February 6, 1918 – Representation of the People Act Gives Vote to All British Men Over 21 and Women Over 30
Pictured – The suffragette movement and wartime female work were vital to passing the act, but the actual gain was rather conservative. Only women over 30 were given the vote, so many women who actually served were not enfranchised. Women did not achieve full suffrage in Britain until 1928.
In an overwhelming vote on February 6 the House of Commons passed the Representation of the People Act, which tripled the British electorate by giving the vote to all men from 21 and women from 30 who met minimum property qualifications. Before this only about 60% of British men had been voters, which required either paying at least an annual rent of £10 or holding land worth that much.
No one person was probably as responsible for the Act as Emmeline Pankhurst, leader of the Women’s Social and Political Union, a suffragist movement that used mass rallies, hunger strikes, and window-breaking to force MPs to respond. Pankhurst had been jailed multiple times. When the war came, however, Pankhurst turned into the fiercest patriot, urging women to work as nurses or in factories, and encouraging the “White Feather campaign” that shamed men who had not volunteered before the imposition of conscription. This proved to be an ingenious move. By highlighting the service of women and showing that many men refused to serve, Pankurst deconstructed the idea that citizenship was solely male. If men did not sacrifice for their country, why should they have the vote while women who served did not? The tactics worked, as February 6 showed.
The Act also gave the vote to men in the ranks of 19 years of age, as the government realized that many soldiers would still not be old enough to vote after the war otherwise. Scrutiny reveals the representation of the People Act to be fairly conservative in the long run, however. Despite the service of British women, the act only gave the vote to women over 30, meaning many girls in the factories still could not vote. If the vote had been given to women on equal terms, women would have outnumbered men in the UK electorate because of war losses. Women did not gain full suffrage in Britain until 1928. Pankhurst had died shortly before her final victory.
