How the Vote Was Won

The Representation of the People Act 1918 granted women over 30 with certain property qualifications the right to vote.

It would be another 10 years until women are granted the vote on the same terms as men.

Here we look at some of the key people, places and moments in the campaign:

1792 A Vindication of the Rights of Women is published.

Early human rights advocate and educational pioneer Mary Wollstonecraft states the case for equal rights of women as the emotional and intellectual equals of men, 126 years before the first women get the vote.

1832 First suffrage petition from an individual woman to Parliament.

Mary Smith, from Stanmore in Yorkshire, says that she pays taxes and is subject to the law, so did not see why she should not be able to vote. The petition was presented by Henry Hunt MP – a radical MP known for his part in the Peterloo Massacre 1819. The petition is laughed out of the House of Commons.

1851 Sheffield sees the founding of the first women’s suffrage organisation in the UK.

Anne Knight, a social reformer, abolitionist and pioneer of feminism, founds the Sheffield Women’s Political Association partly in response to feeling marginalised within the abolition movement.

1858 Feminist periodical The Englishwoman’s Journal (later The Englishwoman’s Review) is founded.

Barbara Leigh Smith (later Bodichon), daughter of a radical MP, had petitioned Parliament in 1856 in favour of the Married Women’s Property Bill to give wives control over their property and earnings. The petition was unsuccessful, and so formed the Langham Place Group – so called for their premises in central London. The group supported initiatives to improve access to education and work for women. The Englishwoman’s Journal was the first periodical devoted entirely to women’s issues.

1866, 7 June. The first mass women’s suffrage petition is presented to the House of Commons.

The petition was brought to Parliament by Emily Davies and Elizabeth Garrett and presented by John Stuart Mill MP. It was said that to avoid attention on arrival in Westminster Hall, they concealed it under the stall of an apple seller, which is where Mill found it. The petition organisers recorded 1499 names, which were printed in a pamphlet, although the House of Commons Select Committee on Public Petitions logged 1521 signatures – presumably last-minute additions.

1868, April. The Manchester National Society for Women’s Suffrage holds the first ever public meeting on women’s suffrage at the Free Trade Hall, Manchester.

1886 – 1904 The House of Commons votes only twice on the issue of women’s suffrage

1870 – 1883 During this time a women’s suffrage bill is introduced and defeated each year (with the exception of 1880)

1897 The National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) is formed.

Led by Millicent Fawcett, the organisation operated democratically, aiming to achieve women’s suffrage through peaceful and legal means.

1903 The Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) is founded at the Pankhurst home in Manchester.

Wishing to take more militant action in the campaign for suffrage, the Pankhursts (mother Emmeline and daughters Christabel and Sylvia Pankhurst), founded the WSPU along with 3 other women. They adopt the slogan “Deeds, not words”

1905 Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenney interrupt a Liberal Party meeting by shouting demands for voting rights for women.

They are arrested, gaining media interest and support for the WSPU.

1906 The Daily Mail coins the term ‘Suffragette’ to distinguish the more militant WSPU activists from the suffragists of the NUWSS.

1907, February 9^th  The ‘Mud March’: 3,000 women march from Hyde Park to Exeter Hall in London, organised by the NUWSS.

1908, 31 June. 30,000 Suffragettes from all over England congregate in London’s Hyde Park. Purple, green and white become the colours of the WSPU.

1908 Suffragettes Edith New and Mary Leigh throw stones through the windows of 10 Downing Street

1909 Imprisoned suffragette Marion Wallace Dunlop hunger-strikes in protest of the Government not granting women political prisoner status. She is released after 91 hours.

1909, September. Prison authorities begin force feeding huger-striking suffragettes.

1911 Some suffragettes boycott the national census on the grounds that they are not treated as citizens with a voice.

Others spoil the forms with protest statements.

1912, March. Around 150 WSPU members armed with hammers smash windows in London’s West End.

Mrs Pankhurst was among those arrested.

1912, November WSPU members pour acid, ink, lampblack and tar into post boxes, damaging thousands of pieces of mail.

The destruction was carried out secretly so no arrests were made, but the Union claimed responsibility.

1913, June. Suffragette Emily Wilding Davison dies after being hit by King George V’s horse at the Epsom Derby.

Davison became a martyr for the cause, her death pronounced as accidental.

1914 Suffragette Anne Hunt slashes a painting at the National Gallery with a cleaver.

In the 7 months leading up to the outbreak of the First World War, Suffragettes are responsible for 107 incidents of arson.

1914 August – November 1918 First World War: women are appealed to register for paid employment of any kind.

1918, February. The Representation of the People Act becomes law: women over the age of 30 meeting certain property qualifications are granted the right to vote.

1928, June The Representation of the People Act grants women the right to vote on the same terms as men.