Why were Women Granted the Vote?

Women after the War 

In the decade that followed the end of World War One the position of women in society changed dramatically in Britain. In the same year that the war ended property owning women over the age of thirty were granted the vote under The Representation of People Act 1918 (Trueman, 2000). Although this was not the universal suffrage they had hoped for many women accepted this 'on the grounds that it was obvious that votes for all women could not be long delayed' (Kelly & Lacey, 2001,p.36). In reality it was a whole decade before all women were granted the vote in 1928.

Timeline of events regarding women after World War One

Why were women granted the vote?

Perhaps a simple and logical answer to this question would be that the vote was granted due to the contribution that women made during the war. This response would certainly have been welcomed by WSPU members, the orders given by Emmeline Pankhurst to suspend militant action and support the war effort were said to 'put moral pressure on the government to grant them the vote' (Kkorte & Schneider, 2002, p.167). The problem with this response, however, is that not all women reaped this reward. During the war 'women of all classes and backgrounds' (Frank, 2008, p.71) joined the war effort, yet under The Representation of People Act 1918 only property owning women over the age of thirty were given the vote (Trueman, 2000). This shows little evidence that 'suffrage was conceded as reward for womens contribution to the war effort' (Cawood, 2013, p.77).

Threat of the Suffragettes.

It is documented that, in comparison to Britain 'women in France did equally as important work in World War One but did not receive the right to vote after the war' (Trueman,2000). The main difference before the war was that there was 'no pre-war suffragist movement in France - and certainly not the militancy of the Suffragettes' (Trueman, 2000). The British nation was left exhausted by the war effort but women had a new sense of self worth, In 1918 trade union leader, Mary Macarthur shared her belief in profound change:

"Of all the changes wrought by the War, none has been greater than the status and position of women, and yet it is not so much that woman herself have changed as that mans conception of her has changed' (Thom, 2000, p.1)

The view that women were too weak to do mens work was no longer valid. If the expectations of these women were not met the suffragette campaign could be stronger than ever and 'there was nothing to stop them starting again once the war was over' (Chandler, 2001, p.26). If this is to be the believed reason for granting women the vote then maybe the militancy of the suffragette campaign did pay off after all.


The Suffragist Campaign.

The suffragists fought a long campaign gathering political support along the way. This support helped when 'the wartime government became a coalition of all the political parties' (Kelly & Lacey, 2001, p.35). This included the parties that supported the idea of womens' suffrage. Lloyd George was 'a prominent supporter of women's rights' (Kelly & Lacey, 2001, p.35) he became Prime Minister in December 1916, therefore, there is an argument that women would have gained the vote anyway.

Political Reasons.

During the war in 1917 'the government became aware of the need to call an election' (Bourke, 2011). This created a problem as the voting rules stipulated that only men 'who had been resident in the country for 12 months prior to the election were entitled to vote' (Bourke, 2011). This meant that all the troops serving overseas in the war were disenfranchised. The government were then forced to revise the voting rules. During this revision they could not ignore the war effort of women and the continued 'persuasive arguments of Millicent Fawcett and the NUWSS' (Bourke, 2011) the government could not 'gamble that these women would not join the Suffragettes thus strengthening their numbers and engage in violent activities '(Trueman, 2000). Liberal leader, Asquith, then granted a minority of women the vote under The Representation of People Act 1918. Although this was welcomed as a breakthrough in the issue of female suffrage it was 'a remarkably conservative measure to keep the suffragists happy but also delay more radical reform' (Trueman, 2000). Conservative MP’s and those in other parties that opposed the issue of female suffrage 'may well have seen the act as a success in that it could have gone a lot further' (Trueman, 2000). They did not consider a threat to the political order from 'the women that gained the vote in 1918 as they were more likely to be married, have children and no interest in a career' (Cawood, 2013, p.77) it was also assumed that 'they would follow the lead of their husbands and fathers' when voting (Nichols, 1983, p.42).

Women Voters going to the Polls

Kelly, N. & Lacey, G., 2001. Modern World History for OCR Specification 1937: Core. Portsmouth: Heinemann.