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A movement to fight for women's right to vote in the United Kingdom finally succeeded through acts of Parliament in 1918 and 1928. It became a national movement in the Victorian era. Women were not explicitly banned from voting in Great Britain until the Reform Act 1832 and the Municipal Corporations Act 1835.
- Overview
- Great Britain
The women’s suffrage movement fought for the right of women by law to vote in national or local elections.
When did the women's suffrage movement start?
The women’s suffrage movement made the question of women’s voting rights into an important political issue in the 19th century. The struggle was particularly intense in Great Britain and in the United States, but those countries were not the first to grant women the right to vote, at least not on a national basis.
Where did women’s suffrage start?
By the early years of the 20th century, women had won the right to vote in national elections in New Zealand (1893), Australia (1902), Finland (1906), and Norway (1913). World War I and its aftermath speeded up the enfranchisement of women in the countries of Europe and elsewhere. In the period 1914–39, women in 28 additional countries acquired either equal voting rights with men or the right to vote in national elections.
How did the women's suffrage movement end?
In Great Britain woman suffrage was first advocated by Mary Wollstonecraft in her book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) and was demanded by the Chartist movement of the 1840s. The demand for woman suffrage was increasingly taken up by prominent liberal intellectuals in England from the 1850s on, notably by John Stuart Mill and his wife, Harriet. The first woman suffrage committee was formed in Manchester in 1865, and in 1867 Mill presented to Parliament this society’s petition, which demanded the vote for women and contained about 1,550 signatures. The Reform Bill of 1867 contained no provision for woman suffrage, but meanwhile woman suffrage societies were forming in most of the major cities of Britain, and in the 1870s these organizations submitted to Parliament petitions demanding the franchise for women and containing a total of almost three million signatures.
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The succeeding years saw the defeat of every major suffrage bill brought before Parliament. This was chiefly because neither of the leading politicians of the day, William Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli, cared to affront Queen Victoria’s implacable opposition to the women’s movement. In 1869, however, Parliament did grant women taxpayers the right to vote in municipal elections, and in the ensuing decades women became eligible to sit on county and city councils. The right to vote in parliamentary elections was still denied to women, however, despite the considerable support that existed in Parliament for legislation to that effect. In 1897 the various suffragist societies united into one National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, thus bringing a greater degree of coherence and organization to the movement. Out of frustration at the lack of governmental action, however, a segment of the woman suffrage movement became more militant under the leadership of Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel. After the return to power of the Liberal Party in 1906, the succeeding years saw the defeat of seven suffrage bills in Parliament. As a consequence, many suffragists became involved in increasingly violent actions as time went on. These women militants, or suffragettes, as they were known, were sent to prison and continued their protests there by engaging in hunger strikes.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
The struggle for women's suffrage was a campaign which began in the drawing rooms of London and Manchester in the mid 19th century. The suffrage movement grew out of a growing sense of injustice in the second half of the 19th century that women were denied the vote.
Feb 6, 2018 · On Tuesday, the U.K. marks the 100th anniversary of British women gaining the right to vote. While it may seem like distant history, the centenary is a cause for both celebration and reflection...
- Suyin Haynes
- The suffragette movement. Only just over a hundred years ago, men and women were not considered to be equal. This angered some women so much that they took matters into their own hands.
- The Suffragists. The suffragists were led by Millicent Fawcett, head of the National Union for Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). It was founded in 1897 but merged with other organisations that dated back to the 1860s.
- The Suffragettes and the Pankhurst family. In 1903, the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) was formed when Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters became disappointed with the lack of progress by the NUWSS.
- Direct action. The use of direct action in order to achieve progressive change has always been debated throughout history. Many argue against direct action because of the violence it creates and think that persuading others is a better means of achieving one’s aims.
A national movement. In the latter years of the 19th century, women in regional areas became increasingly involved in the struggle for suffrage. The MNSWS extended their activities beyond the confines of the city, and by 1877 were organising public meetings throughout the north of England.
Feb 2, 2018 · The women’s march: how the Suffragettes changed Britain. A century on from a democratic milestone, Lucy Lethbridge revisits the many-sided struggle for female enfranchisement. Police lead...
