Stuart Mill, an influential 19th century British philosopher, economist and civil servant.