The Suffragists

In 1897 Millicent Fawcett formed the NUWSS (National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies) which united most of the existing campaign groups in to a single national organisation. Its members believed in peaceful campaigning methods and were known as the Suffragists.

The Suffragettes

The Cat and Mouse Act

Epson Derby 1913

Did the Suffragettes help the women's cause?

Women's War Work

Why were some women given the vote in 1918?

In 1918 the government passed the Representation of the People Act. This was passed as a reward for women's contribution to the war effort by working on the land, in factories, in all sorts of jobs at home and with the troops.

Before the war the majority of British women had not actively supported the campaign for the vote, the experience of war work changed attitudes. Women felt equal to men and therefore more independent. It became difficult for opponents of women's suffrage to argue that they were not capable of voting responsibly.

The fact that the war time government became a coalition of all the political parties with Lloyd George as Prime Minister also helped. Lloyd George had been a supporter of female and suffrage and the arguments that had been used against women having the vote had now been put on one side.

As the war went on it was clear that the franchise would have to be reviewed. The system set in place in 1884 said that male householders could vote if they could prove they had lived at the same address for over a year. However that meant that technically men fighting in the trenches had lost the right to vote!!

Secondly, many men who were fighting had not had the right previously to vote. But having fought together it seemed only fair that they were given the right to vote.

In 1918 the government introduced the Representation of the Peoples Act. This allowed all men over 21 were given the right to vote. Women also benefited but not to the same extent. Only women over 30 were given the vote and they had to be householders or wives of householders. It took another 10 years to achieve universal suffrage for women.