Women and the Vote: The Parliamentary Path to Equal Franchise, 1918–28

• Autores: Mari Takayanagi
• Localización: Parliamentary history, ISSN-e 1750-0206, Vol. 37, Nº. 1 (February), 2018 (Ejemplar dedicado a: The Advent of Democracy: The Impact of the 1918 Reform Act on British Politics), págs. 168-185
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Following the Speaker's conference on electoral reform of 1916–17, the Representation of the People Act 1918 gave women over the age of 30 years who met minimum property qualifications the parliamentary vote for the first time. After a decade of continued suffrage campaigning and pressure in parliament, the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928 gave women the vote on the same terms as men, at age 21 years, with no age or any other restrictions. Although important in itself, votes for women also carried along a wider agenda of legislation relating to gender equality and issues affecting women and children during the interwar period. This essay gives an overview of how the Speaker's conference and the 1918 act affected women, considers the immediately‐related legislation in 1918–19 which allowed women to become MPs and removed other sex disqualifications, and traces progress in parliament towards equal franchise over the next decade, including a pledge by Stanley Baldwin in 1924 and an undertaking by William Joynson‐Hicks in 1925. It explains the changes in personnel and attitudes over time which finally enabled a Conservative government to grant equal franchise in 1928.