Women's Suffrage & the First World War (AQA GCSE History)

Summary

Despite long-running campaigns for women to win the vote, the opportunities provided by the First World War were key in finally making it happen. Women were able to disprove the sexist arguments about their temperaments and that they belonged in the home. Women played a crucial role in Britain emerging victorious from a terrible war. As a result, women who owned property and were over 30 finally won the right to vote in general elections when the war ended. However, it took until 1928 before there was equality in voting between the sexes.

Reactions to the First World War

• The outbreak of the war in 1914 led to the Women’s Social and Political Union (WPSU) and the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) agreeing to suspend their campaigns and support the war effort

• As pacifists, the Women’s Freedom League (WFL) refused to help the government fight the war

• As men left to join the fighting, thousands of women started filling their jobs in factories, hospitals, farms, on transport networks and the police

How did the First World War help women gain the vote?

• Women were successful in jobs that were previously seen as being impossible for a woman to do

  • Many thousands of women successfully worked in physically demanding jobs previously only given to men including:

    • Working in factories and farms

    • Driving buses and trains 

  • This removed the argument that a woman’s place was in the home

  • The nature and demands of many of the jobs women did during the war proved they were just as rational and in control of their emotions as men

• Fears over the impact that women working would have on children were also disproved

• By producing weapons and ammunition in the factories and producing food on the farms, women were also key in helping Britain to win the war

• In 1918, the Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, said: 

The Representation of the People Act, 1918

• When the war ended in 1918, the government passed the Representation of the People Act

• This recognised the enormous contribution of women and working men  The Act gave all men over the age of 21 the vote

• It also gave the vote to women over the age of 30 who owned property

Impacts of the Representation of the People Act

• Universal suffrage for men, one of the Chartist’s demands, had finally been met

• Many middle-class women were now also able to vote in general elections

  • Working-class women and all women under 30 were still disenfranchised

  • As a result, the struggle for universal female suffrage went on

• In 1928, women finally achieved equality when everybody over the age of 21 could vote regardless of gender or property ownership

  • For the first time, women had achieved equality in terms of voting rights in Britain

  • However, women were not treated equally in many other aspects of British society and this led to the establishment of the Women’s Movement